• A report by Visiongain indicates that the global glass packaging market will reach a value of $36.8 billion in 2013. This growth is as a result of the emerging economies demanding more premium goods that are packaged in glass. However, growth will be limited by competition from other packaging materials. The report claims that glass is and will remain a key material for packaging but it will lose out to flexible plastic packaging, especially PET over the next 10 years.

• Furnaces of Slovenian glassmaker Steklarna Hrastnik are to undergo a scheduled two-month refit. The company will shut down its G melting furnace, and, as of Feb. 1, also the H melting furnace. Both furnaces will be replaced by a new glass melting furnace with a higher capacity and significantly improved energy efficiency in glass melting. The new furnace will be oxy-fuel powered, for an investment of €7 million. Tthe selected designer is Sorg.

Taiwan Glass Industry, a supplier of glass and fiber glass fabrics, has completed construction of a sodium carbonate plant in China. The in-house availability of sodium carbonate, a raw material for the production of glass, may allow the company to swing back to profitability in 2013, according to company president P.S. Lin.

Zircoa recently announced it has formed Zircoa GmbH, replacing Didier as its representative for many of Zircoa’s products to Europe and parts of Asia.

• An Asian-based consortium is acquiring a 15 per cent stake in Montreal-based ArcelorMittal Mines Canada for $1.1 billion in cash. The transaction will see a group led by South Korean steelmaker Posco and China Steel Corp. enter into a joint venture that will own ArcelorMittal’s Labrador Trough iron ore mining and infrastructure assets in Quebec’s northern region. The consortium also includes other investors, who were not identified in the announcement.

Unifrax LLC, which makes high-temperature insulating glass fibers, is putting finishing touches on a new headquarters and R&D lab in Tonawanda, N.Y., bringing things closer to its plant on Fire Tower Drive.

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