• Electrical Engineering Solutions has announced to be currently working on a challenging furnace rebuild appointment for Consol Glass, one of the largest glass manufacturers in Africa. Tthe rebuild is at Consol’s Bellville plant. The existing B4 furnace produces approximately 285 tons per day, and the rebuilt B4 furnace will increase capacity to 320 tons per day.
• PPG Industries has announced that it will continue to be patient with its glass business but, according to chair and chief executive officer Charles Bunch, it is not ruling out a sale. The company’s glass segment consists of glass fiber and flat glass production.
• According to reports, quick action by firefighters and efficient response by local utilities prevented a more serious outcome after a molten glass spill at Johns Manville’s Richmond, Va, facility in the US on April 20, 2012.
• Seville Industries, of Italy, TX, is in the process of buying a western Pennsylvania glass plant that shut down nearly two years ago, with plans to refurbish and re-sell the operation. Seville’s business involves liquidating manufacturing facilities, like the Owens-Illinois plant that closed in July 2010 in Clarion, Pa., about 60 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
• Xinyi Glass Holdings Ltd. announced that it held a ceremony for igniting the furnace, for trial run, of its second high-quality float glass production line at its complex in the Wuqing Development Zone in Tianjin, China. With a daily melting capacity of 600 tons, the line is expected to commence its production by the end of May.
• Austria’s RHI AG has submitted a bid for Serbian state-owned basic materials manufacturer Magnohrom. RHI had planned to complete the acquisition in the first half of 2012, and is expected to spend €65 million on the deal.