ICG President-Elect addresses attendees at the annual meeting in Shenzhen. Credit: ICG.

I am a little behind in my reading, but earlier this year International Commission on Glass held its annual meeting in Shenzhen, China, and the post-meeting release contained some information I found interesting.

First, it is worth noting that the meeting had the involvement of many of China’s businesses and institutions. It was jointly sponsored by the Chinese Ceramic Society and organized with the assistance of the China Triumph International Engineering Co., the Glass, Special Glass and Electronic Glass committees of the CCS, the Photovoltaic Glass Professional Committee of the China Architectural and Industrial Glass Association, the Shenzhen Solar Energy Society, the South China University of Technology and Shenzhen University.

First, the ICG will be going through some leadership changes. Peng Shou, president of CTIEC, was elected as president-elect of the ICG and will serve as the president in the 2012-2015 period. Shou takes over the leadership from Fabiano Nicoletti. Manoj Choudhary, of Owens Corning, was elected vice president.

Shou announced several of his priorities as the future leader of ICG, including

• Increasing the number of members organizations from the ASEAN countries;
• Strengthening global cooperation among scientific research institutes, academic groups, universities and entrepreneurs;
• Helping developing countries improve the quality and yield of glass products, and helping to solve environmental problems by promoting energy saving and emission reduction technologies.

Regarding glass trends, several facts came to light at the meeting:

  • Flat glass production in China had increased by 60% since 2004.
  • China has decided to strategically focus on ultraclear solar glass, ultrathin substrate glass for displays, energy saving glass and emission reduction in glass production. By 2020, Chinese output of flat glass for photovoltaics, alone, is expected to exceed the total global production of flat glass in 2005 (which they feel may be accelerated by the earthquake & nuclear power issues in Japan).
  • Masayuki Kamiya, senior executive officer the AGC Group for China, says AGC’s vision is that glass products have unlimited potential for the future, and that plastics are not seen as a threat but rather as a composite component that can enhance glass applications.
  • Many ICG members are concerned by insufficient R&D monies being available, and would like to see cooperative efforts to develop new melting and forming technologies, and making sheets as thin as 0.3mm.

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