AGC to close US and Canada plants

Asahi Glass Co (AGC), one of the largest glass manufacturers in North America, is to close some of its factories, cutting 900 jobs and 40% of capacity. This is reportedly due to a housing slump across the USA, as well as the heightened cost of raw materials.

The company will close or sell two coating lines in California and Iowa, plus one float glass line in Quebec.

According to AGC, a separate float glass plant in the USA will be used to produce solar cell glass and another will be suspended until demand recovers. The company is said to take a 13.5 billion yen charge in the second financial quarter for these changes.

Asahi Glass is cutting back on the production of construction glass to focus on glass used in solar cells and cars in an attempt to offset losses.

Katsuhiko Ishibashi, an analyst at Deutsche Securities in Tokyo said that these measures will reduce costs to an extent, but that “the company will need to go a step further to cut costs to regain profitability in the North American market as demand weakens”.

Source: Glass International
For further information, please contact Helen Bird at Glass International