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$100m float glass plant opens
Chu Lai Float Glass Joint Stock Company (Indevco) opened its US$100 million factory in central Quang Nam Province's Bac Chu Lai Industrial Zone on Monday.
The plant, the biggest float glass maker in Southeast Asia, will have a daily capacity of 900 metric tonnes. The company plans to export 30 percent of the factory's output and sell the remainder on the domestic market.
Do Thanh Trung, Indevco Chairman, said he hoped that the plant would satisfy domestic demand for industrial glass.
The plant is expected to generate an annual revenue of VND2 trillion ($104.7 million) and create 600 jobs.
Late last year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Competition Administration Agency in a preliminary report said that increasing reliance on imported float glass was damaging the domestic industry.
Earlier, Viglacera Float Glass Company and the Viet Nam Float Glass Co., Ltd called on the ministry to take measures to limit imports of float glass. Imports of float glass increased from 1.2 million square metres in 2007 to 8.1 million square metres in 2008, and reached 1.35 million square metres in the first quarter of 2009.
Meanwhile, out of 100 float glass importers questioned, 10 respondents said that the global economic downturn had hit not just the Vietnamese construction glass sector but also that of other countries.
They also said that Vietnamese firms were producing poor-quality glass due to outdated technology and inflexible business methods.
The market share of locally-made glass decreased from 97.4 percent in 2006 to 96 percent in 2007, 83.5 percent in 2008 to just 73.6 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
vietnamnews
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