RIGA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology

Institute of Information Technology
“LSCM European Dimensions”

Logistics in Glass Manufacturing Industry

in India

Faculty: Assistant Professor Julija Petuhova

Student: Agnel Cyriac Philip
Student ID: 191ADM059

2020 Academic Year

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….....3
 Development of LSCM…………………………………………………………….
o Overview…………………………………………………………………...4
 Sectoral Importance
 Global Perspective
o Example…………………………………………………………………….5
 SAMPLES OF PROBLEMS IN LOGISTICS AND INDUSTRY…………..……..5
 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………..7
 REFERENCE………………………………………………………………………..8

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 1. INTRODUCTION

For the past few decades, India has become one of the few countries which have seen a
tremendous amount of growth in Glass production Industry. By researching this particular
industry, it can be known that India has been a key market player in production of high-
quality glass materials globally along with other competitors.
From a historical view of Logistics, USA, China, Germany and France has been the major
contributors to the glass manufacturing industry in the world since the mid-1940s. Ever since
the shiny skyscrapers started to hit the cities, the demand for the high-quality glasses has
skyrocketed. A lot more countries has jump into this business of glass manufacturing ever
since.
The more development there is in the building and construction sectors, more demand of the
glass there will be. Vehicle manufacturing in automobile industry, food and beverage
industry is also directly responsible for the growth of demand in the glass industry.

Figure 1.1: Asahi India Glass Pvt. Ltd

However, from the past 3 decades, a considerable amount of time and money has put into the
research and development of the glass-based products varying from simple household
utensils to the high-grade heat/cold resistant glasses used in satellites.
In India the glass industry is divided into two categories: cottage industry and factory
industry.

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Cottage industry produced items like, small factory glass products, glass vase, glass jewelers
etc. While factory industry produces sheet glass, fiber glass, hollow glass etc. based on the
client requirements. Glass manufacturing industry uses several items to produce glass
products. Various chemical products is also required for this process such as borax, soda ash,
selenium, manganese dioxide and coloring agents are all necessary for the production of glass
products.
The Indian glass industry is fairy old and well developed. The first glass manufacturing
industry in India was set up back in 1908, which is quite old compared to the year when other
countries have established theirs. India has played catch up ever since in the area and has
been successful. During its first introduction, the glass industry in India has remained as
cottage industry for sufficient amount of time.
There are four segments of glass production can be categorized as,
 Container glass,
 Flat glass,
 Fiber glass and
 Specialty glass.
Among the above categories, ‘specialty glass’ has the most technical applications as for
example, optics, engineering, medical lenses etc. Even though ‘specialty glasses’ have more
technical features, container glasses have the highest demand and are used the most among
the above categories.

Figure 1.2: Glass Production Categories

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I will further discuss the development of LSCM in the country and examine about recent
growth of this industry in India and its contribution to the Indian economy. Also explaining
about main industry highlights, overview and global perspective statistics, recent expansion,
growth in demand, new technological development, past-present-future of the industry.

2. DEVELOPMENT OF LSCM IN INDIA

2.1 Overview of LSCM activities

The glass manufacturing industry in India is the largest
supply chain industry that produces glass products in Asian region. And there has been an
immense amount of growth and advancement in recent years. While in the older days almost
all of the tasks in the industry were done manually by the workers themselves but in the
recent years these industries have evolved and have adapted modern automatic machineries
which have made drastic difference in the production process. The per capita consumption of
glass containers in India is much lower compared to other countries, 1.8 kg. But this is also a
good thing as this would serve as the expansion of future possibilities.

Figure 2.1.a: Per capita consumption of container glass (Kg)

2.1.1 Sectoral Importance

The glass manufacturing in India continues to evolve in every step of the way. The type of
glass category (discussed in Introduction) has recorded the fastest growth with nearly 60%
CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) from the year 2001 to 2005. And even after the
over a decade the growth rate has shown no sign of slowing down and is currently at a record

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71% as of 2014 census report. During these periods, the market for container glass is about
7000 TDP (tons per day)

Indian Glass Manufacturing Industry is estimated to be worth over $2.7 billion as of 2012.
This industry is defined and identified as one of the prominent contributors to the Indian
economy. Other the last few years, customers have realized the importance of having the
high-performance glass in their respective business sectors mainly of automotive and
architectural sectors due to the high concern when it comes to safety and energy efficiency.

Production of glass in India is prevailed by 6 inner states. The main producer is Uttar
Pradesh. Maharashtra comes in second place followed by Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu and Karnataka. Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh in the main industrial central hub of Indian
Glass Industry. About 40% of all glass products produced there is exported to foreign
countries. Glass Industry in India employs about 3 million people directly and nearly a
million people indirectly.

2.1.2 Global Perspective

A research done in 2014 shows that the world glass industry generates revenue of $75 billion
yearly. The major producers and contributors being the USA, France, Japan, China, India and
Germany. Together they contribute to account to more than 74% of the global demand for the
glass. Among these countries, the major contributors are from four dominant primary
companies, they are;

 NSG (Nippon Sheet Glass) (base at UK)

 Saint-Gobain (base at France)
 Asahi (base at Japan/India)
 Guardian (base at USA)

These companies together produce about 70% of the high-quality glass in the world.

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 Figure 2.1.e: Four Major Glass Manufacturers in the World

Rising demand in various projects are the primary reasons on why there is a growing demand
of glass products. Growing requirements from urban/rural residential infrastructures,
transportation and automotive sectors, growth in electronic industry, sky towers in big cities
in rising economies are some of the main reasons for the rise of demand in glass. While other
countries remain in prominent production and manufacturing of glass, the Asian Pacific
remains the key market player for the production of high quality float glass and continues to
be on the top of the market due to the rapid advancement and increase in urbanization, active
demand for good quality glass and also due to the recent boost in technological progress in
the glass manufacturing industry.

2.1.1: Import and Export of glass

Exports:

India is one of the top 15 markets for glass packing and is also one of the fastest growing in
glass production and manufacturing markets besides Turkey and Brazil. The demand for the
Indian manufactured glasses is spread across various different countries without any
dominant market customers. In the year 2006-2007, USA was the leading market for Indian
glass products with 14% of the exports. UAE was in second place with 8% and Poland with
6% is in third among other competitors. While in the year 2018, USA had a market of 21%.
UAE had 7% and France and Nepal in the third with 5%. A side by side comparison would
give more idea about the market shares a decade apart.

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 Figure 2.1.f: Country wise export in 06/07
Figure: 2.1.g: Country wise export in 18/19

Imports:

India has maintained a consistent level of glass import products from foreign markets. India’s
glass import has stood to a massive $866 million back in September 2017. The highest ever
recorded was $992 million back in 2016. India imports glass from over 70 countries while
China remains the top partner for India in glass import. Approximately around 44% of the
import of the glass products comes only from one country, China. Other countries include
USA, Germany, Malaysia and Indonesia. Major Glass imports from these countries include
float glass, cullet and glassware.

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 Figure 2.1.h: Country wise glass import in India

2.2Example of Glass Manufacturing Industry in India

Key Players:

Some of the major glass producers in India are;

 Saint-Gobain India
 Asahi Glass Co. Ltd
 Gujarat Guardian
 Hindustan National Glass & Industries
 La Opala RG
 Borosil Glass Works
 Piramal Glass

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 Figure: 2.1.b: Indian Glass Manufacturers Revenue Share

Figure 2.1.1: Float Glass Market Share by Manufactures in India

Asahi Glass Co. Ltd (ASG) based of Japan has 12% of global market share of flat glass and
about 30% of global market share in automotive glass segments making it the largest glass
manufacturer in the world.

Figure 2.1.c: ASG Logo Figure 2.1.d: ASG Headquarters

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In the year 1984, Asahi Glass India was incorporated. And since then Asahi Glass India
(ASI) has become the largest producer of an automotive glass manufacturing industry in
India with variety of products varying from safety glass, float glass, architectural processed
glass etc. They are also leading manufacturers in passenger car glass segments like
windshield, window glass etc with over 77% of the market share as of 2017.

2.2International Market Scenario

The leading producer in glass production comes mainly from North America (USA), Europe
(Germany, France and UK) and Asia (China, India and Japan). Among these Europe
productions is the most technologically advanced and mature followed by Japan and USA.
One of the reasons why production industries in Europe are at the top of the chart is because
of their excellent packing and exporting process. Since glass is very fragile material a lot of
care needs to be put into them in order to prevent any types of damages due to breakage of
other accidents. And these accidents occur mostly during transportation. And industries in
Europe has perfected a way to finally minimize the loses caused due these circumstances by
providing a very attractive alternative packaging. Due to the rapid improvement of
technology, most the companies were quick to adapt to the newly growing technological
trend and gradually replace lower quality float glass and sheet glass with high quality glass
all over the globe.

Europe is the largest producer of container glasses with a total of 34% in global market.

Figure 2.1.2: Float glass production in European Union

Guardian, a USA based company produces a whopping 67% in the global market of the total
high-quality float glass in the world.
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97% of the European Union uses float glass process to produce float glass. Float glass is a
major sector which covers both flat glass as well as rolled glass. Manufacturing plant
facilities of float glass using float process is spread across EU in 16 different countries. But
around three quarters of the production materials arrive from Germany, France, Italy,
Belgium, UK, Spain and Poland.

2.2.1 Demand Drives for the Glass Industry in India

There are various reasons on why glass production industry still functions as one of the top
industries in the world. Demand for the good quality glass products have grown exponentially
over the last decade. According to my research I’ve found several points on what contributes
to the demand towards this industry. I’ve narrowed it down to these points below,

Automotive Industry: Glass is one of the most widely used materials in automotive industry.
They are used in various forms such as, windshield, headlight, rare window, side window etc.
According to a Central for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the financial year 2018 has
shown a production of 29.08 million automobile productions in total. There was a sharp
growth of 14 .8% compared to financial year 2017. So more there will be an increase in the
production of automobiles more demand for the glass there will be.

Construction Sectors: Construction is a major highlight in almost all the economies. And to
say specifically, India has witnessed a remarkable growth in construction in recent years. And

The main driving force behind this is real estate constructions. Therefore, this will result in
the demand for glass in housing and building constructions. And this demand for glasses will
contribute to the total share in the sale. Various types of glasses will be used in this which
will also in turn result in the glass industry to develop new and improved glasses for
commercial purposes.

Government projects and plans: In India, the government has initialled several plans and
projects including the most famous one, “Housing for all 2022”, which aims in building
thousands of affordable houses by the year 2022. Other government projects include smart
cities. All these would result in the demand for glass.

Solar energy glass demand: Solar energy is a non-renewable energy which has a wide
increasing application. In the future, there is a high potential of significant growth in the glass
industry. This is expected to have a powerful impact for the demand of the glass industry.

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Packaging industry: The main reason for this reason is because of the reusability and
recyclable property of the glass which is 100%. More and more customers have become
conscious and aware about the importance of safety and hygiene which has resulted in
increasing use of glass containers thus increasing the demand for the glass industry.

2.2.2 Challenges faced by Glass Manufacturing Industry in India

Industrial manufactured glass is widely used material in society. There would always be
demand for the glass products as long as there will be advancements in a commonwealth
country like India. Therefore, glass manufacturing industry would eventually face challenges
in a growing economy. During my research I’ve come across few ultimatums that a glass
manufacturing industry would face in general. By this means, I’ve narrowed down the
problems a glass manufacturing industry in India would face considering its economy, GDP
and some other factors,

Changing economic conditions: Economic conditions mean the present state of the economy
in the country. For an economy like India, changes are inevitable. A forecast shown below
shows the growing GDP over the last decade. India is ranked 5 th position in world largest
economy. So India is alwas continuing to improve or maintain the level. This would result in
the a constantly expanding of the economy which would result in manufactures to change and
adapt while keeping the expectations of the customers. The below chart shows the growing
GDP rate of the Indian economy over the last decade.

Figure 2.2.i: Indian GDP Forecast

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Competitive Markets:

NEXT UP PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE

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