Ceylon Glass Rs. 3.7 b. expansion nears completion

Ceylon Glass (CGCL) would be investing Rs. 3.7 billion for a new production plant in Horana. This would be completed in the fourth quarter of the current financial year.

Managing Director and President CGCL, Sanjay Tiwari said that with the completion of this project, the current production capacity for manufacturing coloured bottles of different shapes would be more than doubled.

"The downstream flexibility for manufacturing is also being enhanced by two additional lines, thereby resulting in a total of 5 manufacturing lines, while it will be equipped with the latest automatic inspection machines as well as a chemical coating facility," he said.

According to Tiwari sales were up by 15 per cent to Sri Lankan Rupees 973 million while Profit after Tax was up by 22 per cent to Rupees 88 million.

"Sales during the half year period were Rupees 973 million, a growth of 15 per cent compared to Sales of Rupees 846 million of the same period the previous year. Profit before tax too increased to Rupees 126 million, which represents a growth of 20 per cent over the 1st half of the previous year".

The Company's performance in the second Quarter ending September 30th showed a growth of 20 per cent in sales.

The profit after tax in the second quarter displayed a growth of 29 per cent as against the corresponding quarter of the previous year. CGCL has seen a continuous growth in its Export Sales over the past few years.

"Coloured wine and liquor bottle sales to India had been a mainly contributed to this achievement. It is encouraging to note that the export growth in the 1st half of the current financial year is more than 290 per cent as compared to 108 per cent during the corresponding period of the previous year".

Tiwari said that the World Market for F and B Glass is over 12 billion US$ and growing at 12 per cent, the cosmetic and perfume glass is US$ 1.9 billion and is growing at 5 per cent, while the Pharmaceutical glass market is approximately US$ 2 billion.

Key Markets for specialty Food and Drinks are the US and Europe which are forecast to be US$125 billion by 2009. He also said that the growing worldwide demand for specialty glass containers have presented opportunities for the Company to enter the niche market for coloured glass containers.

"We are already the sole supplier of blue bottles for a major brand of the world's second largest liquor producing company and we are currently exploring export opportunities in India, the Philippines, Mauritius, and Australia".