Thaindian News

Kolkata, Aug 20 (IANS) India’s largest container glass manufacturer, Hindusthan National Glass and Industries (HNG), is looking at Africa, South East Asia and the Middle East for acquisition, a top company official said here Thursday.
“We are looking at these three countries for acquiring a bottle manufacturing plant. The investment will be between Rs.300 crore to Rs.400 crore,” company joint managing director Mukul Somany said at a media meet here.

The capacity of the acquired company would be one-fourth of HNG’s installed capacity of 940,000 tonnes.

The city-headquartered firm, which now has a 65 percent market share in the organised sector, has set a growth target of 20 percent in 2009-10.

HNG is also investing more than Rs.350 crore on brownfield expansion and technology upgrade at its facilities this year, Somany said.

Out of this amount, Rs.150 crore will be invested at its plant at Rishra in Hooghly district, and Rs.200 crore in Chandigarh and Bahadurgarh in Haryana.

“The highlight of the year is the introduction of narrow neck press and blow technology, for the first time in India,” he said.

The company has set aside Rs.100 crore out of its Rs.350 crore investment in the three plants for introducing the technology.

“With the commercialisation of this technology, we will offer lighter container — to the extent of 15-20 percent — thereby reducing transportation cost and price per bottle, besides improved quality,” he said.