Float glass manufacturer Saint Gobain India, a subsidiary of France-based Saint Gobain, on Thursday (14 January) announced a further investment of Rs 1,000 crore at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, taking its cumulative investments in Tamil Nadu to Rs 3,000 crore.
This investment will be used for setting up its third float glass plant and new magnetron coater plant at Sriperumbudur.
The company, which set up its first manufacturing unit at Sriperumbudur with an investment of Rs 500 crore in 2,000, rapidly expanded and made a total investment of Rs 2,000 crore. “This will be our very significant step. We are making additional investment of Rs 1,000 crore. With this, the total cumulative investment in Chennai would be Rs 3,000 crore,” Saint Gobain India Managing Director B Santhanam said.
Currently, at the World Glass Complex, Sriperumbudur, the company has two float glass plants with total capacity of 1,500 tonnes, the the total capacity is set to go up to 2,500 tonnes. These investments are not only for Tamil Nadu, or India, it is for the entire Asia Pacific region.
The plant would be serving Africa, Middle-East, ASEAN countries and Oceania region, the company said in a statement. “The plant will become operational by mid-2017 and the job potential will be 300-400 in the region,” said Santhanam.
Saint Gobain India has registered revenues of Rs 5,000 crore and “we expect about 30 per cent more” in terms of revenue,” he said.
On setting up second magnetron coater plant, he said the total capacity to manufacture will go upto 144 million square foot of “high performance, high-selective, energy-efficient glass from the present 100 million square foot, mainly catering to overseas market”.
The cumulative glass industry was valued at Rs 10,000 crore. Stating that the proposed plants were part of Central government’s “Make in India” campaign.
“The world glass complex in Sriperumbudur has become a regional manufacturing hub for value added products in the Asia Pacific region,” he said.
Saint Gobain India had signed an MoU with Tamil Nadu government during its maiden Global Investors Meet in September 2015, for setting up the new float glass plant and magnetron coater plant.
