HNG Group, the Rs 1,500 crore company that owns Hindustan National Glass and Industries, on Monday forayed into float glass

segment by setting up its first float furnace at Halol, Gujarat.

The new plant has a daily production capacity of 600 tonne and it also has provision for a second float line with an additional support of 850 tonne per day.

Disclosing this, Mukul Somany, joint managing director, HNG said, “Our foray into the float glass segment is to further expand our horizons in the glass industry. The HNG Group is on a high growth path through strategic diversifications. The HNG Group today has over five decades of manufacturing experience, expertise and excellence which has helped it become the undisputed leader in the container glass business with a 60 per cent market share in India. The first set of production is expected to be ready by the end of December 2009.”

The firm’s existing pan-India manufacturing operations are spread over six centres: Rishra, Bahadurgarh, Rishikesh, Puducherry, Nashik and Neemrana. Its products are available in more than 20 countries.

“There is a huge expanding market for float glass in the country resulting from the growing realty and auto sector. Also, the extremely low per capita consumption of only 0.7 kg in India as compared to average of 8-10 kg of other developing economies, gives a tremendous potential for growth of this industry,” Somany said.

HNG Float Glass, the newest company in the group, intends to aggressively target all the medium of sales such as dealer network as well as institutional and will manufacture products from the thickness of 2 mm to 12 mm, he added.

HNG Float Glass had tied up with US firm Toledo Engineering (Teco) for design, engineering, installation and commissioning of the float glass plant. It had also joined hands with global players like CNUD (Belgium) and Bottero (Italy) for procuring essential equipments.