Glass Industry Fires Up with High Demand for TV Screens, Flat and Float Products

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Demand for glass products is skyrocketing as visual-display technology--especially personal electronic products like smartphones and Internet-ready TV sets--grows at a breakneck pace. Industrial Info is tracking $30.71 billion in active and unconfirmed projects at glass plants worldwide, more than 70% of which are in China. About $2.9 billion worth is expected to kick off in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The single largest project tracked by Industrial Info is Shenzhen Huaxing Photoelectric Technology Company Limited's (Shenzhen, Guangdong) $3.92 billion, second-phase expansion of the thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) glass plant in Shenzhen. The project, which kicked off in March and is expected to be completed toward the end of first-quarter 2016, involves adding a building and installing four 150-ton-per-day LCD glass substrate production lines to double production of LCD glass to 200,000 pieces per month.

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Growing demand for the latest display technology is spurring growth at Chinese companies that manufacture flat-panel and other related products. The highest-value project that is expected to kick off in the fourth quarter of 2014 is Wuhan Huaxing Photoelectric Technology Company Limited's (Shenzhen) $1.14 billion, first-phase construction of an LCD glass plant, also in Shenzhen. The project involves building facilities and installing two LCD glass substrate production lines, each of 150 tons per day, for a total capacity of 88 million pieces per year.

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Shenzhen Huaxing Photoelectric Technology Company Limited and Wuhan Huaxing Photoelectric Technology Company Limited are both subsidiaries of TCL Group (Huizhou, China), a multinational electronics company that is China's largest producer of TV sets.

Rising demand for flat glass also is spurring multiple projects in China, such as Wuhan Dongxu Optoelectronics Technology Company Limited's $834 million construction of a manufacturing plant in Wuhan, Hubei. The project involves building four LCD glass production lines, each with a capacity of 500 tons per day, with completion expected in the second quarter of 2015. The company is a subsidiary of Dongxu Group (Hubei).

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Outside of China, the country with the largest investment value in glass projects is Russia. Salavatsteklo OAO's (Salavat, Bashkortostan) $259 million construction of a 700-ton-per-day float glass plant in Novosibirsk is one of the leading projects. It is expected to kick off in February and to be completed a little more than two years later.

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In the U.S., the largest glass project is owned by China's Fuyao Glass Industry Group Company Limited (Fuqing, Fujian): the $230 million construction of an automotive safety glass manufacturing plant in Moraine, Ohio. The project involves installing float glass production equipment to produce 3 million sets of auto safety glass per year, at a former General Motors (NYSE:GM) (Detroit, Michigan) truck assembly plant that was closed in 2009.

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About 38% of the glass-manufacturing industry's TIV--a little less than $12 billion--is related to 106 projects that already are in the construction stages. The industry also has 172 projects worth about $10.5 billion that have reached the planning stages, where plenty of factors could increase, decrease or eliminate the expected spending, and 53 projects worth about $8.5 billion in the engineering stages.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.