Much of the world's glass trade has been depressed in the last couple of years. However, what many observers do not realise is that the root cause of much of this strife was a price war that originated in South East Asia. In many ways this is surprising as in global terms the size of the region's glass trade would not seem to be really large enough to have such a profound effect on industry. Yet somehow the price war has eroded the viability of container glass manufacturers as far apart as Europe and the Americas, as well as in Asia itself. For example, UK-based Brunner Mond said it recorded a 21% drop in pre-tax profits for 1998 despite sales rising by 4%, largely because of the impact of the S E Asian price wars. These, say the company pulled down the price of everything that counted as an input to the glass industry, and restricted new spending.
