Construction Starts On Pilkington'S New Indian Plant

Construction has begun on Pilkington's new automotive glass plant in India. The laminated windscreen facility is the first phase of a 3-stage, 5-y investment project which will also include a toughened and laminated OE facility, and a float plant. The site is based at Visakhapatnam, (Vizag), in the state of Andhra Pradesh (which is currently a boom area for industrial investment). Phase 1, the windscreen plant, is scheduled to begin production in 2008 and will serve the automotive glass replacement market with capacity of 480,000 parts per year (initially, only for export). The site will employ around 270 people.