This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Rolled Glass in Thousand Metric Tons. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Latin America. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2010 through 2018. Also, a six-year historic analysis is provided for these markets. The report profiles 35 companies including many key and niche players such as Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., AGC Glass Company North America, AGC Glass Europe, Compagnie De Saint-Gobain, Saint-Gobain SEFPRO, Guardian Industries Corp., Guardian Glass Espana CV SA, Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd., Pilkington Group Limited, SCHOTT AG, Taiwan Glass Group, and ViridianT Glass. Worldwide consumption of glass is growing led by its increasing use in automotive and building construction markets. Demand trends in the flat glass market are shaped by the pace of economic development as well as the legislative and regulatory landscape. Flat glass is produced using two float, rolled and sheet glass techniques, with float glass accounting for a predominant share of the overall demand. In contrast, rolled glass accounted for a very small percentage of the global flat glass demand during 2012. Rolled glass primarily finds use in residential, specialty and commercial applications, including shower enclosures, glass doors, partitions, solar photovoltaic panels, among others. Even though a tiny blip on the world radar, rolled glass market is poised for steady growth in future, despite the fact that float lines are continuously replacing production lines of wired and patterned glass across the globe. The market witnessed a slowdown due to the recession, but is on the recovery mode led by the continuous use of wired glass and patterned glass in shower doors and various other applications. Another major factor that is providing a fillip to the market is the growing demand for solar glass in China. This is largely because rolled glass offers many benefits over float glass, as far as solar glass is concerned. For solar thermal applications to take off, they require low iron flat glass featuring decreased reflection for both crystalline and thin film modules as well as a surface for trapping light. In contrast, the optical qualities of float glass are high. Also, the reflection on float glass's surface negatively impacts the module's efficiency, thereby necessitating the use of high-cost antireflective coatings. Another favorable factor is that a ton of rolled glass requires much less energy compared to an equal quantity of float glass. Though rolled glass at present has an edge in solar photovoltaic units, float glass is expected to make significant progress in the coming years. The shift towards using float glass, as against rolled glass, in solar PV units is expected to intensify with the lowering of production costs associated with float glass.
