Seversk Glass in Samus, Tomsk region, said it was to launch a glass packaging factory with a planned capacity of 300M bottles/year in late 2004. Construction of the factory began in 2000 and Seversk Glass has invested RUR 78M in the project since then. The new plant will be the largest bottle factory east of the Urals and will be able to completely fulfil demand for the product in Siberia and the Far East. Existing production can only service 20% of the demand for glass bottles, a source at Seversk Glass said, adding that the company plans to export part of its production to Kazakhstan. Seversk is owned by Novosibirsk Tin Combine (NOK), which guaranteed a five-year bank loan worth RUR 385M at the end of March 2004 so that Seversk Glass could finish construction of the bottle factory.
