The float furnace at Saint-Gobain Cristalería in Avilés, northern Spain, which was badly damaged in a blaze on 18 March 2008 will start up again early August, according to Juan José Somolinos, manager of building and flat glass at the plant. "It's feasible for the scheduled dates, the pre-ignition tests have already been carried out and everything is ready to relight in the first week of August". Mr. Somolinos said the new furnace would be one of the most advanced in the company enabling "better processing and product quality". In addition, he recognised that while the intention to increase furnace capacity was not implicit in the rebuilding, the resulting furnace will be able to offer "better performance which will lead to greater production capacity and therefore improved profitability". Mr. Somolinos said that re-ignition did not imply an immediate commencement of production. Before this can happen it is necessary to slowly heat up the tank and carry out technical and quality trials. Saint-Gobain managers have scheduled a return to full production for September 2008. On the question of a new facility at the Avilés plant, Mr. Somolinos said the project was on hold due to the current state of low market demand. He added that for the moment the output required by the market was guaranteed. On this point he said that Saint-Gobain's plants were "well distributed" and the company has launched a far-reaching logistics operations to make possible guaranteed, on-schedule supply from stocks.
