This article examines the Indian glass sector, which consists of four main segments, namely: container glass; speciality glass; flat glass; and fibre glass. The article discusses recent price hikes in India due to the increasing costs of raw materials. Container glass is the largest segment, followed by speciality glass, then flat glass and lastly, fibre. In the last few years, the Indian glass industry has been growing across all segments with growth driven primarily by India's growing automotive and construction sectors. The container glass industry benefits from growing awareness on account of rising hygienic packaging demand, growing population, increasing per capita income of average Indians and low per capital glass consumption. The per capita glass consumption in India for container glass is 1.2,g, which offers tremendous scope for increase. During the quarter ending December 2011, profitability of the glass and glass products sector was dampened due to the pressure on margins. The margins of many major players were impacted mainly due to the rise in raw material costs and increases in power and fuel costs. The price of soda ash is a major cost in the raw material sector. Higher costs of input, particularly soda ash, which contributes about 30% of cost of production of glass products, is one of the major factors contributing to the higher cost of glass and glassware.
