Our Industry - Introduction
Glass is a growth industry. Global demand for glass outstrips economic growth around the world. Today’s architects and car designers are using larger surface areas of glass in their designs, increasingly with added functionality and complexity.
The global market for flat glass(1) in 2007 was approximately 47 million tonnes. At primary manufacture level this represents a value of around USD 29 billion. Of this tonnage, around 70 per cent is consumed in windows for buildings, 10 per cent in glazing products for automotive applications and 20 per cent used in furniture, interior and other applications.
Europe, China and North America together account for 75 per cent of global demand for glass. The world’s leading glass companies, including NSG Group, produce 66 per cent of the world's high quality float glass and supply around three quarters of the world’s Automotive Original Equipment (OE) glazing requirements.
At the heart of the world’s glass industry is the float glass process – invented by Sir Alastair Pilkington in 1952 – which manufactures clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles.
(1) Glass manufactured in flat sheets (float, sheet and rolled) which may be further processed. Excludes bottles, containers, fiberglass, rods and tubes.
