UAE-based Emirates Float Glass (EFG) has successfully commissioned a new facility aimed at enhancing its production capabilities to cater to the automotive glass sector.

A subsidiary of Dubai Investments, EFG is a major integrated float glass facility in the UAE.

The new offline facility is equipped with the most modern machinery from Europe, and comes with completely automated programming and production line, with limited human intervention, in order to ensure consistent quality parameters vital for the automotive glass industry, said a company statement.   

Ghassan Mashal, the general manager of EFG, said: "The additional investment of over Dh10 million ($2.72 million) in the offline facility is in line with the company’s ambitious growth plans to enhance our already-existing automotive industry customer base."

"The new production line is capable of supplying windshields and side lights to any shape and size required by automotive industry, he noted.

The company said demand from the automotive and transport sectors accounts for 15 to 20 per cent of the float glass market across the globe.

Of this, 95 per cent goes to the automotive industry, including buses and coaches, trucks, and off-road mobile machinery and the rest is for the other transport sectors – trains, metros, trams, ships, boats and all types of aircraft, said a statement from EFG.

"The market for automotive glass consists of original equipment supplied to car manufacturers for new cars and other vehicles, and automotive glass replacement products, supplied for retrofit purposes," stated Mashal.

"EFG is aiming to be the one-stop-shop for all the required glass in the architectural and automotive glass industry with its products ranging from clear, tinted to pyrolytic coated glass," he added.

This new facility will further leverage the market leadership of another DI subsidiary Lumiglass Industries, which produces security laminated glass and bullet resistant glass with wide applications for automotive and other industries.

With the EFG facility, the companies can now cater to a wide spectrum of glass demand from the automotive industry, said Mashal.-TradeArabia News Service