BEYOND BREAKING

Booming construction sector is helping drive the demand and capacity for glass manufacturers like Saint-Gobain India that is now investing over Rs 6,000 crore in capacity augmentation

- Ashish Sinha

ONE BY ONE, different sectors of the Indian economy are getting on to the growth bandwagon. It’s not just mega sectors like infrastructure and manufacturing that have begun to grow and expand. Even allied sectors, whose fortunes are largely dependent on the bigger sectors, are beginning to flourish. A case in point is the glass industry which caters to the infrastructure and manufacturing sectors with applications across construction, automotive, packaging and electronics sectors. The industry is seeing revival on the back of a pick-up in demand, particularly on account of the boom in the realty sector.

The turnaround has led experts to project sales of float glass—a sheet or plate glass widely used to manufacture windows, mirrors, doors and solar panels—to touch Rs 40,000 crore by FY28. In 2022, it stood at Rs 24,000 crore.

At Asahi India Glass (AIS), the float glass business contributed a staggering Rs 1,676 crore, almost half of its overall revenue of Rs 4,035 crore in FY23.

According to CRISIL Ratings, the flat glass industry in India is gearing up for a substantial 65 per cent increase in capacity, investing Rs 7,200-7,500 crore over the next 48 months. This expansion, driven by import substitution policies, sustained demand from end-user industries and highcapacity utilisation, will be the first by the industry in five years.