Polished wired glass shortage could last indefinitely

Polished wired glass will be in short supply this year as Japan's Central Glass Co. Ltd., one of two polished wired glass producers in the world, said it would not be able to fill orders following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the country in March.

In a letter to customers, Central Glassofficials said the company "would not be able to supply polished wired glass to every order it receives" as "domestic materials are desperately needed."

"This situation has created a shortage of supply which continues in Japan. At our factory, production is almost at a maximum capacity as we continue to strive to keep up with the current demands. Unfortunately, we consider this situation will continue for an extended and unknown period of time," the letter states.

Asahi Glass Co., the world's other polished wired glass manufacturer,sustained significant damageto four of its Japanese facilities during the earthquake/tsunami, and production was suspended at the AGC Kashima float plant. In a March statement, company officials said AGC would allocate inventories and shipments from other plants in and around Japanto prevent a supply shortage of architectural glass. At press time, it was unclear as to whether its supply of polished wired glass would be affected.

David Balik, president of General Glass International, Secaucus, N.J., a wired glass importer for 30 years, said the shortage could last indefinitely, and at the very least, will last four or five months.

"With limited inventories and virtually no shipments coming out of Japan, there will be a shortage of polished wired glass for most of the rest of the year, unless something changes over in Japan that we are not aware of," he said. "Some of our customers may switch to our Pyran fire-rated glass from Schott, as an alternative."