PPG announces glass business realignment

With demand declining for automotive and residential window glass, PPG Industries, Pittsburgh, realigned its performance glazings business, according to a Sept. 24 company release. The company will cease production at its Owen Sound, Ontario, glass manufacturing facility in the first quarter 2009. Shipping and distribution of products there will continue until inventory is depleted, according to the release. One float glass line at the Mt. Zion, Ill., plant will be idled in the second quarter next year.

The plant and unit closures coincide with rebuilt, higher-throughput lines reopening at PPG glass plants in Carlisle, Pa., and Wichita Falls, Texas, according to the release. They also are affected by PPG’s July 8 announcement of the pending sale of its automotive glass and services business to an affiliate of funds managed by the private equity firm of Kohlberg & Co., LLC.