India’s Sunrise Glass to install 240tpd container furnace

India’s container glass producer Sunrise Glass is adding a new furnace with an installed capacity of 240 TPD.

The company currently operates two furnaces with a combined installed of 380 TPD.

Sunrise Glass’s Executive Director, Gaurav Thakkar, told Glass International: “Sunrise Glass is part of the Astron Group and at present we have two furnaces with a capacity of 210 MT/day and 170 /day.

“We are coming up with a third furnace of 240Mt/day capacity.

“We started our glass business in 2011 and with three furnaces in span of 10 years it makes us one of the fastest growing container glass manufacturers in the country.

“The furnace will have four lines with three AIS 10 triple gob (TG) Emhart Machines. All the lines will have EVM (Inspection Machines) and along with this we have installed an automatic cullet sorting plant that has been imported from Austria.

“The container glass plant was expected to start in November 2020 but it got delayed due to Covid. We will commence the commercial operations by April 2021.

"We will be catering to the same customers and major focus will be liquor. We have started focusing on exports to the USA and Europe for food grade jars. Not from the new furnace but overall we have started developing the food grade market for jars and bottles.”

He added: “The Indian glass industry was growing marginally since last 3-4 years. But COVID has had a big impact on demand for liquor and due to that glass has impacted badly. We faced a 20-25% downfall in supply since the pre-covid scenario.

“Yes, slowly but industry has started recovering from the Covid shock and as the tourism has started and people have started travelling, we are hoping that demand of glass will increase and it’ll reach to a pre-Covid level.”

Based in the city of Surat in the state of Gujarat, Sunrise Glass has a logistical advantage in serving the domestic and international clients. Proximity to some of the best seaport in the country has enabled to the company to export a significant part of total output.