A number of MPs, including the Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Industrial Strategy, visited British Glass member NSG Pilkington to discuss the growing impact of soaring energy and carbon costs on the UK glass industry.

Jonathan Reynolds MP was joined at Pilkington’s Greengate Works site by Shadow Minister for Energy and Manufacturing Bill Esterson MP and local MP for St Helens South and Whiston Marie Rimmer for talks surrounding the ongoing crisis and a tour of the glass making facilities.

Following the visit, Mr Reynolds MP announced measures from Labour to address the energy crisis, which has seen manufacturer’s gas and energy bills quadruple and triple respectively, including the creation of a £600 million contingency fund.

Applied Vision, part of Antares Vision Group, will install its Volcano Glass Inspection Systems at GCA’s new furnace projects in 2022.

GCA, based in Kutahya, Turkey, will use the systems to inspect the sealing surface, base and sidewall of their glass containers.

“We chose Applied Vision for these projects not only because of their leading edge technologies, but also their responsiveness to our needs as a consistent and growing glassmaker,” said Dr Abdullah Gayret, general manager of GCA.

Schott has introduced FLEXINITY connect as the latest innovation in the advanced packaging industry.

This ultra-fine structured glass brings a game-changing element to semiconductor manufacturing, which has traditionally used printed circuit boards (PCB) and silicon interposers for advanced chip packaging solutions.

The combination of silicon and copper clad laminates are too expensive, have low electrical performance, and only limited reliability.

Thanks to its properties, a glass circuit board can improve signal performance and reduce signal latency, while maintaining virtually the same build-up as the interposer package.

The Recycling Modernisation Fund is an Australian Government initiative that is investing over Aus$190 million to expand capacity to sort, process and remanufacture recycled materials such as plastic, paper, cardboard, tyres and glass.

The fund will assist the country to respond to the waste export ban with monies distributed by state and territory governments.

Funding allocated to Victoria from the Recycling Modernisation Fund will be delivered via the Recycling Victoria – Recycling Modernisation Fund (RV-RMF).

The state awarded a total of Aus$68.6 million with glass recovery at the centre of many projects. Funding will create over 270 new ongoing full-time jobs and process up to 322,000 tonnes of glass, plastic, paper, cardboard, and tyre waste each year.

Verallia France has announced plans to invest more than €65 million by 2025 at Chalon sur Saône to modernize the Group’s largest plant. Of this, €60 million, planned as part of the Growth and Competitiveness Pact (GCP) approved last June by the Group’s employees, will be used to equip the site with three new state-of-the-art furnaces to replace the three current ones.

The additional €5 million will be used this year to increase the site’s production capacity and make it more competitive and responsive to new market growth opportunities.

This investment will also reinforce the programme to lighten the weight of certain bottles, in response to growing demand from customers who want to reduce their environmental footprint.

China Glass and Stewart Engineers have announced the completion of the acquisition through China Glass’s associated company of the equity interest previously owned by Stewart in the Orda Glass float glass complex, resulting in 100% ownership by the Chinese company.

CTIEC will lead the completion of the construction of the Orda Glass Complex. The company expects to complete the construction and startup, so it will be fully operational later this year.

The Orda Glass Complex located in Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan aims to be the most modern industrial float glass facility in the world using the latest float glass technology designed and supplied by Stewart.

This facility will produce 600 tonnes per day of high quality architectural and automotive glass.

NSG UK Enterprises, part of the NSG Group, has signed a ten year power purchase agreement (PPA) with EDP Renewables (EDPR), the world's fourth largest renewable energy producer, for the renewable electricity generated by a wind farm located in Poland.

John Wilgar, Head of Procurement at NSG Group said: “We are delighted to sign our first virtual PPA with our partner EDPR for the majority of our electricity demand in Poland. This helps us to secure renewable electricity at predictable costs over the long term in a market with a highly carbon intensive grid. It is a huge step towards our sustainability objectives in support of our actions on climate change.”

NSG will take 51% of the output from the wind farm, which has a total installed capacity of 70 MW.

The glassware manufacturer Pyrex, part of the International Cookware Group, is investing more than €8 million, including €7.2 million for the demolition and reconstruction of the borosilicate glass melting furnace.

The new furnace will reduce CO2 emissions by more than 1,000 tonnes per year.

"This furnace, which reaches a temperature of 1,500°C, consumes a mixture of gas and oxygen. The new one will reduce our CO2 emissions by more than 1,000 tons per year, a reduction of 12 to 13%, by increasing the electrical share and optimizing energy consumption," states Claude Bin, Industrial Director of International Cookware.

Beauty and cosmetics specialist Premi has become part of Berlin Packaging. The Milan based firm has a 150-strong workforce across Europe, the US and Asia.

“This is a key acquisition for Berlin Packaging. Premi is a market leader in the beauty packaging industry with incredible know-how for the design and production processes. By leveraging our combined footprint and capabilities, we will deliver unparalleled solutions to our customers,” said Paolo Recrosio, CEO of Berlin Packaging EMEA.