According to analysts, Japanese auto glass companies, faced with a shrinking domestic market, are boosting their production of glass varieties that filter ultraviolet light in a bid to boost sales. Th…
According to analysts, Japanese auto glass companies, faced with a shrinking domestic market, are boosting their production of glass varieties that filter ultraviolet light in a bid to boost sales. The glass manufacturers are facing tougher conditions at home because more and more Japanese auto production is moving overseas under pressure from high domestic costs. Japan“s largest glass manufacturer, Asahi Glass Co., announced that it will increase production of UV-filtering auto glass to 1.7 million cars for the fiscal year ending 31 March 1997, from 300,000 in the previous year. Kenichi Imoto, a spokesman for Asahi, stated that while UV filters are commonly painted on the surface, the company last year adopted a new process whereby anti-UV material is added directly to the glass during the production process. However, foreign glass companies having fought a long battle to try and gain access to Japan“s protected market, say one problem with Japan“s oligopolistic market structure has been a lack of innovation. According to an official for Guardian Industries Japan Ltd., a subsidiary of Michigan-based Guardian Industries Corp., Japan is far behind the US in using UV-filtering auto glass for automobiles. Meanwhile, Nippon Sheet Glass Co., said it also introduced similar auto glass last year. Japan“s second-largest sheet glass manufacturer added that it hopes half of its auto glass production will soon be this specialty glass. Nippon Sheet Glass has stated that the newly introduced UV-filtering auto glass is less difficult to manufacture than previous versions. Only Japanese luxury cars used to be equipped with UV-filtering auto glass, however, Japanese automakers have started installing more of the sun-bloc auto glass for normal cars. A spokeswoman for Toyota Motor Corp. said the company has increased its use of UV-filtering auto glass to include 12 models. An analyst said that Japanese automakers would not buy UV-filtering auto glass from foreign companies although the carmakers know imported glass is cheaper and better. According to the analyst, imported auto glass faces even more barriers than regular sheet glass in Japan because of the close relationships between Japanese automakers and glassmakers. A Toyota spokeswoman said the company“s luxury car model, Celsior, is the only one equipped with so-called green glass, a high quality UV-filtering auto glass. The glass is of a better quality than standard UV-filtering auto glass. The Toyota official said the auto glass is manufactured by Pilkington Libbey-Owens-Ford Co. of the US.