After nearly a decade of inactivity, the only plant in Mozambique capable of producing glass bottles will resume production in mid-2008, according to the National Director of Industry, Sergio Macamo.
…
After nearly a decade of inactivity, the only plant in Mozambique capable of producing glass bottles will resume production in mid-2008, according to the National Director of Industry, Sergio Macamo. Vidriera, located in the southern city of Matola, will be taken over by an unnamed South African firm, Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique was informed. Mr. Macamo declined to say how much money the South Africans would invest in Vidreira “because preparations for the relaunch are still under way. But it is a fact that everything will be ready for this relaunch in mid-2008”. Vidreira was once state-owned, but production came to a stop during the war of destabilisation. In the privatisations of the 1990s, Vidreira was sold off (in December 1996) to the Portuguese glassware company Barboso e Almeida, which promised to invest USD 10 million to rehabilitate the factory. Production resumed in 1998, but Barboso e Almeida group then abandoned Vidreira, halting production yet again. According to Macamo, when Vidreira is again rehabilitated it will provide bottles for the major Mozambican container glass consumers including brewer Cervejas de Mocambique, and the local branch of Coca-Cola. In 1998, the Vidreira furnaces were said to be capable of producing 120 tonnes of glass a day, and of supplying 5% of the entire southern African glassware market. Reactivating Vidreira is part of the government“s wider strategy of finding new owners for industries which, although currently inactive, remain viable.