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United Hungarian Glass Containers: development plans

28 May 1998: United Hungarian Glass Containers, which is owned by the American operation Owens-Illinois, plans to carry out a Ft 3 billion development in its Oroshaza (south Hungary) glass factory by …

28 May 1998: United Hungarian Glass Containers, which is owned by the American operation Owens-Illinois, plans to carry out a Ft 3 billion development in its Oroshaza (south Hungary) glass factory by the end of June. The aim of the project is to make Hungarian glass container production competitive in both the domestic and international markets. Nikola Cuomo CEO said that Owens-Illinois intends to fully modernise its two Hungary-based plants by the year 2000. Beside the Oroshaza plant the company also owns a production capacity in Sajoszentpeter, north-east Hungary. The US$ 13 million that will be spent on the renewal of the Oroshaza factory will mostly go for the modernisation of the technology. As a result, production will speed up by 10% and the company“s annual capacity will increase from 320-340 million to 400 million jars. The competitiveness of Hungarian glass container production diminished a lot in 1994-95. Despite this, the production capacities are still big enough to fulfil domestic demand. At the moment 23% of the market, however, is ruled by foreign suppliers. Owens-Illinois wishes to enhance productivity by a further 15-20% in the future. Experts say that the Hungarian glass industry will be eaten alive by EU competition unless production costs decrease to the EU level by the time the protective tariffs have to be abandoned.

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