FEVE has announced that Xavier Gagey, CEO of the Pochet Group, has been elected as incoming Chairman of the Flaconnage Board. Mr Gagey explains: “Glass is a material that has unique inherent sustainability benefits: it is endlessly recycled, it preserves product ingredients, fragrances, and scents in the best way possible. Glass is also unique in adding value and premium positioning to products through its versatility and design assets.”

Mr Gagey will take over the chairmanship of the Flaconnage Board from the incumbent Mr Laurent Zuber, currently General Manager Business Unit West World at SGD Pharma, who has held the role for the last five years.

Glaston has introduced its CNC96 upgrade kit for automotive and architectural glass-cutting equipment. This enhances the CNC96 control system while modernising any components at the end of their life. It is part of the company’s larger lifecycle support offering to keep customers’ machinery operating at peak performance.

Glaston’s CNC96 was first released in 1996 as an in-house system engineered with exclusively developed hardware components. Over the years, this system has helped processors attain outstanding precision with their edge cutting, breaking, grinding, drilling, and other critical functions for high-quality automotive and architectural glass.

IKO, a leading, global manufacturer of roofing products, has established its first South Carolina operations in Chester County with a $363 million investment that will create 180 jobs.

Located less than one mile apart along the S.C. Highway 9 industrial corridor in Chester, IKO’s South Carolina operations consist of two facilities. The company is remodelling the former PPG, then NEG, facility on Lancaster Highway to manufacture fibre glass while concurrently building a new 325,000ft2 manufacturing plant on Cedarhurst Road to produce fibre glass mats that will be used for production at its United States’ shingle factories. The two facilities are IKO's first wholly-owned glass and glass mat facilities in South Carolina.

NSG Group has announced plans to invest in additional TCO (transparent conductive oxide) glass production capacity in the United States. to support the growing solar market. In the proposal, a float line at the Pilkington North America, Rossford, Ohio location will install online coating capacity and start shipping glass for solar panel manufacture in the first quarter of 2025.

The upgraded float line in Rossford, Ohio will support the expansion strategy of First Solar, which has a long-standing strategic partnership with NSG. The float line will supply glass to First Solar’s manufacturing footprint in the US, which is forecast to grow to 14GW of annual nameplate capacity by 2026.

CANPACK Group has entered into a definitive agreement to transfer its operations in Poland to BA Glass. The plant located in Orzesze will be incorporated into the existing glass operations of BA Glass in Poland where company operates two plants located in Sierakow and Jedlice. The agreement is pending customary merger control approval from the Polish competition authority and is anticipated to be completed during the first half of 2024.

AGC is exhibiting SunEwat (sold in Japan as Sunjoule), a building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV), in the Japan Pavilion, organised by the Ministry of Environment at the 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28). The event is held at the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, between November 30 and December 12.

The Japan Pavilion in the venue will exhibit technologies and initiatives that support global decarbonization and Japan’s realization of carbon neutrality by 2050. SunEwat can efficiently generate electricity using the exterior walls of a building, and by freely arranging the solar panels, it can add a high level of design to a building.

With the President of the Republic of Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol visiting the United Kingdom last week as guest of His Majesty King Charles III to launch negotiations on an upgraded, modern free trade agreement to boost trade between the two countries. Investment in green energy and infrastructure projects across the UK, creating more than 1,500 highly skilled jobs included LG Electronics and research and technology organisation, Glass Futures.

Youngseok Kim, Business Leader of Advanced Materials at LG Electronics said: "LG Electronics is interested in exploring advanced technologies for glass production such as electric or hydrogen powered furnaces, as well as increasing the proportion of recycled content to make new products."

O-I has established two new partnerships that increase post-consumer glass recycling, reduce consumer waste, and conserve resources in Brazil. The collaborations, with the Recicleiros Institute, a civil society organization, and Orizon, one of the country’s largest private landfill companies – support the glass maker’s ambitious goal of increasing cullet in glass containers.

The exclusive agreement with The Recicleiros Institute will recycle all post-consumer glass packaging processed in the Recicleiros Cidades Program’s current and future sorting units across Brazil. O-I expects to recover about 3,000 tons of glass in the project’s first year.

A hearing protection initiative introduced by Beatson Clark has been recognised by British Glass at the annual Glass Focus Awards in Manchester. The glass packaging manufacturer won the Health and Safety Action award sponsored by Glass International.

Occupational noise-induced hearing loss is a widespread health issue and Beatson Clark recognises that the hearing protection devices it provides for employees are individual and require correct fitting to provide the appropriate level of protection. The company is the first glass manufacturer in the UK to use the 3M E-A-Rfit Dual-Ear Validation System, and since being introduced earlier this year the equipment has produced excellent results.