Thai Glass Industries (TGI), a subsidiary of Berli Jucker (BJC), has announced a budget of Bt6 billion to expand the production capacity of its plant in Saraburi, Thailand, as well as to build more production facilities in Vietnam.

“Though the plan is still at the consideration stage before it can be submitted to the company’s board for approval, the expansion in Saraburi will be divided into two phases,” says Aswin Techajareonvikul, President of BJC and Chairman of TGI.

In the first phase, Bt2 billion will be spent on building new furnaces and other facilities to complement the existing plant in Saraburi. The new facilities are scheduled to start production in the next two years and double the plant’s current capacity of 400 tonnes/day.

In the next phase, the company will invest approximately Bt4 billion to add two more furnaces to this plant, which will be completed in the next four years and increase production capacity to 1200 tonnes/day.

As well as the plant in Saraburi, TGI also operates one in Thon Buri that has a daily production capacity of 700 tonnes and one in Bang Phli, Samut Prakan, which produces 1635 tonnes/day.

TGI’s current production capacity in Thailand is 2735 tonnes/day, while its plants in Malaysia and Vietnam jointly produce 3300 tonnes/day.

Meanwhile, Owens-Illinois (O-I), which joined up with TGI in 2010 to acquire Malaya Glass Products, already operates glass container manufacturing plants in Thailand, China, Malaysia and Vietnam, and is planning to expand further in the region.

Al Stroucken, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of O-I, has announced that the new Bt1 billion plant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, will go into operation by the fourth quarter of 2011 and is initially expected to have a capacity of 200 tonnes/day.