Brief overview on glass industry and glass research in Spain

Abstract

The Spanish glass industry consists of about 60 production centres and more than 650 manufacturing and processing factories and workshops, with a total of 50 000 employees. The overall annual turnover amounts to around 400 billion Pta. The most important sector is the hollow glass industry. It represents 67.2% of the total glass production (more than 1.4 mill. t, and 69 billion Pta in 1991). The flat glass production is shared among two big companies. They have three float glass production lines (a fourth line is currently being built) and two cast-glass lines. In 1990 flat glass producdon was divided between 450 000 t of float glass and 76 000 t of cast glass. Sales amounted to 66 000 mill. Pta. Furthermore, there are three factories for glass fibres and one factory for glass tubes. The percentage distribudon of the different glass products is very similar to that of the European Community countries. The Spanish quota on the total European Community glass producdon is 9 %. The glass research in the state-owned sector is carried out by some scientists groups at different Spanish Universities and at the Ceramics and Glass Institute. Within the private industrial field of research there are two Research and Development centres which belong to Saint-Gobain group.