The 10 Most Admired companies in glass industry

Glass Industry: Opportunities in a Vial

Halfway through the year 2020 and all that we can talk about is how COVID-19, the pandemic, has changed our lives now and forever. Days and lives have been reduced to numbers. The world right now has a negative shroud over it with people battling a pandemic, distrust, fake news, recession and more, all of them, every single day.

However, the human spirit and the will to live and survive are hard to beat. So, amongst all the negatives, it is not hard to come across moments that spark joy and hope. An increasing recovery rate, increased level of awareness, acceptance of the new ways of working, and hope that there will be a cure soon has raised the spirits. While most of the industries are now finding a way to work around the pandemic, there are a few that are working in the middle of the storm and trying to contain it.

The Pharma industry, coincidentally, has a huge target to meet and an enemy to defeat, at all costs. As the race to develop the vaccine for the novel Coronavirus gains momentum, there is another industry waiting patiently and preparing itself for a huge task. The task is that of making sure that the medicine reaches the people in tiny glasses of hope and the industry is the Glass Industry.

Vials, as they are known as, manufactured by the Glass industry are used to store medications and also scientific samples. Vials can be of many types; the most common ones being used are the tests tube-like but flat-based sample vials and the vials that store the medicine or medical vials. As per reports, every year, around 50 billion glass containers are used for medical purposes of which around 20 billion are medical vials.

As the need to test and test again to contain the pandemic increases so does the requirement of sample vials. And once the vaccines are in place, the industry will be facing an uphill task to supply the vials for the same. What is more important that these vials are not just made out of regular and less expensive soda-lime glass, but need borosilicate glass for manufacturing.

Borosilicate glass is chemically stable, corrosion-resistant, withstand high as well as low temperature, and also safer when it comes to being handled during transportation. However, right now, it makes up only 10% of the total glass production in the world. So herein lies the first challenge for the industry, which is to increase production to meet the demand.

The pandemic has provided the industry with a huge opportunity which the companies would like to encash not just for financial benefits, but for the fact that their work will be saving millions of lives. In this issue of Insights Success, we present "The 10 Most Admired Companies in the Glass Industry" which are moulding glass in various forms around us including medical vials.

On the Cover, we have Birkan Engineering Industries Pvt Ltd, a top-notch organization that develops glass products after intensive research that is high on quality and trusted by customers all across the world.

Our Special Feature is on Isra Glass and its Founder Moiz Arsiwala, who brings unique collection of masterfully crafted decorative glass art to India.

We also present Fancy Glass Factory, one of the pioneers in the field of glass supply, designs and solutions, and a one-stop-shop for all glass needs; and Shamvik Glass Tech Private Limited, a company that has carved a niche in the glass industry, for giving way to the refined technology that has been used to manufacture glass containers in India for over four decades.

In an Interview, Rajesh Khosla, President and CEO, AGI Glaspac (An SBU of HSIL Ltd) talks about the glass industry and its various aspects.

A few other companies worth mentioning are Suyog Glass Industries, Haldyn Glass Gujarat Limited, Magic Glass Pvt. Ltd, Bhatia Glass Tuff Pvt. Ltd and Ozone Glass.

Do go through our in-house articles Exploring the Wide Uses of Glass in Interior Design and Scoping Through the Glass Industry 4.0.In a CXO article, Mr. Arun Verma, Regional Director, AAF- EEMEA, CIS & SAARC countries, shares his views on ‘Indoor Air Quality – A Rising Concern’.

We hope you enjoy reading the issue, as much as we did, creating it!