Austrailia'S Booming Wine Industry

The continuing boom in the Southern Australian wine industry has secured the future for Port Adelaide-based chemical company Penrice Soda Products. The 60-year-old producer of soda ash is heading for turnover of more than A$130M in 2003, a figure up 26% over three years. Penrice CE David Reid said the doubling of container glass production in the region in the past four years had been a boon form the firm. "We understand that wine bottle manufacturing in SA exceeds 2M bottles/day and is expected to grow at a rate of 7% or more for the next 10 years," Mr Reid said, adding, "Five years ago, Penrice sold about 30 metric tonnes of soda ash in SA, now it sells nearer 100 metric tonnes - in line with dramatic growth in wine exports."