Ball-Foster Glass Container Co of the US announced that it will close its 166-year-old glassmaking plant in Millville, Cumberland County, early this year as part of a cost-cutting move, putting 300 employees out of work. The plant makes glass containers for beer, other beverages and food. Built in 1832, it is the nation's oldest continously operating glass manufacturing plant, according to company officials, but because of its age, its production costs per bottle are higher than those at the company's 19 other plants nationwide. The company said it had been forced to look for ways to cut costs as glass-bottle makers lost market share to plastics. It said that it had 800 customers and that sales were particulary weak in the Northeast. (whole item)
