Ceylon Glass - Smuggling Hurts Sales

Sri Lanka's Ceylon Glass Co Ltd, said an increase in the number of smuggled glass bottles in the local market was hurting sales and threatening profitability, after the company had seen sales drop some 5% in the past year. "There is an increasing number of imported glass bottles from India slipping though without paying the protective 30% duty and undercutting prices," Chairman, Mahinda Wijenaike, said. He added that some importers were even attempting to seel used bottles to some of the customers of Ceylon Glass. Ceylon Glass is Sri Lanka's main manufacturer of glass packaging containers and bottles. The company holds around 80% of the annual SLRs 800m (US$12.12m) local market.