Glass packaging company O-I announced 13 December that the company has signed an agreement to acquire two glass container manufacturing plants located in the fast-growing Beijing/Tianjin region of China's Hebei province. Under this agreement O-I will acquire the glass container manufacturing business of Hebei Rixin Glass Group Co Ltd in northern China for an undisclosed sum. The two plants provide an additional 270,000 tonnes of capacity for O-I. As a result of this deal O-I will have more than doubled its capacity in China in the past year to more than 1m tonnes (up from 440,000 tonnes), making the company China's second largest glass container manufacturer. The transaction is expected to be completed before the end of 2010. The newly acquired plants produce glass containers predominantly for China's rapidly growing domestic beer market.
