The Indian glass industry has been growing across all segments, driven primarily by the country's growing automotive & construction sectors. The container glass industry benefits from growing awareness on account of rising hygienic packaging demand, growing population, increasing per capita income of average Indians with, however, low per capita glass consumption. This low per capita container glass consumption in India is 1.2 kg, which offers tremendous scope for rise. During the Q4/2011, the profitability of the glass & glass products sector was hampered by pressure on margins of many major players, impacted mainly due to the rise in the raw material cost & power and fuel cost. HSIL, one of the major players in the container glass segment, has been obliged to increase prices to improve their margins. The price of soda ash, in particular, is a major cost in the raw material segment. Major manufactures of soda ash in India are Tata Chemicals, GHCL (formerly Gujarat Heavy Chemicals), DCW & NIRMA and Saurashtra Chemicals. These companies continue to rule the Indian soda ash market by setting the prices of soda ash based on import costs. The Akali Manufactures' Association has filed a case with the anti dumping authority for levy of anti dumping duty on imports of soda ash from China PR, EU, Kenya, Pakistan, Iran, Ukraine & the US, which make up for about 80% of global soda ash production. Prices of soda ash have increased 20% during the last 2 years in India. The imposition of anti dumping will result in further increases in the prices of imported soda ash and as a consequence, Akali manufactures will further jack up the prices of indigenous soda ash with a view to increase their profit margin.
