First quarter losses for the glass sector of the Saint Gobain Group have been blamed on currency exchange rates. The Group issued figures that showed a 5% fall in overall glass sales for 2003 from the same period last year, from Euros 2916M to Euros 2777M. The container division suffered the heaviest losses, falling 6.4%, closely followed by the insulation division, down by 5.6%. The flat glass division fared better, showing a loss of just under 3%. In a company statement, the firm blamed the losses entirely on currency effects, in particular from the US dollar and Brazilian real, saying this had an 8.2% negative impact during the period. The statement also reported the glass sector as having the strongest like-for-like growth in this period for the bulk of its businesses.
