Schott expects to have tripled its earnings in the financial year to Sept 30/05, to Euros 54M. This follows massive investments & withdrawals from non-core & underperforming activities. It is concentrating on strong core business including household products; optics; special glass tubes; pharmaceutical packaging; & auto products. Solar energy & display glass, rapidly growing markets, are developing into another driving force. Schott has expanded production capacity for photovoltaic products, & recently won an order to supply 20,000 solar energy receivers for a new electric power station in Nevada, USA. Meanwhile, Schott has set up a joint venture factory in Korea for surface processing flat glass for LCDs. It has also installed a second melting tank for display glass production at Jena, & in China has started to build a new factory at Suzhou for ampoules & vials.
