South America overview: Hollow glass
South America: a glassmaking hub Argentina
Bolivia
Argentina is home to five hollow glass manufacturers: domestic producers Rigolleau, Cattorini and Durax, as well as international companies O-I and Verallia. Cattorini was founded in 1952 and is Argentina’s largest manufacturer of glass bottles. It has three plants and manufactures glass bottles for the food and beverage industry, including wine, liqueur, and oil and sauce bottles. The oldest glass producer in Argentina is Rigolleau, founded in 1882 by Leon Rigolleau. The company produces hollow glass for the food and beverage, cosmetics pharma and tableware industries. Rigolleau is now one of the largest glass factories in Latin America, directly employing more than 1,000 people. The plant has five furnaces and 16 lines, with a capacity of 1,000 tonnes or 2 million units per day. The company has also recently invested $40 million in upgrading one of its furnaces. Durax produces domestic glassware such as tumblers, and came in to being in 2002 when a government cooperative reopened a closed factory, and installed the first furnace. By 2005 the company had added two more furnaces and was manufacturing more than 80,000 tableware items per day. In 2014, following the addition of another furnace, the company began to export its tableware products outside of the Argentinian market and in 2016 the company branched into producing glass containers for the food and beverage industry. Argentina is also home to international manufacturers Verallia and O-I. O-I has one plant in Rosario and Verallia has one plant near Mendoza, which supplies the country’s wine and olive oil industries and employs around 390 people. O-I has one plant in Rosario which is due to undergo a furnace rebuild in February.
Bolivia has one O-I plant in Cochabamba and a government plant under construction called Envibol (Envases de vidrio de Bolivia/ glass containers of Bolivia). According to local media, the plant has secured contracts worth a combined US$6.1 million with Bottero, Antonini, Zecchetti and Tiama, to build the plant in the Zudanez region. The plant will produce 120 tonnes/day, or more than 200,000 glass containers.
Brazil O-I dominates the Brazilian landscape, with its website listing five plants located throughout the country. Verallia has three plants located in the south of the country, which between them have four furnaces and produce 730 million bottles for the food and beverage industry annually. In 2016 Verallia also branched out into a joint venture to create a plant in Estancia, located in the northeast of the country, called Industria Vidreira de Nordeste (IVN). The factory has 195 employees and manufactures glass containers for the food and beverage industries. It has two furnaces, with a capacity of 740 tonnes/ day. The plant comprises a total of 30,000 square metres and extends Verallia’s reach into the north of the country, strengthening its presence in the market. Most of Brazil’s container glass manufacturers are clustered in Sao Paulo city and state. With an annual production of 160,000 tonnes of glass, Nadir Figueiredo is the country’s largest tableware manufacturer. The company has one plant near Sao Paulo and employs around 1800 staff. The company was founded in 1912 but only moved to producing glass in the 1930s, and in 2011 the company acquired the popular Marinex tableware brand from
Saint-Gobain. Its production of glasses, bowls, plates and jars is predominantly sold to the domestic Brazilian market, although 30% of its products are exported to around 100 countries. Also based in Sao Paulo, Wheaton Brasil produces for the perfume, cosmetics and pharma industries. With four furnaces and 21 production lines it has a production capacity of 300 tonnes/day or 1 billion flasks per year. The plant has clean rooms dedicated to the pharma industry, and climate controlled rooms for cosmetics. It also has four colour feeders and a decorating unit for its perfume and cosmetics bottles. Verescence – formally SGD Perfumery before the company rebranded in late 2016 – produces bottles for the perfume and cosmetics industry. The plant has been in operation since 1896, and was acquired by SGD in 1960. The plant has a capacity of 1.3 million bottles a day, or circa 16,000 tonnes/year, and produces for the Brazilian market and further afield in South America, for example Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Vidraria Anchieta produces glass for the perfume & cosmetics and food industries, with one furnace producing 83 tonnes/ day. A family owned company, it was established in 1955 by the Ricardi family. And finally, Vidroporto makes bottles for beer, wine and spirits. The company was founded in 1977 and started production in 1981. Gian Bortone, Marketing Director of Vidroporto is interviewed later in this issue.
Chile Chile has three container glass manufacturers. The largest is Cristalerias de Chile (Cristalchile), which has two plants with six furnaces and produces Continued>>
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Ahead of the Glassman South America exhibition and conference in Buenos Aires on March 29 and 30, Sally Love provides an overview of the main container and hollow glassmakers in the region.
17 Glass International February 2017
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