China's flat glass industry reported profits of RMB238m for the first half of 2001, down 62 per cent year-on-year. The decline in profits was attributed to the construction of redundant projects in the industry, which caused market supply to exceed demand.
The country's production of flat glass reached 97.44m standard weight containers in the 6-month period, up 15.87 per cent. Prices for glass averaged RMB65 per standard weight container, a decrease of RMB10 compared with a year earlier. China's newly-added production capacity has reached 71m standard weight containers since the beginning of 1999, accounting for 33 per cent of China's total production capacity in the year 2000.