Solar Applications Drive the Global Rolled Glass Market

Global market for Rolled Glass is projected to reach 3.0 million metric tons by 2018, driven by sustained demand from residential, commercial, and specialty applications.     

Worldwide consumption of glass is growing led by its increasing use in automotive and building construction markets. Demand trends in the flat glass market are shaped by the pace of economic development as well as the legislative and regulatory landscape. Flat glass is produced using two float, rolled and sheet glass techniques, with float glass accounting for a predominant share of the overall demand. In contrast, rolled glass accounted for a very small percentage of the global flat glass demand during 2012. Rolled glass primarily finds use in residential, specialty and commercial applications, including shower enclosures, glass doors, partitions, solar photovoltaic panels, among others.

Even though a tiny blip on the world radar, rolled glass market is poised for steady growth in future, despite the fact that float lines are continuously replacing production lines of wired and patterned glass across the globe. The market witnessed a slowdown due to the recession, but is on the recovery mode led by the continuous use of wired glass and patterned glass in shower doors and various other applications.

Another major factor that is providing a fillip to the market is the growing demand for solar glass in China. This is largely because rolled glass offers many benefits over float glass, as far as solar glass is concerned. For solar thermal applications to take off, they require low iron flat glass featuring decreased reflection for both crystalline and thin film modules as well as a surface for trapping light. In contrast, the optical qualities of float glass are high. Also, the reflection on float glass’s surface negatively impacts the module’s efficiency, thereby necessitating the use of high-cost antireflective coatings. Another favorable factor is that a ton of rolled glass requires much less energy compared to an equal quantity of float glass. Though rolled glass at present has an edge in solar photovoltaic units, float glass is expected to make significant progress in the coming years. The shift towards using float glass, as against rolled glass, in solar PV units is expected to intensify with the lowering of production costs associated with float glass.

As stated by the new market research report on Rolled Glass, Asia-Pacific represents the largest as well as the fastest growing market for rolled glass in the world. Asia-Pacific has emerged as a dominant force in the global rolled glass market, riding on the robust strides made by China. Increasing industrial growth, rising urbanization, steady increase in construction activity, and rising disposable incomes are creating huge demand for glass-intensive products, thereby fuelling demand for rolled glass in China as well as for the entire Asian region. China has also been at the forefront of rolled glass production activity for solar PV market, due to the country’s efforts to promote solar energy. Steady economic growth of China and diversifying needs of the domestic market have fostered continuous improvements in the production techniques adopted for patterned glass.

Major players profiled in the report include Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., AGC Glass Company North America, AGC Glass Europe, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, Saint-Gobain SEFPRO, Guardian Industries Corp., Guardian Glass Espana CV SA, Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd., Pilkington Group Limited, SCHOTT AG, Taiwan Glass Group, and Viridian Glass.

This report provides a comprehensive review of market trends, issues, and company profiles. The report provides market estimates and projections for all major geographic markets including the US, Canada, Japan, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Russia and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China and Rest of Asia-Pacific), Middle East, and Latin America.

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications' web site. View the report: "Rolled Glass: A Global Strategic Business Report".