Emirates Float Glass (EFG), a subsidiary of Dubai Investments and the first state-of-the-art integrated float glass facility in the UAE, has successfully commissioned a new facility aimed at enhancing its production capabilities to cater to the automotive glass sector.

The new offline facility, encompassing investments of over Dh10 million ($2.72 million), is equipped with the most modern machinery from Europe, and comes with completely automated programming and a production line with limited human intervention in order to ensure consistent quality parameters vital for the automotive glass industry.

EFG has been honoured by the Abu Dhabi government for its role in non-oil exports. Its products are exported to more than 61 countries spanning South America, Europe, Australia, the Far East Asia and Africa in addition to the GCC states.

Ghassan Mashal, general manager of EFG, said: “The additional investment of over Dh10 million in the offline facility is in line with the company’s ambitious growth plans to enhance our already-existing automotive industry customer base. The new production line is capable of supplying windshields and side lights to any shape and size required by the automotive industry.”

An example of float glass

Demand from the automotive and transport sectors accounts for 15 to 20 per cent of the float glass market across the globe. Of this, 95 per cent goes to the automotive industry, including buses and coaches, trucks, and off-road mobile machinery and the rest heads for other transport sectors – trains, metros, trams, ships, boats and all types of aircraft.

The market for automotive glass consists of original equipment supplied to car manufacturers for new cars and other vehicles, and automotive glass replacement products, supplied for retrofit purposes.

EFG’s macro approach in developing its own capacity expansion has contributed significantly to the company’s performance. It aims to be the one-stop-shop for all required glass in the architectural and automotive glass industry with its products ranging from clear, tinted to pyrolytic coated glass.

This new facility will further leverage the market leadership of another DI subsidiary Lumiglass Industries LLC, which produces security laminated glass and bullet resistant glass with wide applications for automotive and other industries. With the EFG facility, the companies can now cater to a wide spectrum of glass demand from the automotive industry.

EFG has won a number of local and international awards and is a recipient of the ISO, CE and LEED certifications.