Emirates Glass Limited (EGL), one of the leading processors of architectural flat glass in the Middle East and a subsidiary of Glass, which is wholly owned by Dubai Investments (DI), is expanding its production capacity and product range in a bid to capitalise on the construction boom in the region.

In order to meet increasing demand for its architectural glass, the company has  embarked on a major expansion plan at a cost of Dh100 million ($20.7 million) to increase coating capacity by three million sq m per annum and bring total capacity to 3.7 million sq m of flat glass. 
Furthermore, the new line will be able to produce a range of high-performance glass far larger than at present, thus enabling EGL to aggressively expand its target for market penetration. EGL’s marketing team is already heavily engaged in the market, both in the UAE and overseas, to promote the impressive and expanding range of EmiCool glass for all types of building. The expansion plan is expected to be completed early next year.
“Following the persistent regional construction boom, most of the recently announced high-profile projects have chosen architectural glass products from Emirates Glass. We have been able to meet the huge recent additional demand for our products because of our substantial investment in new equipment during the past year,” according to a company official.
For the current year the company is expecting its turnover to exceed Dh 90 million, which is well up on the 2005 and 2006 performance levels, says Arthur Millwood, technical and training manager with Emirates Glass.
“This year’s performance will be achieved entirely with existing capacity which is inadequate to meet on-going market conditions. This situation is typical of all glass processing companies in the Middle East, all of whom are working under pressure and all of whom are engaged in bringing additional capacity on line. With regard to export markets, Emirates Glass has an extensive coverage from the UK to Hong Kong and from Moscow to Johannesburg, with export value at about 30 per cent of total sales,” says Millwood.
He continues:  “We expect 2008 to be a landmark year for the flat glass division of Dubai Investments with well over $200 million of new capacity coming on stream by mid-year. The construction industry boom is set to continue and with this high rate of development, there will be extreme burdens placed on the electricity supply companies for power to cool all of these buildings. Clearly, the need for efficient, energy-saving glass will become even more acute and will be accompanied by anticipated Federal codes to ensure compliance with tight environmental standards. Already, the Emirates Green Building Council has been established to draw up a draft Green Building Standard for the UAE and Emirates Glass is proud to be one of the founding members of this organisation.”
Located in the Al Quoz Industrial City, Emirates Glass manufactures the EmiCool range of energy-saving reflective architectural glass for buildings. The core of the production set-up at EGL is the coating line for the application of very thin, transparent metallic films on the glass surface to enhance its solar control and thermal insulation properties. The coating process is done under conditions of full vacuum in a powerful magnetic field involving a variety of metal targets (cathodes) including silver, tin, chrome, titanium and stainless steel. The atoms are “plucked” from the targets and deposited firmly on the glass in a process known as “cathodic sputtering”. Through this sophisticated technology it is possible to create a huge range of solar control glass types, with a wide variety of transmissions, reflectance and colours which are typically seen as one drives around any city in the Middle East. A recent addition to its product portfolio is the Emicool SoLite series of glass which constitutes high-performance glass types allowing the architects to realise a very good combination of high internal daylight-factors whilst managing to optimise the cooling load for air-conditioning.
In addition to the magnetic sputtering coating line, Emirates Glass employs a range of other heavy equipment in the manufacture of its EmiCool range of processed architectural glass. This includes two Lisec  cutting tables for cutting the raw float stock sheets, two Tamglass horizontal tempering furnaces, two Lisec double glazing lines, a Lisec vertical CNC water jet cutting machine and a Schiatti CNC for drilling of holes in the glass.
Emirates Glass is a certified ISO 9000 company working to all major American and European standards for flat glass manufacture, and employs QA/QC procedures to ensure and maintain the excellent reputation of the EmiCool range for quality and performance.
All Emirates Glass' products including EmiCool Classic, EmiCoolSun, EmiCoolPlus and EmiCool Super E2 coated glass are produced according to ASTM C 1376-97 specifications.
All Emirates Glass products meet the strict quality standards of Dubai Municipality, whilst most of them fully comply with Dubai Municipality's latest energy-saving regulations.
Commenting on the procurement of raw materials involved in the production processes at Emirates Glass facilities, Millwood says: “Up to the present time, there is no domestic production of raw float glass in the UAE. The nearest sources of supply of clear glass are Saudi Arabia and Iran whose capacities are already over-booked. Tinted float glass also has to be imported at the cost of increasingly long lead-times and constitutes a large part of EGL’s overheads to maintain adequate buffer stocks.
“Consequently, Dubai Investments has embarked on a $200 million project to build a float glass line in Abu Dhabi of 600 tonnes per day capacity on  a shoreline site (for receipt of bulk raw materials by sea) with access to the new  ‘Dolphin’ gas pipeline. This major new facility, Emirates Float Glass, will ensure a reliable local source of raw float glass for all its partners under the control of Glass LLC, with spare capacity for export as well as other UAE customers.”
Late last year Dubai Investments moved to create a new subsidiary holding company to encompass its growing portfolio of companies engaged in the flat glass industry.
Glass LLC, the new holding company, includes the original start-up company, Emirates Glass, which is now 10 years old, plus LumiGlass Industries for architectural and auto laminated glass, Saudi American Glass (Riyadh) and Emirates Float Glass, which is now under construction in Abu Dhabi. It is the intention of Dubai Investments to grow Glass into a major player of world glass scope as a vertically integrated flat glass manufacturer from raw float glass through to the finished product. News of further acquisitions can be expected in the coming months, according to Millwood.
Some of the projects Emirates Glass has been involved with recently include the Jumeirah Palm Villas, Dubai International Airport Concourse 2, Al Rostamani, Burj Residence, Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Beach Residences, Kuwait Trade Center and Platinum Tower Doha.