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Gomelglass’ export 9% up in January-September

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GOMEL, 27 October (BelTA) – In January-September 2020 OAO Gomelglass’ export growth rate totaled 109% as against January-September 2019, BelTA learned from Gomelglass Deputy Director General for Ideology and Personnel Alla Belenok.

Despite the pandemic Gomelglass kept working and managed to stockpile some reserves, which were offered to customers, including foreign ones, once the quarantine restrictions were lifted. The company’s output was close to 25 million m2 of glass in January-September. The company exported about 22 million m2 of glass, with the export growth rate at 109%. In monetary terms the export growth rate is still below last year’s level because global glass prices are lower this year.

Gomelglass shipped over one third of its export to Ukraine, about one fourth to Russia, and 20% to Poland and the Baltic states.

Gomelglass Deputy Director General for Production Vladimir Voronov added that the company intends to penetrate new markets. For instance, the first few batches of merchandise have been shipped to Hungary and Romania this year. “We will sell glass where prices are higher. We are going to increase output. We intend to make 40 million m2 of glass next year. The demand is solid. The most popular products are polished glass and coated glass,” he noted.

The company is also busy reducing its costs. “We primarily focus on reducing prices for raw materials. We stay in touch with suppliers. We’ve already managed to reduce prices for some raw materials by 8-20%. It is an important matter particularly taking into account falling global glass prices,” Alla Belenok pointed out.

At present Gomelglass operates as usual. Some manufacturing divisions operate round the clock. “Despite certain difficulties caused by the epidemic situation in the world we’ve managed to keep salaries steady and keep all the social benefits,” Alla Belenok said.

The public joint-stock company (OAO) Gomelglass was established in 1994 on the basis of the Gomel glass factory named after M.V. Lomonosov. It is a cutting-edge enterprise that employs highly qualified personnel. The company employs 1,860 people.

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