SCHOTT AG, a global pioneer in manufacturing pharmaceutical glass and packaging, has announced the launch of a new glass tank in its Indian manufacturing plant at Jambusar, Gujarat. The German technology group is further growing its production capacity through this new tank facility with a total investment of more than 20 million euros (approximately INR 180 crores). The investment comes at a time when the company is celebrating 20 years of operations in India.

The expansion is in response to the increasing demand for high-quality pharmaceutical packaging material in the global market. Construction work on the new tank facility has already begun and is expected to be completed within 18 months. Production from the new tank is scheduled to begin by January 2020. The new glass tank facility will help fulfill the constantly growing demand of premium borosilicate glass tubing like FIOLAX® clear. It is used for high quality pharmaceutical packaging, especially vials and ampoules for India as well as for export markets

Commenting on the role of India’s growth in the pharma sector, in realizing SCHOTT Tubing’s global ambitions Dr. Patrick Markschlaeger, Executive Vice President, SCHOTT AG, Business Unit Tubing shared, ‘‘The rapid development of the Indian pharmaceutical market requires a strong growth of high-end pharmaceutical packaging and in consequence high-end pharmaceutical tubing. We estimate a market growth for premium packaging and therefore for tubing to continue on a very strong level in the coming years. In addition to the supply of the domestic market, SCHOTT Tubing India will also serve the strong growing Asian market outside of India and will therefore be an important hub for the Asian market.”

Speaking on the relevance of SCHOTT’s investment and employment opportunities, Mr. Georg Sparschuh: Managing Director, SCHOTT Glass India Pvt. India said, “We feel proud that SCHOTT’s manufacturing journey is a resounding success story of ”Make in India” campaign wherein not only world class products are manufactured for domestic and export markets, but also new talents are nurtured in the process. The new facility will help us increase the production capacity by an additional 50%. I am excited to announce that our investment in the new tank will provide jobs for 70 additional local workers, bringing the total count to 425”.

Dignitaries including Maharani Radhikaraje Gaekwad of Baroda, Dr. Jürgen Morhard, German Consul General, Mumbai, Radhieka Mehta, Director, Indo-German Training Centre and Parthesh Vyas, Head, CII Vadodara graced the ground-breaking ceremony of the new tank facility.

Dr. Jürgen Morhard also shared, “SCHOTT Tubing India is one of the finest examples of bringing together the expertise of German technology and Indian skill force. I would like to congratulate all the employees of this plant, as it is their excellent performance which is driving this expansion of the company. SCHOTT has well showcased how foreign manufacturing companies can partner with India to take the ‘Make in India’ campaign to the next level. I am confident that its approach will be followed by similar German companies who want to pursue business in India and further establish the city of Vadodara as a German industrial hub.”

SCHOTT’s India plant functions as a production hub for SCHOTT pharmaceutical tubing in Asia and produces the branded FIOLAX pharmaceutical tubing. FIOLAX® glass exists since 1911 and provides an unprecedented quality standard in the industry through SCHOTT’s perfeXion process since 2017. perfeXion stands for the transition from statistical quality control to 100% automated inspection of each individual FIOLAX tube – based on big data. Hence, it is introducing Germany’s Industry 4.0 to its Indian factory in the most effective manner.

Besides new production hall for the tank, SCHOTT will also build new construction for energy supply, workshops and warehouse. Additionally, there will be an expansion of storage the energy, engineering and logistics infrastructure within the plant. As part of the production network within SCHOTT’s Tubing business unit, the new tank will be built and equipped with all latest state-of-the art machinery as used in all other tubing factories worldwide.