High costs see Japanese materials firms overhaul production

TOKYO, Jun 23, 2008 (Asia In Focus via COMTEX) -- ASGLY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Japan's materials manufacturers are developing completely new production techniques because of the rise in prices for fuel and raw materials , scrapping methods that go back more than a century. ASAHI GLASS CO. (TSE:5201) has found a way to halve the fuel consumed in glass production.

* In a joint effort with partners including the National Institute for Materials Science, it has developed a technique that uses plasma at a temperature of 10,000 C to instantly melt raw materials - while the conventional method for making glass, invented in the mid-19th century, involves melting raw materials over two to five days in a tank at 1,600 C.

* The largest glass manufacturer in Japan is now testing the technology at a facility in Yokohama and is aiming to create mass production techniques within three years and start making glass using this method as early as 2013.

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