A beer bottle is a bottle made to contain beer, usually made of glass and come in various sizes, shapes and colours. Dark amber or brown glass greatly reduces UV light from spoiling the beer.[1] However, lighter colored bottles are often used for marketing reasons. The first nationwide standardized beer bottles were introduced in Sweden in 1886. The medium size, 330ml (11.6 imp fl oz; 11.2U.S. fl oz), is still in use today, but is being phased out. Glass occurs naturally in two ways. When lightning strikes sand, the immense heat developed causes the silica grains constituting sand to fuse into long tubes of glassy material called fulgurites. Glass is also naturally formed when hot, molten lava from an erupting volcano is subjected to sudden, rapid cooling resulting in the deposition of under developed crystals of glass, more rightly referred to asobsidian. The technique of glass making too is based on similar lines. People learned to make the first glass containers about two thousand years ago. Molten glass was collected on the ends of hollow iron pipes and then expanded by blowing through the pipes. Slowly, people learnt to blow molten glass into moulds. Glass bottle making machines were introduced in the thirties. In the early seventies, environmentalists began arguing on the grounds that glass bottles added to pollution. This led to the setting up of numerous recycling centers where people could return bottles for reuse in other bottles. The entire process of bottle making is almost fully automated. An automated feeder separates a stream of molten glass into individual gobs. These are then dropped through tubes in a moving track. The gob is shaped into what looks like a short bottle with thick walls and is called a parison. The parison is transferred to a final mould made of iron, which moves up and clamps around the glass. Air is blown into the glass till it acquires the final shape of the mould. This procedure involving expansion is called blowing. The bottle is then released from the mould and annealed. MARKET SURVEY Glass bottles are used widely in the food industry. Glass faces tough competition in this sector though, from plastics, paper products and metals. It’s a very competitive market place. Plastics have made big headway into some of glass’s traditional markets, particularly in the food sector, but glass container production is still rising. He explained that glass often wins out as it is perceived to be a superior material. This is borne out by the results of surveys conducted on behalf of the Glass Packaging Institute (GPI): 96% of wine and beer drinkers in the US and Europe said they preferred their drink to be packaged in glass bottles. Consumers believe that glass provides a truer taste, by protecting the purity and quality of the drink better. The GPI says that, “Glass provides a barrier to oxygen and moisture, protecting it longer and better than any other packaging material... it communicates a premium image, taste and quality.” Soda-lime glass, while the most abundantly manufactured form of glass, has experienced testing times during the past few years as the global economic crisis significantly slowed the amount of new building as well as the amount of manufacturing worldwide. Glass was hit hard by a crash in the global housing market during the period 2008-2012. This collapse, in turn, caused the prices for some minerals used to produce glass - such as soda ash - to dip to the point where prices for the mineral were as low as they can feasibly go. Other glass-using industries, such as automobile manufacturing, also took a knock, which again filtered down to the raw materials demand level. While some glass markets dipped in 2012, this year has already begun to show some promise. In the housing sector, for example, 23 markets have demonstrated better year-on-year statistics in Q3 2012 compared with Q3 2011, according to a report by Global Property Guide. Recovery of the US housing market has been particularly evident, with growth in Q3 2012 being the highest since Q2 2006, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the Guide reported. Despite these encouraging results, the impact of the global economic crisis is still evident across the glass industry. Increased production costs, unilateral CO2 costs, fluctuating and unfavourable exchange rates, and high labour costs hamper the cost competitiveness at global level of the container glass sector. OPPORTUNITIES Only few major players are there in the market, each having its own specialty in making different types sizes of glass. Therefore, competition is low and specialization is high. Raw materials as sand (silica), limestone and soda ash are basic ingredients and are readily available in Pakistan. Pakistan's glass industry can plan for joint ventures for safety and automotive glass, while it has been exporting glass to Afghanistan at an increasing rate. Export oriented development projects by the Ministry of Industrial Production and Special Initiatives (MIP&SI) were announced during 2010 and are worth 969.97 Million Rupees for Glass and ceramics industry. Anti-dumping measures and penalties by the Government on Chinese substitutes favorably impact local manufacturers. The existence of many small and medium sized players requires a period of consolidation in the Industry, allowing it to me more competitive and invest in technology to boost its export potential. Ceramic product lines include a vast range of products; tiles, tableware, sanitary ware, refractory and insulators which are a source of immense amount of revenue. The domestic demand for tile, sanitary ware and table ware is rising because of the rapid urbanization and construction of houses. Large export potential in sanitary ware in Middle East, Africa and Central Asia exists which can be exploited by using local expertise for manufacturing of machinery. Facilitation of supply chain collaboration is needed by the sector which will eventually help in meeting the demand of the product. PRESENT MANUFACTURERS A C E Glass Containers Ltd. A G Glass Ltd. Cana Glass Ltd. Durgesh Block & China Glass Works Ltd. Excel Glasses Ltd. H S I L Ltd. Haldyn Corporation Ltd. Haldyn Glass Ltd. Haryana Sheet Glass Ltd. Hindusthan National Glass & Inds. Ltd. Jagatjit Industries Ltd. Mahalakshmi Glass Works Pvt. Ltd. Mohan Breweries & Distilleries Ltd. Mohan Meakin Ltd. Neutral Glass & Allied Inds. Pvt. Ltd. Piramal Glass Ltd. Shree Gobinddeo Glass Works Ltd. Shri Balkishan Agarwal Glass Inds. Ltd. Tilaknagar Distilleries & Inds. Ltd. Vazir Glass Works Ltd. Victory Glass & Inds. Ltd. Western India Glass Works Ltd.