The week's business headlines

Building envelope consultant opens NYC office 
Officials from IBA Consultants, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based building envelope consulting firm, announced in a Jan. 11 release that the company opened an office in New York City … read more

Analysts predict 30 percent increase in operating profits for Asahi in 2007
Japanese glass giant Asahi Glass Co. could see a 30 percent increase in operating profits in 2007, according to a Jan. 11 article in the Nikkei newspaper, as reported by Reuters.

Asahi officials would not comment on the predictions, but will release their own year goals Feb. 5, according to the report … read more

Saint-Gobain leads growth in European equity markets
French glass giant Saint-Gobain achieved the largest gains of 5 percent Jan. 9 on the FTSE Eurofirst 300 market. Gains from Saint-Gobain and other construction-related companies helped drive increases for the day in several European equity markets, according to an article the same day in the Financial Times.com.

Anticipated restructuring at Saint-Gobain helped spur the growth, and prompted analysts from investment bank ABN Amro of The Netherlands to upgrade the company’s recommendation from “hold” to “buy,” according to the article … read more

Thailand officials to request exemption from Filipino glass tariffs
Government officials from Thailand will meet with Filipino officials at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit Jan. 10-15 in Cebu, the Republic of the Philippines, to discuss safeguard duties for glass products, according to a Jan. 9 article from BusinessWorld.

Trade Secretary Peter B. Favila will meet with the economic minister of Thailand sometime this week to discuss a tariff exemption for Thailand on flat glass, including figured glass, copper-based glass mirrors, tinted float glass and clear float glass, according to the article.