Australia’s largest glass maker, Oceania Glass, has collapsed following mounting losses and a failed bid to compete with low cost imports from China. Grant Thornton has been appointed as administrator of the corporate.
A 169-year-old glass producer, Oceania Glass performs a key position in Australia’s glass provide trade. The corporate specialises in float glass, coated glass and laminated glass, offering its merchandise to builders, structure teams and shoppers throughout Australia.
After warning of the affect of low cost imports and its incapability to be price-competitive with a homegrown enterprise mannequin, Oceania Glass has now been pressured to enter voluntary administration, with a view to promoting to a purchaser. Based on reviews, the corporate owes collectors $125 million-plus.
Oceania Glass, which employs a lot of its 261 workforce at a producing plant within the outer Melbourne suburb of Dandenong, will proceed to commerce in the course of the voluntary administration interval.
Restructuring consultants Lisa Gibb, Stated Jahani and Matt Byrnes of Grant Thornton have been appointed as Joint and A number of Voluntary Directors. They’re at present endeavor an pressing monetary assessment of the enterprise and are looking for to launch an accelerated sale course of.
“We perceive the position Oceania Glass performs within the Australian building sector. In persevering with to commerce the enterprise with a view to a going concern sale, we’ll work to mitigate the potential disruption to clients and the broader sector,” they acknowledged.
“If an acceptable purchaser can’t be discovered in the course of the voluntary administration interval and the Directors are confronted with the troublesome resolution to close down the enterprise, we imagine this era will permit clients to make different sourcing preparations and considerably scale back disruption to the broader building trade.”
A primary assembly with collectors of Oceania Glass has been scheduled for coming Friday.
Name for defense
Previous to its collapse, Oceania Glass submitted to the Anti-Dumping Fee that the Australian trade had suffered “materials damage” because of clear laminate glass imported from Thailand and China at dumped and subsidised costs.
The Commissioner launched an investigation final 12 months because of this however the situation is but to be resolved, joint administrator Byrnes stated. “The corporate’s view is that they want higher safety by the Authorities that may allow them to be extra price-competitive. We’re nonetheless working by all the explanations for Oceania Glass’s collapse – however that’s prone to be one in every of them.”
In response to the information, South East Melbourne Producers Alliance chief govt Honi Walker stated that the federal government needs to be doing extra to guard the pursuits of Australian producers.
“We merely can’t compete on worth from China and different Asian nations. The lack of sovereign functionality on an important product would trigger properties to value extra and take longer to construct with unsafe abroad glass. Imported metal from China doesn’t meet Australian Requirements and was the rationale the brand new stand at GMBH Stadium collapsed in 2023 and the Kew Leisure Centre’s roof caved in.”
Walker referred to as for the reinstatement of federal anti-dumping legal guidelines to cease “cheaply, poorly made merchandise being dumped in Australia and used on very important public initiatives.”
