Glass plant to manufacture on a global scale

A ground breaking ceremony was held by Tses Glass (Pty) Ltd, a premier company involved in the development of an integrated glass manufacturing plant which is to become the largest dynamic glass  plant in the world last week in Tses.
Groot Group Managing-Director and Co-founder,Simon Kapenda said,“We are proud to develop Tses Glass, that for the first time in the history of Namibia, that our country is becoming a glass country. This is truly a great investment for our economy. And because of Tses Glass in Tses, it will see the Village of Tses grow within the next seven years to the size of Walvisbay and Swakopmund put together.”
The project is a joint-venture between Groot Group, SDS Group, Nissi Group and Tses Village Council. Simon Kapenda is the Managing-Director and Co-founder. Other founding Directors of Tses Glass are Danny Kamunoko, Rina da Cruz, Ivan Piere Vries, Rauna Massamba, Alphinius Swartbooi, and Julia Nujoma. Honorable Brian Gaoseb is Chairman of Tses Glass and Rina da Cruz is Vice-Chairman of Tses Glass
The Glass factory is expected to become the largest dynamic glass manufacturing factory in Africa, as it plans to focus on the manufacturing of a wide range of float glass, container glass, tableware glass, fiber glass, and ultra-thin glass for the construction of residential and commercial buildings as well as for industrial, kitchenware, bottles, touch screen computing and smart phones devices for the markets around the world.

Tses Glass is planned to have all five separate glass manufacturing plants in a single location and  would produce 600 tonnes per day of float glass, 250 tonnes per day of container glass, 200 tonnes per day of fiber glass, 350 tonnes per day of tableware, and 200 tonnes of Ultra-thin Glass; making it the largest dynamic glass manufacturing plant in the world.  
The company has its head-quarter offices and base of production operations in Tses Village in southern Karas Region. The company plans to have an annual gross production capacity of 20 million net tons of glass and expects to create more than 40,000 new direct and indirect better paying job opportunities in Tses within three years in Tses and throughout Namibia.
“Since its foundation in June 2012, Tses Glass signed an MoU with the leading Germany companies of Siemens, Grenzebach, MSK, ghs-glass and Zippe for the development and engineering of Tses Glass. In July 2013, Tses Glass signed a Commercial Agreement with Germany based Heye International GmbH as the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Management (EPCM) of the Tses Glass Container factory whose ground-breaking was held on 14  June 2014. The production for the Tses Glass Container Glass will start in November 2015,” said Kapenda.  
“There are always major challenges when starting a new business, especially a new manufacturing company offering new industry, which is the first for Namibia, creating a new industry. Some of the major challenges are the establishment of new infrastructure such as water, roads, energy, and for raw materials which has never been in commercial production in Namibia and we have to set them up in order to supply to Tses Glass, and make it a 100% Namibian made glass products,”he explained. Kapenda said,”the company looks forward to serve customers in Namibia, Namibia Brewery Limited, SAB Miller Brewery in Okahandja and the whole of SADC area with great glass products, made in NamibiaTses Glass looks forward to supplying quality glass bottles to Namibia  “The Namibian Government is taking 10% equity in Tses Glass for N$800 million. Tses Glass is expected to add more than N$100 billion to the Namibian GDP within the next 3 years while affecting a high contribution tax revenue for the Ministry of Finance Receiver’s Revenue,” Kapenda said.