Glass output reached 257,000 tons during March 21-June 21, 2013. Iran produced 108,100 tons of glassware, 20,300 tons of sanitaryware and 10,200 tons of Chinaware during the period.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the Middle East's largest float glass plant in the city of Ardekan in central Iran in February 2013.
The Ardekan plant, which is the third largest float glass production complex in the world, has the world's fourth biggest glass melting furnace. It can produce float glass as thick as 19 millimeters in diameter.
Float glass is a sheet of glass made by floating molten glass on a bed of molten metal, usually tin.
The glass factory, which covers an area of 75 hectares (750,000 square meters), will produce float glass, reflex mirror glass, double-glazed window glass and safety glass.
Its products will be exported to Turkey, India, Brazil, Persian Gulf littoral states and other countries in Central Asia, Middle East and Africa.