Australian glass maker goes bust blaming cheap Chinese imports

Australia’s only maker of specialist architectural glass has gone into administration after struggling to combat cheaper Asian imports.

Insolvency experts from accounting firm Grant Thornton were put into Melbourne-based Oceania Glass on Tuesday and are keeping the business open while they evaluate prospects for a sale.

The collapse threatens more than 250 jobs and is another blow to both the struggling construction sector and Australia’s paper-thin manufacturing industry, which has been battered by plant closures and the relocation of production to cheaper offshore sites over the past 40 years.

The failure is said to have been influenced by a delay by Australia’s Anti-Dumping Commission in reinstating tariffs on imported glass that were removed during the pandemic.

Oceania Glass’ float, coated and laminated glass products are made in a factory in Dandenong in outer Melbourne and dispatched around the nation from distribution centres in the Victorian capital, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth for use in commercial and residential buildings as doors, balustrades and shop fronts, and in bus and train windows.

“We have a proud heritage serving Australia, having sold our very first glass in 1856 and are the only architectural glass maker in Australasia,” the company says on its website.

“Our glass is featured in many of Australia’s most iconic buildings, including the Australian Parliament House.”

Oceania is owned by Australian private equity group Crescent Capital, which picked up the business as part of its purchase of Viridian Glass from CSR in 2018.

Grant Thornton said its administrators “will continue to trade the company while they undertake an urgent financial review of the business and conduct an accelerated sale process for the business as a going concern”.

“We understand the role the company plays in the Australian construction sector,” joint administrator Lisa Gibb said.

“In continuing to trade the business with a view to a going concern sale, we will work to mitigate the potential disruption to customers and the broader sector.”

Oceania’s last disclosed financial results, for the 12 months year to March 31, 2024, show it lost $1.2 million after a profit of $6.2m for the year earlier, on reduced sales of $182.7m.

Crescent Capital declined to comment but a note to investors in the Crescent fund that owns Oceania said the business was now not viable without tariffs to protect it from imported competition.

Crescent said the other two glass businesses bought in the Viridian deal had been successfully turned around.

“Oceania on the other hand has been negatively impacted by aggressive pricing from Asian manufacturers, especially out of China where the downturn in the local construction market has created an oversupply.

“The business was expecting to receive a decision by the Anti-Dumping Commission to reinstate tariffs on imported float glass which had been removed during COVID.

“That decision has unfortunately been deferred to later in the year.”