Producer
NSG Group (Pilkington)
Japanese glass company that acquired Pilkington (UK inventor of float glass process) in 2006. NSG/Pilkington licenses the float glass process to essentially all global producers; receives royalties from ~250 float glass lines worldwide. Major float glass producer in Europe, Americas, and Asia.
3
Inputs supplied
1
Goods downstream
3
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
3 inputs NSG Group (Pilkington) supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something NSG Group (Pilkington) makes — pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
3 facilities
Pilkington Greengate Belgium →
BEAntwerp
Mol, Antwerp, Belgium. Float plant serving European solar glass demand.
Pilkington Lathom Plant →
GBLancashire
Lathom, Lancashire, UK. Float glass plant supplying European solar and architectural glass markets.
Pilkington Rossford Solar Glass Plant →
USOhio
Rossford, Ohio. Only operating US solar glass production line as of January 2025. Dedicated captive supplier to First Solar's Perrysburg, OH campus.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map — where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Building Products (Architectural Float Glass)
45%Automotive Glass (OEM + Aftermarket)
45%Technical Glass (Solar + Optical + Specialty)
10%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains — chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2023
NSG Group (via Pilkington) is the only glass company that earns royalty income from competitors building glass — a hidden toll embedded in global flat glass manufacturing. Pilkington invented the float glass process and licensed it commercially beginning in 1959 to glassmakers around the world. Although the core patents have long expired, NSG/Pilkington continues to license the accumulated know-how, process optimization data, and plant design specifications to new float glass plants globally, receiving technical assistance fees and royalties from approximately 250 production lines. When a new flat glass plant opens in India, Vietnam, or Mexico, NSG typically receives a technology license fee. The same Japanese company making car windows in its own factories also charges a toll to the Chinese, Indian, and Russian glassmakers that compete with it. It is the only major industrial process where the inventor has maintained a royalty stream across virtually every manufacturer of the downstream product.
NSG Group ↗Origin1994
Pilkington (now NSG Group) invented the float glass process in the 1950s and for decades licensed it exclusively. By the 1990s virtually every flat glass producer in the world operated under a Pilkington license, giving a single British company the same chokehold over glass production that ASML holds over semiconductor lithography today. NSG/Pilkington still receives royalties from ~250+ float glass lines globally.
U.S. Department of Justice ↗Capacity2023
NSG/Pilkington float glass manufacturing capacity serves three distinct policy-relevant supply chains from the same production asset: (1) architectural building glass — energy efficiency standards (low-E coatings for insulating windows in building codes), hurricane/blast resistance requirements; (2) automotive glass — side windows, rear windows, sunroofs for every car manufactured in Japan, Europe, and the Americas; (3) solar module cover glass — low-iron float glass is the front sheet of crystalline silicon solar panels, protecting cells for 30+ year outdoor exposure. The same float glass line, with different iron content and coating chemistry, flows into construction, automotive, and renewable energy supply chains simultaneously. NSG operates float glass lines in ~30 countries — a geographically diversified base for what is ultimately one manufacturing process serving three climate-critical industries.
NSG Group ↗