Let up in demand for beer bottles forces Hemingray to shut down furnace No .2

LET-UP IN DEMAND

FOR BEER BOTTLES

To Shut Down Furnace No. 2

at Hemingray Factory.

Announcement was made yesterday by Philip W. McAbee, plant manager of the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, formerly the Hemingray Glass Company, that the No. 2 furnace at the factory would be shut down at the conclusion of the 11 to 7 o’clock shift tomorrow.

However, the curtailment is by no means permanent, it was said, with the shut-down expected to be only for about sixty days or slightly longer. The reason was cited as a marked de­crease in the demand for beer bottles and the usual seasonal decline in beverage bottle shipments.

"It is with genuine regret that ow­ing to the marked decrease in the demand for beer bottles, coupled with the usual seasonal decline in beverage bottle shipments, we are compelled to curtail operations to the extent of shutting down our No. 2 furnace," Mr McAbee said.

"This curtailment is in nowise pe­culiar to Muncie,. but affects oper­ations in all our plants. A similar restriction of production is also noted on the part of our competitors.

"But it is hoped and believed that this shut-down is of a temporary na­ture, and that, with the readjust­ments that will come we may reason­ably look forward not only to a re­sumption of our normal volume of production, but possibly to a sub­stantial increase in our productive facilities."