Owens-Illinois to close Toronto plant, spend $60 million to expand New Zealand facility

The Sept. 30 closing of the Canadian plant will affect about 430 employees. Owens-Illinois said it would provide assistance to help workers seek new jobs.



Production from Toronto will shift to other North American plants, the company said.



Owens-Illinois said it will invest approximately about $60 million to expand its Auckland, New Zealand, plant with an additional furnace and two glass container forming machines. The expansion, expected to increase the annual output of glass containers by 90,000 tons to 2.2 million bottles per day, should be complete by the first quarter of 2010, the company said.