the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, the impact of the war is penetrating into all walks of life, and glass bottles, which used to be insignificant, have gradually become a bottleneck restricting the French wine industry. "The supply of bottles is getting tighter and the situation is getting worse," said Edward Vellacott, a representative of the French rose brand, at the Paris Wine Exhibition on
Monday. Verallia and O-I are two glass manufacturers in France. O-I will stop producing the standard Burgundy screw-cap bottle in the color of dead leaves. The pale green bottle is widely used to hold white wine, and O-I's decision to stop production means Bijou will have to use dark green glass to hold white wine for 2022.
In fact, the shortage of glass in France began three years ago when the COVID-19 epidemic began, and glass furnaces began to be unable to maintain full capacity. Now, the production of glass can no longer meet the basic needs of the French wine industry, and the change is only due to a new reason: the chain reaction triggered by the war between Ukraine and Russia.
Firstly, after the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the export of glass products from Russia and Ukraine is no longer smooth. More than 1/4 of the glass bottles in France need to be imported from foreign countries, and the main importers are Ukraine and Russia. Secondly, the conflict triggered the European energy crisis, which led to high energy bills for French glass producers.
In the process of glass production, about 200 cubic meters of natural gas are needed to produce one ton of molten glass. Before the war between Ukraine and Russia, the gas bill of the French O-I glass factory was about 17 million euros. Now, due to the impact of the "European energy crisis", the number has risen to 75 million.
Last September, Austrian glass manufacturer Riedel, the oldest glass manufacturer in the world, was known as the "Rolls-Royce in the glass" because it specializes in luxury wine glasses and decanter glasses. But now the brand that survived two world wars has fallen because of the war thousands of miles away. "Riedel's energy bills have risen by at least 30% due to the soaring price of natural gas, but it has been operating at maximum capacity to cope with the impact of further increases in winter energy prices," Riedel Global CEO Maximilian Riedel said in an interview with the media. Riedel plans to invest at least 20 million euros in the company in 2022, twice the original budget. In the view of
many people in the industry, the domino effect brought about by the epidemic and the war is piercing the marrow of European industry.
Earlier, the Italian Farmers Association (Coldiretti) analyst conducted a professional analysis of the inflation data released by the Italian National Statistical Office (Istat) in September last year in the field of agricultural production. The analysis shows that the price of sparkling mineral water in Italy has risen by 11%, fruit juice by 10.5% and soda by 7% due to the increased cost of carbon dioxide for food purposes. Moreover, rising energy costs and shortages of raw materials run through the industry supply chain, increasing the cost of packaging, pallets, plastic containers, glass bottles, metal, labels and caps. Among them, the cost of glass bottles increased by 30% compared with last year, the cost of quadruple packaging increased by 15%, the cost of labels increased by 35%, the cost of cardboard increased by 45%, the cost of metal cans increased by 10%, and the cost of plastic increased by 70%.
Also affected by the energy crisis, Belgium's traditional glass blowing industry is also suffering a blow, and many glass producers have been forced to cut production. Christophe Genal, a glassmaker, said: We have a situation where we spend 6,000 euros a month on gas, but only have a subsidy of 300 euros, which is actually a drop in the bucket. The situation of the Belgian glass industry is only a microcosm at present. According to the data released by the Belgian Federal Planning Agency, the inflation rate in Belgium in 2022 was 9.25%, a new high since 1976. Companies across
Europe are preparing for the worst.
No one knows what the future holds for the bottle industry, Vellacott said. People are calling for government involvement.
浙公网安备33010802003254号