Anasayfa Industries Glass Industry

altingoz

  • Altingoz Ates Tugla
  • Altingoz Ates Tugla
  • Altingoz Ates Tugla
  • Altingoz Ates Tugla
  • Altingoz Ates Tugla
  • Altingoz Ates Tugla
  • Altingoz Ates Tugla
  • Altingoz Ates Tugla

Glass Industry

glass_industry1
Glass catches light and colours, can take on any appearance. A solid matter that becomes malleable when put in a flame, its molecular structure conjures up the impression of liquid. Fragile, glass can break in a thousand different ways. By constantly lending itself to human creativity, this ancient material accompanies man in his quest for progress and comfort.

EU has seen an increase in glass production for 1999 and as market situations continue to improve, the prediction is that consumer demand for glass will continue to rise in Western Europe. The EU is the world's largest glass market, both in terms of production and consumption.

The European glass industry with its [+ or -] 1100 companies accounts for more than one quarter of the nonmetallic mineral sector. The industry is highly concentrated and over 80% of glass is produced by more than a dozen multi-nationals with more than 1000 employees. The other companies are small or medium-sized but mainly specialists.
In 1999, total EU glass production reached a volume of 29.2 million tonnes which represents a progression of 1.0% compared to 1998 and makes the EU the largest glass producer in the world, with a market share of around 27%. At the same time, production value amounted to ca30 billion ECU (up 7.1%) with share of 29% (USA production was approximately three-quarters and Japan's production just over two-thirds of the EU level).

As already explained before glass production reached a total volume of 29.2 million tonnes in the EU in 1999 and has only been growing very slowly in recent years. As a comparison, world production grew by 2%-3% from 1998-1999 reaching a volume of 110 million tonnes of glass and 105 billion [European Dollar]. Germany is the EU's biggest producer with more than 25% in volume, closely followed by France, Italy and the UK. It appears that the European market for glass will continue to grow slightly over the next few years thanks to the population growth and technical improvements in particular. The driving force for future production increases would mainly be exports to non-EU countries.

Generally speaking, one can say that foreign trade from third world countries plays an important, but not a dominant, role in the EU glass market (extra-EU exports = 20% of production volume) and that foreign trace growth mainly comes from extra-EU exports and imports.

In 1999, total exports increased by about 1% in volume and around 3.1% in value. Exports vary from sub-sector to subsector and were of greatest importance to the special glass and tableware sector and of least importance to container glass (due to transport costs in particular). Germany is Europe's and the world's largest exporter. Intra-EU exports account for three-quarters of total exports. As for extra-EU exports, they have steadily grown in recent years. The EU's four major clients in volume terms are Eastern Europe (29%), Western Europe (17%), the USA (13%) and Far East Asia (8%).

As for imports, in 1999 they even progressed at a similar pace with + 1% in volume and + 0.5% in value of which extra-EU imports only made up 20%-25% and were increasingly coming from East European countries that are able to produce glass of good quality at lower cost. This is a major threat as they almost make up half of the volume and grew again by 8% in 1999. Other competitors: Far East Asia (18%), the rest of Western Europe (10%), the USA (6.3%) and Turkey (9%).

The general economic situation in 2000 at world and European level should be very favourable, countries such as Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe are recovering and contributing to the general growth.

In Europe, the glass industry should benefit from an improved consumer climate, current employers' forecasts being very optimistic.

Again the glass industry should be influenced mainly by the evolution of the construction, consumer and utility goods industries.

In the construction industry the situation in Europe will be positive with an expected increase of 1.5% and a growth in residential buildings in (west/east) Europe of 8% from 1999-2003, thanks mainly to renovations.

EU automotive industry, where 1999 was seen as a record year, a phenomenon from which the glass industry could benefit, in 2000, a slowdown is expected but the production levels should be maintained.

As regards foreign demand, this should grow thanks not only to the economic recovery in several parts of the world, but also to increased consumer demand in western Europe. Moreover, the weak dollar will continue to have a positive effect on European exports.

Flat glass sector: Total untransformed flat glass, with estimates based on saleable capacity for Member States without national glass federations (ie Spain, Portugal, Greece, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland and Sweden).