This article intends to give a general overview of the glass sector. It analyses the Italian and European situation in terms of production, imports, exports, number of employees, number of enterprises, etc. Its aim is to assess trends within the industry and to attempt to foresee the future of the sector. Moreover, the conclusion of the article provides a roadmap for the sectors and the challenges that the glass industry has to face in the future. By Nicola Favaro; Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro, Murano - Venezia e Frédéric Van Houte; CPIV, Brussels - Belgium.
1. Introduction
Glass is a very important material in everybody’s life. It is normally used every day in many different areas. Its most important uses in terms of quantity are listed below:
• packaging (containers for food and beverages, pharmaceutical glass, etc.);
• building (windows, security glass, safety glass, mirrors, etc.);
• automotive (glazing, lighting, etc.);
• glass wool for insulation;
• reinforcement fibres for composite materials;
• household glass (tableware, ovenware, furniture, etc.).
Other applications are less important in terms of production, however, they’re really essential for improving our life. Some of them are listed below:
• biomedical applications (artificial kidneys, prostheses, laser operations, control release medicines, etc.);
• energy (solar and heat control glass, fuel cells, laser glass, solar cells, etc.);
• art (handmade glass, vases, etc.);
• optics and optoelectronics (optical fibers, optical devices, lenses, mirrors, etc.);
• electronics (insulators, display panels, integrated circuits, etc.);
• lighting.
A lot of new applications are foreseeable for the future and research is developing different fields from electronics to medical applications.
2. Production
The EU-27 is the world’s largest glass market, both in terms of production and consumption. The European production market share is around one-third of the world market, while US production is less than 3/4 and Japanese production is 2/3 compared to the EU level. These figures are based on 2005 estimates and are probably now slightly different with more and more influence from the Asian countries (especially China and India).
Figure 1 describes production development by sector in the EU in the last 10 years (CPIV “Draft Statistical Annual Report 2008”) until the end of 2008.
From 1995 to 2005, the figures refer to EU-15; since 2005, they have applied to EU-27 (for some countries the data refers to estimated figures).
Figure 1 - Production development by sector [1].
Total production in EU 27 in 2008 was 36.33 million tonnes, with a growth of almost 26 % compared to 1998. However, for the first time in 2008, after 10 years of continuous growth, the glass industry registered a decrease of 3 % compared to the previous year. This decline is affecting all sectors, particularly “other glass – including “special” (- 33 %), “tableware & crystal” (- 7 %) and “flat glass” (- 3 %). The performance of container glass was only slightly negative (– 1%) [1]. Probably, the situation worsened last year (end of 2008 and beginning of 2009) due to the negative international economic situation, but no official data IS available at the moment to better describe the trend.
In 2008, total production in Italy was steady compared to 2007 (about 5,4 million tonnes), with some sectors being positive (+ 1.6 % bottles & jars) and others being negative (-2.6 % flaconnage, - 4.6 % tableware, - 5 % flat glass) [2].
In Europe, the container glass sector has traditionally been the biggest in terms of tonnage, accounting for almost 60% of output, followed by flat glass, fibre glass and tableware. Figure 2 illustrates the subdivision by sector in 2008 in EU-27. Figure 2 - Glass production by sector 2008 EU 27 [1].
Germany is the biggest producer of container glass in Europe with an estimated market share of 19% (29 plants), followed by France 18 % (21 plants), Italy 17 % (32 plants), Spain (20 plants) and UK 10 % (11 plants). These figures refer to 2006 [3]. The largest producer of flat glass in Europe is Germany with 19.3 % (11 plants), followed by France, Italy and Belgium with 12.3 % (7 plants) each, UK and Spain with 8.8 % (5 plants) each, Poland and the Czech Republic with 5.3 % (3 plants) each, etc. These figures refer to 2007 [3]. The number of companies operating in Europe has decreased over the last few years, due to restructuring, alliances, co-operation and takeovers. The most important companies now operating in Europe are reported in Table 1.
They are subdivided by sector and classified by the quantities of glass produced. These companies are now stronger than before, thanks to their international view and capacity to invest everywhere in the world. Due to the increase of production costs (labour cost, energy, raw materials, etc.) in EU-15 and legislative burdens, particularly in the field of environmental protection, (IPPC, ETS, REACH etc.), these companies have started to invest, initially, in Central and Eastern Europe, and currently in Asia (China, India, etc.). These new strategies involve a delocalization of production with a reduction of plant capacity in Europe, particularly in some countries such as the UK and Germany. Moreover, the economic downturn is amplifying this situation. According to general information gathered by some national associations, the number of plants closed in the last few years were: 4 container glass plants in the UK, 2 container glass plants in Italy (one re-opened after one year), 5 furnaces for container glass in Germany, 1 glass fibers plant in Germany, etc. Underestimated, this list is certainly not complete. To face the crisis, a lot of plants have reduced their production capacity, adepte short-time working schedules or closed production temporarily.
3. Import and export
The import-export situation is not clear at the moment. The globalization of the market makes it easier to transport and sell products everywhere in the world. Countries such as China, India, North Africa, etc. are now becoming more and more competitive, with low prices and product quality which issometimes equivalent to goods made in European or western countries.
In Table 2, it is possible to notice that exports have been steady over the last three years, but not in the same way in all sectors. Their evolution, from 2007 to 2008 in particular, showed a positive trend for flat glass (untransformed and transformed) and “other glass”, while container glass, tableware/crystal, fibres and special glass registered a heavily negative trend. Concerning imports the situation is quite worrying. All sectors, excluding untransformed flat glass, registered a positive trend between 2007 and 2008, which was particularly high for container glass (36.8 % in 2006-2007 and 29.2 % in 2007-2008). The inversion of the tendency for untransformed flat glass was probably due to the heavy downturn in the European market.
Compared to Europe, the Italian situation is rather similar. The performance of the container glass (bottles & jars) sector was particularly poor. It registered an import increase of almost 19 % from 2007 to 2008, compared to an export decrease of about 1 % during the same period [2].
The most important destination of glass articles produced in Europe and the origin of glass imports are shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4 based on estimated figures provided by CPIV, referring to 2008.
Figure 3 - Total exports [1]
Figure 4 - Total imports [1].
4. Employment
Globalization and the difficulty of staying in the International market with high quality articles at low prices is forcing the European glass industry to reduce its costs and, at the same time, increase its productivity. The result is—that in a situation with stagnant productive growth—the number of employees per tonne of glass produced gets lower and lower.
In 2008, the glass industry employed about 214,179 people, with a decrease of - 6.6 % compared to 2007. However, this reduction was especially prevalent in the UK, which, in 2008, registered a loss of almost 6,000 jobs (- 43 %), whereas the Czech Republic witnessed a loss of almost 5,500 jobs (- 20 %). Countries such as Germany, Spain and France were stable, while others countries such as Italy (+ 6 %), the Netherlands (+ 9 %) and Belgium (+ 2 %) registered a positive trend. In Figure 5, it is possible to see employee distribution in EU-27. Figure 5 - Employment distribution in EU [1]. 5. Environmental protection and energy consumption
The biggest challenge for all European industries, excluding the business aspect, is environmental protection and the energy consumption. Environmental protection is a “must” in the European Community. Each year, a lot of new legislation and obligations are decided by European and National Governments in order to reduce pollution and improve the quality of life for European citizens.
For the glass industry, the most important of these include IPPC (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control), ETS (Emission Treading Scheme), REACH, Packaging and Packaging Waste.
While, on the one hand, the spirit behind these regulations can be considered appropriate, on the other, they represent, for European industry, a considerable burden when competing on an international market, especially with those countries where similar obligations are “lighter” or do not exist. Regarding the IPPC, every five years or so, a new Reference Document (BREF) is produced which defines the best available technology (BAT) that can be applied in each industry. More severe limit values associated with BATs are decided upon. To comply with new emission limits the industry has to install new emission treatment equipment. The biggest challenge for the future is the reduction of dust, especially fine dust, NOx and SOx. It is estimated that in 2005, the glass industry’s emissions into the air consisted of 6,500 tonnes of dust; 105,000 tonnes of NOX; 80,000 tonnes of SO2 and 22 million tonnes of CO2 (direct emissions). Nevertheless, this represented only about of 0.8 % of total EU emissions [3]. ETS is another major issue. Regulations provide for a series of requirements designed to reduce the total amount of CO2 emitted with the aim of reaching the Kyoto target. Each industry has to face a specific cap (allowances of CO2) that can decrease every year. If emissions are above the cap, the industry (company) has to pay the difference, buying allowances on the market.
The application of this norm is expensive for the glass industry as the total amount of CO2 emitted per tonne of glass produced is quite high. In Italy, for instance, the total amount of CO2 emitted by the glass industry in 2008 was about 3,000,000 tonnes/ year, with an emission factor of about 0.57 tonnes of CO2 emitted per each tonne of glass produced. This factor can change a lot from sub-sector to subsector. The emission factor for different sub-sectors in Italy are shown in Figure 6. Figure 6 - CO2 emission factor Italy, 2008.
The glass industry is an energy intensive sector. In 2005, total energy consumption of the glass industry was approximately 311 PJ (86.5 million MWh), with an energy factor of about 2.3 MWh for each tonne of glass produced. Of the energy total, 15 % was consumed as electricity, 30 % as fuel oil and 55 % as natural gas [3]. It is important to note that the energy used and the CO2 emitted to produce glass can be easily overvalued if considered in the long term and based on short-sighted political decisions. Here are some examples:
The substitution of non efficient glazing with high performance insulating glass units (low-E double or triple glazing) can improve the insulation of a building and reduce energy needs for thermal conditioning. Manufacturing one square metre of lowemissivity (low-E) double glazing generates 25 kg of CO2. On the other hand, replacing one square metre of single glazing by low-E double glazing saves 91 kg of CO2 per year, which means that the CO2 emitted to produce the glass is recovered in only 3.5 months!
The use of solar control glass can reduce the amount of energy needed to cool the building by air-conditioning systems. This substitution could save from 5% to 25 % of the target fixed by EC for buildings by 2020 (300 million of tonnes of CO2). The use of glass wool in construction can improve the insulation of a building and reduce the energy consumption for thermal conditioning. Including the energy needed for production, transportation and installation, glass wool insulation of a building pays for itself in less than 30 months.
The use of fibre-glass reinforced plastics can reduce the weight of cars, thus reducing the amount of CO2 emitted per km covered, allowing one to reach the limit of 120 g CO2/km. Devices for sustainable energy production need glass for their construction and optimization (flat glass for solar cells, reinforcement glass fibres for wind turbines, etc.).
Every year the glass industry increases the use of recycled glass (cullet) in the process with lots of benefits for the environment; this is especially true for the container glass industry. In fact, the use of cullet reduces the amount of pollution emitted per tonne of glass manufactured (CO2, dust, NOx, SOx, metals, etc.) and the amount of energy needed for the production of glass. Each 10% of cullet used in the batch provides a reduction of energy consumption equalling almost 3 % of the total required.
Figure 7 shows the percentages of external cullet reused in the process in different countries. The average value for the European Community is 62 %, with some countries like Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland it’s above 80 % and others such as Greece, Hungary, Romania and Turkey, it’s below 20%. Figure 7 - Glass recycled 2007 [4].
6. Innovation and challenges for the future
For the future, the glass industry will need to be able to provide superior products with unique properties, that are more desirable than the products made from other materials and developing countries. This will require the development of new process technologies that reduce production costs and enhance desirable characteristics. Innovations in glass composition and glass properties will be necessary to support the expansion of glass into completely new markets. The area where the industry has to focus its techno logical efforts are the following:
Production Efficiency: development of melting, refining and forming processes with higher product yield and reduction of energy and other production costs. Campaigns for increasing the life of a furnace;
Energy Efficiency: development of more energy-efficient manufacturing processes and technologies to achieve significant energy saving;
Environmental Performance: reduction of emissions and waste in the glass industry through more stream-lined, cleaner processing. Increased use of natural resources and solid wastereduction. Increased recycling within the industry;
Innovative Uses of Glass: Broadening the use of glass in existing markets and supporting research to create completely new and innovative uses for glass by investigating new glass compositions, developing a better understanding of glass properties and interactions, and modifying and improving essential glassmaking processes. The industry has to be able to respond to rapidly changing market needs with sufficient volumes. In many markets, customers’ demand for lighter, stronger glass products is increasing rapidly.
In Europe, there are different public and private research centres specialized in glass that can support the glass industry as it faces these challenges. The most important centres are the following: SSV (Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro, Italy), TNO (the Netherlands), CRITT (France), IKATES (Czech Republic), INSTITUT DU VERRE (France), GLAFO (Sweden), BRITISH GLASS/GLASS TECHNOLOGY SERVICES (UK), ISTITUTO DE CERAMICA Y VIDRIO (Spain), HVG (Germany).
For the future, a stronger connection between these main players will be crucial in order to support the whole European glass industry on a global market and to act for the common good of the sector.
7. Conclusion
It is difficult to provide detailed updated information on the glass industry. The international crisis of the last six to ten months is also affecting the glass industry. Some sectors are suffering more (tableware, flat glass and fibre glass) than others (container glass).
However, considering the trend of the last year, it is possible to identify some general trends: the growth of the glass industry is slowing down and sometimes, in specific sectors, there is stagnation or even decline. This problem is mainly due to international competition, especially from the Far East (China, India) the increase in production costs within the EU (labour costs, energy, raw materials, etc.) and the legislative burden, particularly in terms of environmental protection (IPPC, ETS, REACH, etc.);
Relocation of the industry is becoming more and more evident. The number of plants in Europe is decreasing and it is very rare to see the construction of new plants; the import of glass articles is on the rise, especially for flat glass and container glass. Countries such as China, India, North Africa are now more competitive on the market, with low prices and product quality which sometimes is as good as that of the European or western countries.
For the future, the glass industry will have to be able to provide superior products with unique properties, that are more desirable than those made with competing materials and by developing countries. This will also require the development of new process technologies that reduce production costs and polluting emissions and enhance the characteristics desired by the customer. Innovations in glass composition and glass properties will be necessary to support the expansion of glass into completely new markets.
References
1. Draft Statistical Annual Report 2008, CPIV – currently unpublished
2. Draft Statistical Annual Report 2008, ASSOVETRO – currently unpublished
3. Draft Reference Document on Best Available Techniques in the Glass Manufacturing Industry, http://www.eippcb.jrc.es, September 2008
4. Glass Recycling National Rates, Available Data, Europe, 2007, http://www.feve.org/statistics.html, June 2009 Presentato al XXIV Convegno ATIV dal titolo “Today’s Challenges for Glass”, Parma, Luglio 2009
Authors:
Nicola Favaro Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro, Murano - Venezia
Frédéric Van Houte CPIV, Brussels - Belgium
Riv. Staz. Sper. Vetro 39
(2009) 5, p. 19-25
The SSV is entitled, by the Italian law n.46, 1982, to High Qualification in the Applied Research Field. In 1993 it was recognized as a Test Laboratory in compliance with UNI-EN 45000 . It is, at present, accredited by SINALin compliance with UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 17025 n° 0073 for the tests reported in www.sinal.it and in "Services" and is a Notified body in the European Union (N. 1694) for the application of the Directive 89/106 on architectural glazing.
SSV has been operating since 1956 in a site in Murano -Venice provided by the Venetian Municipality. It is the only Italian body devoted, by its institutional deed, to dealing with the scientific and technological issues of the whole national glass industry (hollow, flat and technical glass, glass fibres, hand-made glass, raw materials, refractories, furnaces, etc.), and acts as a linkage between research on the one side, which it often develops in cooperation with Universities and other Italian and foreign centers, and industrial application of the obtained results on the other.
