Ukraine war and rising energy costs hit Vetropack glass sales

Persistent delivery bottlenecks, the Ukraine war and rising prices impacted Vetropack's sales last year, the glass container manufacturer reported.

Despite the challenging environment the glass container producer reported increased sales in 2022 of 10.2% compared to 2021.

Net sales were CHF 899.4 million in 2022 compared to CHF 815.5 million the year before.

Johann Reiter, CEO of the Vetropack Group said:: "This year, we were able to achieve so many things that previously seemed unthinkable and unrealistic. Our sites undertook wide-ranging efforts to find solutions. This shows the group's strength, and it has brought us closer together.

"Throughout the fiscal year, our priorities were determined by the war in the Ukraine, rising energy and production costs, and the unabated high level of demand for packaging glass."

The glass producer sold 5.26 billion units of packaging glass in the 2022 reporting year.

Due to the absence of capacity at its Ukraine plant sales volume was 10.6% below the prior year's figure of 5.88 billion units.

Outlook for 2023

The European packaging glass industry and its customers continue to anticipate high demand for packaging glass.

Capacities for 2023 are utilised and inventory levels are low at the start of the year.

Bottlenecks in the logistics chain continue to be likely. Costs of energy, operating materials and personnel can be expected to rise in 2023.

A price increase in the low doubledigit percentage range can be anticipated.

Vetropack will celebrate the start-up of its new plant in Boffalora sopra Ticino in 2023, marking a milestone in the company's history.

The new plant will produce approximately 100,000 metric tons more packaging glass per year than the previous plant in Trezzano, thus increasing the group's capacity by about 7%.

As planned, one of the two furnaces at its Kyjov plant in the Czech Republic will also be renovated in the third quarter of 2023.

As part of this renovation the glass producer will install its first servo-controlled glass production machine: this will represent another step towards digitalisation.