Soaring energy costs have thrown the once flourishing glass-making industry in France into a crisis, and this has notably hit the small- and medium-sized businesses that account for an important part of its estimated 22,000-strong workforce. As glass-makers report a year-on-year quadrupling of their energy bills amid a parallel economic slowdown, some have been forced to shut down their ovens and to place staff on short-time working, and many now face the chilling prospect of not being able to survive the winter. Mathias Thépot reports.
The coming winter promises to be tough for France’s glass-making industry, and for the smaller companies in particular. Glass-making firms are major energy consumers and, unlike in many other industries, the equipment that guzzles that energy cannot be easily switched off, even for brief periods.
