EUPC: High energy costs affecting Europe’s plastics converters
Several European plastics converters are at risk due to the high energy prices, according to EUPC.
Converters, like many other energy-intensive industries, have been left shocked by the increase in electricity and gas prices. Although some companies have so far been able to avoid a cost increase due to current contracts, the industry average has doubled electricity costs since the beginning of the year.
However, many companies have to pay up to 750 per cent higher electricity price than at the beginning of the year. In some countries, salary increases, as well as energy costs increases, have put converters in a dilemma to continue production or stop the processing lines. An EUPC press statement read: ‘This situation will actually put at risk the supply of essential packaged goods in the EU.’
In some industries there is currently no business case to continue production nor visibility and certainty for investments and further developments. The effects of those closures are also starting to have a severe impact on the European industrial base.
EuPC Managing Director Alexandre Dangis has called upon the EU Commission, Council of Ministries and European Parliament to agree and to suggest on very short-term impactful actions which are needed at European level for keeping the industrial value chains operating. “We do not need long-term visions towards 2030 or beyond at a time where companies are trying to survive on a daily basis with a cash drain on uncontrolled energy prices,” Dangis said.
In her State of the Union Address on 14 September, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Because we are in a fossil fuel crisis, the fossil fuel industry has a special duty, too. Major oil, gas and coal companies are also making huge profits. So they have to pay a fair share – they have to give a crisis contribution.
“These are all emergency and temporary measures we are working on, including our discussions on price caps. We need to keep working to lower gas prices.”