After a positive 2021 that closed with overall growth in the ceramics industry, 2022 looks to be a complicated year in which the industry's development is likely to suffer a major setback.
The causes ofthe drag on growth includerising production costs and shortages of raw materials and components. The phenomenon, already in place since the end of 2021, would appear to be worsening with the crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine.
The alarm regarding the shortage of ceramic materials and equipment had already been raised by companies and industry associations, but at this time the situation is getting even worse.
Thedisproportionate increase in the prices of the energy component can endanger the work of an entire industry, combined with the scarcity of raw materials on the market needed for the production of automatic machines, such as steels and metals of which the states directly involved in the war are producers. The scarcity of these raw materials implies, in addition to the difficulty of finding them, a steep rise in costs.
All this poses a threat to the growth of the ceramic supply chain in Italy and may halt a positive trend that has been going on in the country for a few years.
The appeals
Against this backdrop, the appeal to the government by Acimac (Association of Italian Manufacturers of Machinery and Equipment for Ceramics), Amaplast (National Association of Manufacturers of Machinery and Molds for Plastics and Rubber) and Ucima (Union of Italian Manufacturers of Automatic Packaging and Packaging Machinery) is to find a solution to the problem of expensive energy and scarcity of raw materials.
Statements from the three associations and their representatives speak clearly:
"We are in the midst of a paradoxical situation: our companies have a substantial order backlog that they cannot fulfill. The risk that is becoming more and more real," said Paolo Mongardi, president of Acimac, "is that of a production stop. The situation has reached the limit and, barring a sudden U-turn, we are approaching a point of no return."
" Targeted proposals are needed now," added Dario Previero, president of Amaplast, "to lower not only the cost of gas and electricity but also that of the raw materials needed to produce our machinery and that of the plastics used by our customer processors. We cannot afford a slowdown in a sector as strategic to the country's GDP as the capital goods sector, but the risk of slipping into a crisis worse than the pandemic one is real."
"If already at the end of last year," concluded Matteo Gentili, president of Ucima, "the rising costs of production and raw materials, delays in the delivery of components, increases in transportation tariffs, and the disproportionate growth in energy costs were elements that made us be on the alert, now the country is close to stopping. To avoid this, it is essential to take action at the national and European level as soon as possible."
