The extreme price pressure on electricity and gas as well as the persistently high raw material prices mean that one in four manufacturers of plastic packaging and films is already having to turn down orders. The industry anticipates a further sharp rise in electricity costs of 28 per cent in 2022.
Numerous companies see their existence threatened by this development. The industry is calling on the new federal government to urgent relief on. A recent survey by the IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen e.V. (Industrial Association for Plastic Packaging) According to a survey of its members, industrial electricity cost manufacturers of plastic films and packaging an average of 16.7 cents per kilowatt hour last year. For 2022, the industry expects a further increase to an average of 21.4 cents per kilowatt hour.
„The dramatic rise in electricity and gas costs is threatening the existence of many of our member companies,“ warns Dr Martin Engelmann, Managing Director of the IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen, also with a view to foreign competitors. „Annual increases in electricity costs of over 25 per cent are not sustainable in the long term, even for healthy companies. Already today, 27 per cent of our members have to turn down orders for cost reasons. This is not about maximising profits, but simply about cost-covering production.“ In most cases, the high costs are only partially passed on to customers.
„The new German government must not close its eyes to the economic consequences of the energy price explosion,“ demands Engelmann. The EU Commission only made this clear a few weeks ago, that manufacturers of plastic films and packaging are significantly affected by the risk of carbon leakage. „The German government should therefore utilise the room for manoeuvre as quickly as possible and introduce regulations to protect domestic industry from excessively high energy prices,“ said Engelmann.
Source: IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen e.V. (Industrial Association for Plastic Packaging)
