O-I Glass has started to see a gradual recovery in the glass market - partly thanks to beer.
The world’s largest container glassmaker reported a 3% increase in shipments compared to the same period last year.
Operating profit improved in the Americas reflecting healthier fundamentals and benefit from strategic initiatives.
Segment operating profit in the Americas was $141 million compared to $102 million in the prior year period.
In a call with investors CEO Gordon Hardie said shipments were up more than 4% in the Americas in the first quarter of this year, driven by a rebound in beer and spirits, with solid growth also in food.
Its Americas division comprises manufacturing facilities in the US, Mexico and South America.
Volumes grew nearly 4% in Europe driven by customer inventory rebuilding and some buying ahead of tariffs for export customers
He warned that in Europe it was addressing ‘excess capacity’ through temporary curtailments ‘and we are in consultation with the European and local works councils, regarding long term restructuring actions’.
Last month O-I said it was working on realigning its footprint in France to respond to changing trends in the wine and spirits markets.
This included some closures of its industrial facilities to support 'being the lowest cost producer in mainstream and best cost producer in premium,' Hardie said.
O-I’s ongoing Fit to Win programme resulted in savings of $61 million in Q1, which Hardie described as 'a significant contributor to our better-than-expected results,'.
It aims to make $250 million in savings in 2025.
Mr Hardie told investors: “We see kind of green shoots in a lot of the categories in a lot of the geographies coming back. So order books at this stage are good.
“There's certainly uncertainty out there regarding where all these tariff discussions are going to play out and that is causing consumer uncertainty as well.
"So I think this quarter will be telling to see where everything lands.”
