German glass industry sales fell by 2.3% to €4.36 billion in the first half of 2013, according to The Federal Association of the Glass Industry Association.
Domestic sales fell by 3.3% to €2.7 billion, while foreign sales fell by 0.4% to €1.6 billion. Employment numbers fell by 1.1% to 53,000 employees.
Dr Johann Overath, chief executive of the Association of Glass Manufacturers' Association, remained confident: "The capital goods sectors, in partuclar flat glass, special glass and glass fibers, again increased in foreign sales, especially in non-European countries.
"On the other hand, there remained weak domestic sales within these industries. Also, the consumer-oriented hollow glass industry has a higher foreign than domestic sales.”
The flat glass production and finishing segments declined by 3.7% and 2.6% respectively. Total flat glass sales were €473 million, of which €245 million was domestic (down 17.3%) and €228 million was abroad (up 17.1%).
The Flachglasveredeler closed the first half of 2013, with total revenues of €1.7 billion, of which domestic sales amounted to €1.2 billion (down 3.7%), while foreign sales were €501 million (up 0.2%).
The glass container industry registered total sales of €964 in H1 2013. Here, the increase was 7.5% for foreign sales to €342 million, higher than the growth in domestic sales, which rose 3.2% to €622 million.
The fiber segments were also positive (up 1.4%, €424 million) and special glass (up 0.8%, €651 million) for Half 1 2013. Domestic fiberglass sales were also up (an increase of 0.8%, €265 million) and foreign sales (up 2.4%, €159 million), while speciality had a mixed picture: Domestic sales decreased by 12.4%, while international sales rose to €236 million, up 10.1% to €415 million.
The Federal Association of the Glass Industry Association represents the economic interests of glass manufacturing industry in Germany.
These include the areas of flat glass, container glass, specialty glass and glass processing and finishing. The industry includes about 400 companies with approximately 53,000 employees. Total sales in 2012 amounted to about €8.95 billion.
