The glass industry seeks cheap and clean energy

On September 19, Secretary-General Huang Shaota of the Guangdong Glass Industry Association stated at the Third Industrial Fuel Conference that under the new situation, the glass industry is facing severe problems of high costs and is actively looking for cheap and clean energy supplies.

China is a global glass giant. By the end of 2011, China’s flat glass production capacity was 914 million weight boxes, which was more than 50% of the world’s total production capacity. Especially in the Guangdong area, it has rapidly grown into a production, export, and profitable province of flat glass and processed glass in China.

However, due to the country's macroeconomic changes and the recession in the real estate industry, the development speed of the glass industry has slowed down significantly and prices have continued to decline. At the same time, since the first half of 2010, the increase in the cost of raw materials such as soda ash, coal, heavy oil, natural gas, and electricity, as well as the increase in financial costs such as staff salaries, has caused the production costs of glass companies to increase. Many companies are facing more severe cost issues.

"Natural gas as a clean energy is more suitable for the glass industry than heavy oil, but the cost of natural gas as fuel accounts for more than 37% of the total cost of glass." "So many glass companies hope to find cheap but less polluting. The energy supply, thereby reducing the cost of glass manufacturing," said Huang Shaota.