(Tiper Stock Exchange) – Pandemic, war and expensive energy: a triple shock that has affected practically almost all sectors, including that of glass. What do the numbers for the last period say, especially when compared with the previous scenario? Finance asked Fabrizio Cattaneo, General Manager of GIMAV, the Association belonging to Confindustria which brings together the companies that produce machinery, special products and accessories for the processing of flat and hollow glass. Many topics covered: from the pre-pandemic record to the relaunch, strictly under the sign of the green.
“I start by saying – observes Cattaneo – that the biggest problem that the pandemic has brought to our sector in particular is the consequence of the pandemic itself, that is, all the problems related to logistics and supply that have resulted from it and which often and willingly have prevented the manufacturers of glass processing technologies from being able to deliver in the pre-established ways and times, which has generated serious problems such as those, for example, of having made contractual commitments that they were unable to respect through no fault of “their” but because precisely the consequences of these logistical problems that we have underlined.In detail, it happened that the sector that was before the pandemic crisis, therefore the year 2019, was in a moment of slow but stable and continuous growth for several years and which had led it to a record – in 2019 a historic record of around two billion four hundred million euros was recorded, abundant in total turnover, a growth that was driven at the time above all by foreign markets and therefore by exports, to be clear, which grew abundantly around 8% per year – it was found hit in 2020 with the pandemic to a very strong and important stop and therefore in 2020 the sector collapsed by about 16.5%, almost a 20% annual drop. This collapse has significantly affected both exports which have lost about 15%, and domestic markets where deliveries have lost 20% while imports have held up quite a bit. Then, already in 2021 the sector he was able to react, achieving what is technically called a technical rebound, i.e. he managed to recover in just one year what he had lost between 2020 and 2021 and in fact the turnover at the end of 2021 had already returned beyond two and a half billion euros therefore values even higher than those of 2019, therefore of pre-pandemic”.
We are talking about a sector that contributes to the growth of the country but which seems to be less “attentive” than others. In your opinion why?
“I answer with a joke, that is by saying that it could not have been otherwise since the glass is transparent. If it is true that the sector is a typical Italian excellence, that is a niche in which we are really very strong, it is equally true that glass is very pervasive in everyday reality. After all, it’s enough to look around to see how much glass there is around us. Now I’m looking around here and in fact we see that glass is in our daily reality almost everywhere, however on the other hand it is true that glass has another characteristic which prevents us from keeping it in mind as we should, namely it is very durable so typically a window, a torch, a mirror but also glasses we don’t change them every day in reality and this leads us to take for granted some glass objects that we use every day and therefore not to consider them as things that pervade our our lives so frequently. In addition there is a transparency that is typical of the industry of the sector because it is a sector that finds it difficult to consider itself and therefore to present itself as a supply chain of absolute excellence as it is, in fact only in Italy are we excellent throughout the supply chain and in truth within the supply chain instead we present ourselves as very divided sectors, I will give an example also within technologies there is a tendency to distinguish between technologies for hollow glass and flat glass which is instead a difference that those who do not experience the industry from within it’s hard to even just understand. Perhaps we too, as a world of representation, could do more on this, trying to create a single and unambiguous representation. of course, as a closure, some measures taken even recently by our politicians and our administrators do not help us and I am simply making a joke about the so-called nightlife decree: I don’t think it will be by banning the use of glass containers that we will solve the problem of nightlife and of the streets, how they are left in the evening, I don’t think that a street covered in plastic is better than a street covered in glass”.
Never before has one of the keywords certainly been sustainability: how does the sector intend to implement and contribute to the necessary green transition underway?
“The only real way to be able to achieve sustainability and put it into practice is through innovation and innovation it is in itself technological innovation, that is, it is the need to find new ways, new technological solutions that allow us to produce new processes and new products that are compatible with environmental sustainability and therefore that allow us to have a concrete and practical green transition. Obviously technological innovation is divided in two types: incremental innovation i.e. keep the paradigm we are used to and make small improvements step by step, this is a help but usually does not solve the problem or what is defined structural innovation that is, the one that changes a reference technological paradigm. Let me give you an example to understand: what happened when we moved from the typewriter to the computer, rather than from the cell phone to the smartphone, are precisely new and different technological paradigms. We have been engaged in this for some time, we are looking for, the world of glass processing technologies has been engaged in this for some time. And here too I will give some trivial examples, the whole issue of solar panel processing, photovoltaic panels are there for all to see, more recent things are the adoption of hydrogen or other green fuels instead of hydrocarbon derivatives which emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and rather than all that is being done with the processing of so-called flat glass, therefore with several layers of glass to make the buildings brighter but also more thermally insulated and therefore more compatible with the needs of green buildings which today are on everyone’s lips”
We live in a context of profound and continuous changes, what are the most urgent challenges for the entire supply chain?
“One of the important challenges – probably the most important – is that of green and eco-sustainable transition. We are committed to this challenge, we are precisely modifying both glass products and the processes that are used to produce in a greener way and this is the first of the inputs that the market and our customers offer us. perhaps no less important because this too is a new paradigm, it is the smart paradigm, i.e. we now live in a context that from industry 4.0 onwards up to the extreme of artificial intelligence puts before us the need, the need to think about intelligent processes and products therefore to processes and products that incorporate intelligence within them, give added value. I’ll give some trivial examples, today for us a window is a window tomorrow a window could be our new home TV rather than the 360-degree video of our smart home. these are the let’s say more strategic, more medium-long term trends on which we are oriented, instead going to decline them in the more practical aspects today probably the main challenges are those we said before, i.e. the processing of ever thinner glass rather than the processing of flexible glass and we already see various applications, they are increasingly within reach, today there are already mobile phones, smartphones that can be folded but there are glass prototypes around that can even be unrolled so panels and screens that can be rolled out and used in ways unthinkable until recently. A last consideration concerns what is a typical feature of Italian industry, famous because it knows how to find solutions, we enclose it in the term ingenuity which well brings together the concept of automation, creativity and technology that characterize us. In this regard, I mention two projects that have been launched by Federmacchine, one in collaboration with Confindustria and is a study on the potential of capital goods and the other together with ICE Agenzia which repositions the branding of machines Italia and therefore of Italian capital goods. In my opinion, this second machines italia project gives a good idea of the concept of engineering with passion, therefore the fact that the Italian capital goods industry is a solution of ingenuity and passion”.
Looking to the near future, however, what are the appointments on the calendar?
“Vitrum which is the international exhibition of glass processing technologies that we have been organizing for forty years, while for a little more recently we have flanked Vitrum, Vision Milan Glass Week, an initiative that lives in Milan and gives space to the entire glass supply chain. I’m starting from Vitrum because we were talking about excellence earlier and for 40 years now Vitrum has been the space where glass processing technologies find visibility at an international level but at least for a couple of editions now it wants to become, it wants to present itself, it is becoming like the space in which the entire glass industrial chain, therefore not only the processing technologies but also the production and transformation of the industrial and design glass itself, find the reference point to give visibility to international excellence and in particular made in Italy of this sector. For a couple of editions now we have deemed it appropriate to create a moment that gives visibility to the entire supply chain, therefore not only to the industrial part but also to the cultural, historical, artisanal and artistic part which in Italy, as I said, are an absolute excellence and Milano glass week will be this moment. The Vitrum international fair will take place at Fiera Milano (Rho) froml 5 to 8 September.
While from 4 to 10 September next the Vision Milan Glass Week, therefore an event that accompanies and includes the International Exhibition. We will animate the city of Milan with a series of events and initiatives dedicated to glass and the culture of glass which is historical, artistic, artisanal and also industrial and design culture, with the aim of meeting not only the reference business public but also obviously the final consumer. Finally, I would like to underline that we don’t limit ourselves to organizing events and initiatives in Italy but we also accompany our companies around the world, we have always done it also thanks to the support of the foreign trade agency and the competent ministries therefore Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Made in Italy, lately we have come up with Vitrum International which allows us to accompany our companies around the world and combine the presence during exhibitions with a continuous presence, which can last a year between one exhibition and another, with a portal that brings together a series of sites dedicated to individual countries promoted in the language and promoted on the social networks of the individual countries”.