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Glass maker Duralex HALTS operations in France due to skyrocketing energy costs

By ethanh // 2022-11-04

Another major European manufacturer, glass maker Duralex of France, is having to shut down operations due to skyrocketing energy prices. Duralex operates one glass furnace in La Chapelle-Mesmin, in the Loiret, that is no longer operating as of November 1. It will remain on standby for at least five months, we are told, with no more glass products being made. "The price of energy usually represents 5% to 7% of our turnover. Today, it is around 40%," says company president José Luis Llacuna. "It is not tenable." Last year, Duralex's energy bill was around €3 million euros. This year, it has quadrupled to €12 million euros. "Since 2021, the price of electricity has been multiplied by 22, and that of gas by 18," Llacuna added in a statement. "Duralex therefore believes that stopping production is the only solution to preserve the future of the company."

Shutting down a glass furnace entirely can damage it, so Duralex is keeping it at a low temperature – but even this is risky

One thing you need to know about glass production is that glass furnaces must remain on at all times in order to avoid damaging the equipment. If a glass furnace is turned off entirely, it might never be able to turn back on without breaking and requiring a major retrofit. For this reason, Duralex is keeping its furnace at a lower temperature for now, though this means it will still be spending money on energy – albeit a much lower amount – while producing nothing and bringing in no additional profits beyond what it currently has in stock. "The oven will not be stopped purely and simply, but we will keep it at temperature so that we can restart it," Llacuna said. Unfortunately for the company, even this is not without risk, as according to Llacuna "zero risk does not exist in this area." There is still a chance that the machinery could break and require expensive repairs, so it remains a delicate situation fueled by hope that the company can outlast the energy crisis and resume operations in the hopefully near future. Unfortunately for the company's 250 employees, they are all now on partial unemployment with compensation set at 95 percent of their salary thanks to contributions from the French government. One silver lining is that Duralex says it has "sufficient and quality stocks" of products, to quote Glass International, that it hopes will continue to sustain the company's bottom line during this very difficult time. Next year, assuming the global economic crisis does not worsen, Duralex plans to resume operations as normal to avoid further disaster. "We have a tariff cover already contracted on electricity, which will allow production to resume in the second quarter of 2023," Llacuna said. As of now, Pyrex, the other company in the French Glass House group, is not affected by France's production restriction methods, which include gas rationing. "This is a part of the practical implementation of Agenda 2030," wrote a commenter at Natural News about France's gas and energy restrictions, which also exist in other nearby countries. "Coming to a town near you," wrote another about how this crisis will spread like a contagion once the financial dominoes really start to fall. "The deep state communists and Marxists are destroying the world deliberately, causing complete chaos and discourse." As usual, these communists and Marxists are all doing just fine at the top of the pyramid. It is everyone below them, including the working class and the companies that employ them, that continues to suffer. The latest news about the implosion of the global economy due to inflation and other financial corruption can be found at Collapse.news. Sources for this article include: Glass-International.com NaturalNews.com

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