Energy crisis and cardboard supply
Assocarta and Associazione Italiana Scatolifici express concern: the presidents of the associations call for institutional intervention to govern rising prices, averting risks to production.
There is strong concern emerging from the presidents of Assocarta and Associazione Italiana Scatolifici about the situation of the sector with respect to energy and raw material supplies.
At the Annual Meeting on June 24, Assocarta President Lorenzo Poli commented on the rise in gas prices and the impact they will have on the sector, foreshadowing a new halt for paper mills:
«The situation is even more serious than in March, when peaks were followed by moments of price declines. Now, however, for the past few weeks, costs have been rising steadily, unabated, on a level of 180 Euro/Mwh, 9 times more than in June 2021».
A concern echoed by the Associazione Italiana Scatolifici, which represents the sector of corrugated cardboard packaging manufacturers, in the words of President Andrea Mecarozzi:
«A production stoppage of the expected size would be a blow to our sector, which has recently resumed a continuity of supplies of the raw material, cardboard, after more than six months of shortage. The possibility of a shortage of boxes to transport goods, even essential ones, is just around the corner if solutions are not found to ensure the continuity of the paper supply chain».
A situation exacerbated by the introduction of de minimis on tax credits for gas and energy purchases, considered an additional element of uncertainty in an already complex economic picture. The cause lies in the difficulty of entering into gas supply contracts for the next thermal year, caused by the inability of suppliers to contractually guarantee the delivery of gas, on whose quantities the decisions of Gazprom and the Russian government hang.
The appeal is addressed to the institutions, from ARERA to the Ministries of Economic Development and Ecological Transition, to speak out to guarantee the obligations of priority of supply to industrial companies, thus avoiding the risk of a shutdown of the entire production chain in the country. Indeed, we are talking about such an essential supply chain as paper and the circular economy, which recycles 6 million tons of product every year. The Italian paper and board market reached 9.6 million tons in 2021, up 12.5% after the -4.1% in 2020, placing Italy second in Europe for the first time, after Germany.
