Hampered by growing energy prices, Duralex glassworks will cease production at its only site in Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin, France, from the month of November and will put its furnace on standby for a minimum of four months. The 250 employees will all be put on partial unemployment to save energy and preserve finances.
José-Luis Llacuna, president of the company, said, “For several months, very unfavourable economic financial production conditions, solely linked to the price of energy. Producing at the daily energy rate would generate unsustainable losses. Limiting our energy consumption in the coming period therefore allows us to preserve the activity and employment of Duralex.”
At the heart of Duralex’s concerns is the glass melting furnace. “We first had to ensure the technical viability of putting it on standby. We do not simply press a button,” Llacuna said. “It cannot stop working otherwise the glass will freeze then solidify and render it unusable. Standby means that the equipment will continue to run and heat up but in a closed circuit without producing anything, with energy consumption halved as a result.”
In two months, Duralex will enter what Llacuna describes as a “long tunnel” caused by “a completely brutal dynamic which has seen the price of electricity multiplied by 22 and that of gas by 18.” Production should only resume in the second quarter of 2023, and the group founded in 1945 by Saint-Gobain should see the light again, thanks to a new energy contract which “assures it of being able to produce at lower costs.”