Europe Flat Glass Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

Europe Flat Glass Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

The Europe flat glass market is estimated to witness a sizeable growth, at an estimated CAGR of over 3%, over the forecast period (2022-2027). Increasing housing construction activities in the region are expected to drive the market during the forecast period.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to hinder the market’s growth in the coming years. As the world is gripping with a new variant of the virus, the IMF has already revised the growth rates of various countries. Severe disruptions in the future related to construction activities are expected to act as restraints to the market.

By end-user industry, the construction segment is expected to dominate the market in the region.

The increasing clean energy initiatives in southeastern Europe are one of the major factors acting as an opportunity for the market.

Germany is expected to dominate the market and is also expected to witness the fastest CAGR during the forecast period.

The construction industry is the largest end-user segment of the market studied. Moreover, the ongoing trend of smart city projects is also anticipated to drive the flat glass demand.

Glasses are being used extensively in the construction industry in windows, façades, doors, interior partitions, balustrades, shop fronts, and railings for stairs and balconies, among other building parts, providing potential opportunities to float glasses.

The body-tinted float glass is a new type of glass in which melted colorants are added for coloring and solar-radiation absorption properties. This type of glass saves energy, reduces heat penetration into buildings, and provides a striking visual effect.

Previously, flat glass was used for smaller windows in domestic housing since larger windows required toughened glasses. Currently, flat glass can also be toughened by putting it through a heating process, which very nearly melts it and then cools it to ambient temperatures using a jet of cold air. The glass requires a greater pressure to break, and this characteristic makes the glass suitable for use in building applications.

Owing to all the aforementioned factors, the market for flat glass is projected to grow during the forecast period.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is about to bow out as head of Germany after 16 years, marking the start of a new era for the country’s economy. Taxation and spending could increase as political leaders double down on digitization and climate policy; thus, wariness about rising government debt may take a back seat.

Germany is Europe’s biggest construction market. With the continent’s largest building stock in 2020, the industry’s revenue increased by 5.9% to about EUR 143 billion.

Annual investment in the country has been steady in the past few years, as the German government supports energy-efficient renovation and construction, with more than EUR 2.5 billion invested in 2020 alone.

The country’s building stock needs an update, as 63% of German building stock was constructed before 1979.

On the whole, growing residential and commercial construction activities in the country are expected to drive the market for flat glass at a moderate rate in Germany during the forecast period.

The Europe flat glass market is consolidated in nature. Key players in the market (not in any particular order) include AGC Inc., Saint-Gobain, and Vitro, among others.

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