Total glass industry sales revenue declined slightly in the third quarter of 2015. In the period January to September 2015, it was 0.2% lower than in the same period of the previous year. Domestic sales revenue fell by 3.8%, whereas foreign sales revenue increased by 5.5%. Foreign sales revenue comprises both eurozone sales revenue (up 4.3%) and non-eurozone sales revenue (up 6.8%). According to preliminary estimates, the number of employees in the glass industry declined by 0.5% to 53,000. The number of enterprises with 20 and more employees declined by 2.9% from 407 to 395.One trend is evident across all sub-sectors: growth was driven exclusively by foreign business except in the flat glass manufacturing sector, with domestic business declining considerably in some cases. Growth rates in all sectors of the glass industry - with the exception of the flat glass manufacturing sector - ranged from between -0.5% and +1.0%. An internal survey conducted by BV Glas has revealed that member companies’ business expectations for the coming year are moderately positive.
