This year's glasstec fair invited visitors to find out about the glass industry's innovative and sustainable products. Many things have happened since the last fair in 2010. After the nuclear disaster in Fukushima in march 2011, the German government decided to reform its energy policy. However, it is not yet clear how the new policy will be implemented. However, what is clear, is that the changes will be drastic and that the glass industry will be directly affected by them as one of the energy intensive industries. A glance at the latest production figures shows that the upswing in the German glass industry that began in 2010 initially continued, though there were a few setbacks in the first 6m of 2012. The current severe negative developments are partly due to the marked decline in global economic activity and the glass industry operating at a high level - after recovering quickly from the global financial crisis in the previous years - compared with the record years of 2007 and 2008. In particular, strong revenue growth was achieved in the first 6m of 2011. During the course of that year the growth curve flattened out and revenue settled at a constant level. Revenue increased by 3.9% in 2011, compared with the same period of the previous year. This reflects a year-on-year increase in revenue in the glass industry as a whole and in practically all glass sectors. In the first 6m of 2012, however, glass industry revenue declined by 7.5% and the sheet glass sector's development was particularly disappointing with revenue shrinkage of 18%. This situation is due to the problematic situation in the PV market as a result of aggressively priced imports and the associated price deterioration. Therefore, the economic framework could be better and the entire industry's revenues have declined to an average level, which means that the economic situation is less than optimum at this time. However, the outlook is positive because the glass industry is well prepared to meet future market requirements. The focal issues are still the energy policy reform, resource efficiency and sustainability, and all segments of the glass industry have responded to them by developing innovative products to satisfy these new needs.
