Oct 27 (Reuters) – Saint-Gobain expects its energy and raw materials costs to rise to just over 3 billion euros in 2022 due to inflation, the French building materials group said on Thursday.
The group’s energy bill alone should thus amount to nearly 2.5 billion euros this year.
However, the group said it had covered around 80% of its natural gas and electricity needs for 2022, and around 60% for 2023, adding that it was confident in its ability to offset cost increases this year.
“For its main manufacturing activities that use gas in Europe, the group has made rapid progress in implementing continuity plans and in making its operations more flexible to operate with lower energy consumption or with alternative energy”, he said in a statement.
Four of its glass factories use fuel oil or diesel to operate, while four others are in transition for possible conversion by the end of 2022, and two more during 2023.
In the field of insulation, more than half of its 25 factories in Europe have an oven powered by electricity, while investments are underway to use alternative energies by the end of the year , in particular at four sites in Germany.
Saint-Gobain’s quarterly sales increased by 19.6% over one year to 12.9 billion euros, exceeding the 12.7 billion euros forecast in the consensus provided by the company, thanks to a double-digit organic growth in all segments, driven in particular by high-performance solutions, Asia-Pacific and North America.
The group has also confirmed its forecasts for 2022.
($1 = 1.0014 euros) (Dina Kartit report; French version Diana Mandiá, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)