On 22 January 2014 the European Commission presented three communications on the 2030 climate and energy framework, industrial renaissance and energy prices. The latter was accompanied by a report on energy prices and costs for some energy-intensive sectors, including the ceramic sectors of bricks & roof tiles and wall & floor tiles. To prepare this document, the European Commission used a study developed by CEPS, to which the ceramic industry actively contributed in 2013 by providing data and figures as required by the consultant. Cerame-Unie has prepared a summary with the main findings for the ceramic industry. 

The report shows that natural gas prices for European ceramic companies have increased by around 30% between 2010 and 2012 and they are four times higher than in Russia and more than three times higher than in the USA. Similarly, electricity costs may be more than two times higher in the EU than in the USA and Russia. Such figures clearly confirm that energy, which represents around 30% of production costs in the ceramic sector, is a crucial element for the competitiveness of our industry.

Figures collected in the report also show that energy prices for European ceramic manufacturers are up to 28% higher than for other EU-based energy intensive sectors for gas, and up to 159% higher for electricity, which is largely due to the fact that the ceramic sector is mainly composed of SMEs.