The business sector was not expecting it today at Cevisama, but this Tuesday there was a change of plans. The Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, has visited Feria Valencia to meet with the ceramic sector. The visit, impromptu today, was after participating in the presentation of the Hydrogen Cluster of the Valencian Community (in its acronym, HyVal) at the BP refinery in Castelló. And in Castelló, as she has also done later in Valencia, she has insisted that “the Government of Spain is accompanying this sector and the gas-intensive and electro-intensive industries as a whole by making important measures available to them” .
Among them, the ICO credits, to which the ceramic industry has been invited to take advantage, which, like other regulatory measures or tax cuts, “are cushioning the impact that the energy crisis and the rise in energy prices are having on a sector extremely important for Castellón”, stated Maroto.
Maroto explained that in the “brief meeting” planned with the Ascer employers’ association, he would convey that the concern of the sector “has to be turned into solutions.” For this reason, he has indicated that he is coming to the Valencian Community “to commit myself to the ceramic industry, to the ceramic cluster”. It came before the Central Market of Castelló, with its mayoress, Amparo Marco, since the commercial complex has been awarded 2 million euros of European funds to improve its energy efficiency.
However, the minister’s positions have remained in the official line, as she has recalled that the obligation to pay providers within 60 days to qualify for subsidies, “is a rule that is in a law and that, Therefore, it has to be applied and that it was agreed by a majority of parliamentary groups that was approved within the framework of the Create and Grow Law”, he pointed out.
To the question of whether there would be an exceptionality, as President Ximo Puig has once again requested today or the mayors of the ceramic municipalities will request tomorrow in Cevisama, Maroto has focused on the fact that small and medium-sized companies and the self-employed are also those who support these delays in payments, “therefore we also have to ensure that the costs of the war are redistributed, it is very important.”
Likewise, the minister has indicated that to facilitate the understanding of the aid application, a guide has been published on the Ministry’s website to help companies understand how this rule is effectively applied.
On the other hand, this morning the employers’ association Ascer has presented the global data for the sector, and has detailed that the turnover of the Spanish ceramic industry increased by 16% in 2022 to 5,538 million euros. The reason, the rise in prices applied to products to try to partially offset the rise in costs, including gas, which came to multiply its price by 10 during the year, they have maintained.
The president of the Ascer employers’ association, Vicente Nomdedeu, has offered the data for the sector and has stated that the gas bill came to multiply its price by 10 and in August reached 350 euros per megawatt hour. These prices raised the sector’s energy bill from 939 million euros in 2021 -which had already taken a leap compared to 2020- to 2,235 million last year, “an exorbitant increase” that has had a serious impact on companies.
Unlike its European competitors, the Spanish sector “received practically no aid” from the Spanish Government, something “key and differentiating” in the current crisis, according to Nomdedeu. “It is important to do things well and better and faster than your competitor, and at this time the ones that have done it well, better and faster than our government have been the European governments of our competitors,” said the head of Ascer. .
