The energy pressure led to a significant increase in the prices of gas, urea, and wood chips, with drastic consequences for the solar panel industry. [P1] Arrived from Sicam - the Pordenone fair dedicated to components, semi-finished goods, and accessories for the home industry - the alarm of wood panel producers about the 'uncontrollable' increase in production costs, which is undermining the competitiveness of European companies against international producers. Companies that are protagonists in these days at Pordenone, in a manifestation that, as tradition, highlights the organizational choice of promoting the presence of EU exhibitors, despite the long list of participation requests from non-EU producers. They weigh mainly on the energy costs due to the war, which affect the electricity bill (+106% in the second half of this year) and the price of gas (+85%).

This last one impacts the prices of urea, a crucial raw material for the production of materials needed for the realization of panels, which register an increase of 51% in six months, driven also by the entry into force of the previous January CBAM, the EU regulation introducing a tax on imports of raw materials and semi-finished products that, to be produced, generate high quantities of CO2. These factors are added to the increases in transport, customs, and wood chip prices, which have increased by approximately 23% since January to today, according to data from FederlegnoArredo, a situation that the sector defines as 'unsustainable', even taking into account the price rise of pellets (+35%). [P2] A situation similar to the one we faced five years ago after the pandemic caused by COVID-19, with the difference that then the market was growing and this allowed us to reverse the cost increase on the market. Now, however, with a depressed market, it is almost impossible, with the consequence that for producing companies, margins are shrinking: 'The marginality of our industry is very reduced, as happens in the paper and ceramics sectors, so that some companies are evaluating the possibility of some production shutdowns, both because there is no market and because the costs are at their peak', adds Fantoni.

It is difficult to estimate the impact of these costs on the production costs of panels due to the wide range of products on the market (tricalcic and tricalcic noble, mdf and mdf noble, etc.), but according to the enterprises, the increases from January to today are in the order of 30-35 euros per cubic meter, of which about two-thirds have been absorbed by the market in these months, but the differential remains...'