International. The production costs of the material required for the manufacture of car windows, given the increase in the price of natural gas derived from the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, warn of a crisis in the supply chain such as that of semiconductors.
The alarm was triggered by The Wall Street Journal when it revealed through a report that companies like Volkswagen are in the process of storing large quantities of components that use glass, such as windows and windshields. The fear is latent: possible supply problems in the coming months, such as the one that has happened with semiconductors.
The report welcomes a statement from the German manufacturer in which it points out that, if the situation worsens, it could look for suppliers outside Europe. In this way, a country like Mexico, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the nearshoring trend, could be the one chosen to stand out as the fourth world producer of auto parts (above Germany itself).
This situation would be added to the existing one due to the shortage of semiconductors and the increase in the value of lithium for electric batteries, derived among others from the significant increase in demand after the restrictive measures due to the pandemic.
In this case, a geopolitical event such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has generated an increase in energy prices in Europe, in particular in the cost of natural gas, which has slowed down the manufacture of glass.
Precisely, the process of making glass for the production of car windows (from the windshields to the side and rear windows) involves the use of large amounts of natural gas. From this, the fusion of quartz sand, sodium carbonate and limestone is achieved.
The main glass manufacturers in the world are Germany, England, France, the United States and Japan.
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