High energy prices: more and more textile companies are shutting down production lines

Yet Sioen fears for the coming months. “With us, we see that prices have quadrupled in less than a year. But even worse, if we compare that with pre-covid times, energy prices are currently ten times what they were then. We have to take measures, it is impossible for us to produce a product at a loss. For a number of production lines and a number of products, the shutdown is very close,” says Gertjan Buyck, energy expert at Sioen.

“We are heading for closures and bankruptcies”

Sector federation Fedustria believes it is Europe’s own fault. She therefore asks the government to intervene urgently. “That is, among other things, imposing a maximum price, setting CO2 emission rights to zero, and starting a compensation mechanism for the industry. If this does not happen, the industry will suffer heavily and we will suffer a loss of prosperity. This means that we are heading for closures. and bankruptcies in the next six months,” said Fa Quix of Fedustria.

There are currently no bankruptcies in West Flanders. But some textile companies are already closing production lines, such as carpet producer Balta. There they decided last month to shut down the yarn department for four weeks.

Foreign competition

Other European countries, such as France, Italy and Spain are already providing subsidies to their companies to get through the energy crisis. As a result, the competition threatens to become even greater for Belgian companies, according to Sioen. So far, Belgium has not announced any plans to grant subsidies or discounts on energy bills here too.