As VITRUM President Barbara Antonini explained in a recent interview, the Glass Economy will be at the heart of the next edition of VITRUM. Her reasoning is clear: the industry can no longer be described as a collection of isolated sectors. Glass is a cross-cutting material used in construction, packaging, design, automotive applications and advanced technologies, creating value across a wide range of supply chains.
VITRUM 2027 will embrace this vision, evolving beyond a machinery showcase into a platform that highlights the value of the entire glass ecosystem. This is why the Glass Economy has become a central theme of the event. Over the coming months, we will explore its many dimensions through interviews with industry experts and academic researchers. For now, we begin by setting the scene with two fundamental questions: what is the Glass Economy, and how much is it worth?
The Glass Economy: an ecosystem, not just an industry
The Glass Economy encompasses the industrial and commercial ecosystem built around glass: an interconnected network of raw material suppliers, plant and machinery manufacturers, glass processors and, of course, end users. It is the economic activity generated when technology and engineering expertise turn a raw material into industrial, economic and social value.
The figures offer a sense of this ecosystem’s scale and dynamism. Take glass packaging: according to FEVE, the European glass packaging value chain — including the added value of products packaged in glass — contributes more than €140 billion to the EU economy and supports over 850,000 jobs.
Flat glass offers another telling example. Around 80% of production goes into construction, 15% into transport and the remaining 5% into applications such as solar energy, electronics, household appliances and furniture. These figures illustrate the breadth of glass applications and its capacity to support many different industries — a defining feature of the Glass Economy and its potential for growth.
Europe’s Glass Economy and the comparison with China
Glass manufacturing is an important part of Europe’s industrial landscape. In 2025, European production reached 37.5 million tonnes, with approximately 128,500 people directly employed in manufacturing.
A significant shift has also emerged among Europe’s leading producers. According to the figures reported here, Italy produced 5.5 million tonnes of glass in 2025 and recorded turnover of €9 billion, moving ahead of Germany in production and standing out for the breadth and flexibility of its industrial supply chain.
Despite exposure to high energy costs and geopolitical uncertainty, the European industry has continued to invest in innovation and sustainability, maintain its competitiveness and record a positive trade balance. The global picture, however, remains complex. China accounts for more than 50% of worldwide glass production and consumption, according to the data cited in the article, and its influence is not simply a matter of scale: the country is increasingly focused on high-tech manufacturing.
From today’s industry to tomorrow’s technologies: glass reaches for space
The strategic importance of the Glass Economy becomes even more apparent where glass technologies intersect with high-tech supply chains. Aerospace is a compelling example: glass plays a role in applications that are technically demanding and part of a substantial, growing market.
The wider market figures help illustrate the scale of this opportunity, although they are not measures of the glass industry alone. According to Eurostat, EU high-tech exports reached €566.5 billion in 2025, generating a trade surplus of €32.4 billion. An ExportPlanning study values global trade in the aerospace cluster at €488 billion. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency (ESA) estimates the global space economy at approximately €564 billion, comprising €75 billion in upstream activities — such as the development of space systems and launch vehicles — and €490 billion in downstream activities. European public space budgets increased by 12% to €13.5 billion.
In these advanced applications, glass technologies are essential. In aviation, technical glass and laminated glazing systems provide strength and visibility under extreme conditions. On satellites, ultra-thin cover glass, typically 50 to 500 micrometres thick, protects solar cells against radiation in space. Space telescopes such as Hubble demonstrate the demands placed on high-precision glass components, from cutting, grinding and shaping to coating and metrology.
For the Italian glass supply chain, and for the wider industry, aerospace represents an opportunity for technological development, research and collaboration. It is one of many connections between glassmaking and the markets of the future that VITRUM 2027 aims to bring into focus.