Vetropack begins temporary shutdown of one furnace at its Chișinău site

03.12.2025: Today, the Vetropack Group has started the controlled shutdown of one of the two furnaces at its plant in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova. The furnace will be out of operation for a period of at least six months. This decision is based on the continuing difficult market situation in Europe and the particularly challenging cost situation at the Moldovan site.

As Vetropack already informed at the end of October in an ad hoc announcement, the current market situation in Europe requires a strategic long-term management of production capacities. Starting today, December 3, 2025, one of the two furnaces at the Chișinău plant will be shut down in a controlled manner. This will reduce local production capacity by about one half.

High energy costs impact location heavily

The Chișinău site has been struggling with extremely high energy costs for a long time. Due to its geographical location and the tense political situation in the region, the Republic of Moldova is entirely dependent on energy imports for which it has to pay top prices. In contrast to the situation in many other European regions, recent months have seen a further deterioration of this energy crisis and – with it – the cost situation at the plant.

"Given these overall conditions, production is no longer competitive," explains Johann Reiter, CEO of the Vetropack Group. "We have to take action now and temporarily reduce the site’s production capacity by half."

The technical condition of the furnace will be maintained so that it can be recommissioned at any time, as soon as there is an improvement in the market. Vetropack will use this shutdown to carry out necessary repairs that will place the plant in a more competitive position going forward.

Workforce reduction is unavoidable

Halving production capacity will have an impact on the local workforce. "We deeply regret that we cannot avoid redundancies," says Johann Reiter. "This decision is not an easy one for us, especially in view of our highly committed workforce in Chișinău. We will do everything in our power to find socially acceptable solutions and are already in dialogue with colleagues who are affected about their individual options."