Continental Europe’s $35 billion ceramics industry thought the worst was over when sales jumped more than 10% in the first half of the year and order books began to fill up after the damage inflicted by the pandemic. But surging gas prices have caught out companies in an energy-intensive business, leaving them to choose between passing on higher costs to customers and scaling back or halting production. And all at a time when many feel energy transition costs are already hurting them. Iris Ceramica Group, based in the central region of Emilia-Romagna and one of Italy’s leading manufacturers in the sector, has had to introduce an energy surcharge of 3% on invoices […]