O-I said it believes the activity of destocking in beers and wines had now concluded.

In a quarterly report the company said it believed destocking activity had receded in all categories other than spirits, which it said will likely continue until the end of 2024.

Destocking has been widely blamed as the reason for the recent slowdown in the glass manufacturing industry.

Destocking is linked to the Covid pandemic when customers built up excess stock. The beverage industry stocked up on bottles to ensure it could continue to meet consumer demand even if supply chains were disrupted.

Since the pandemic has passed, those businesses have been destocking their large bottle inventories, resulting in lower sales for glass bottle manufacturers.

Verallia CEO Patrice Lucas echoed this view recently when he said destocking was at an end in the beer, non-alcoholic drinks and food segments.

“So in other words for the products which are produced, bottled and consumed locally we do not see any destocking effect anymore,” he said.

He was more cautious about the spirits and wine segments which are export-oriented.

“We do believe that there is still a destocking effect, which is affecting our market.”