The Italian ceramic industry picks up

The Italian ceramic industry is regaining momentum and beginning to put the difficulties of 2009 behind it. This trend emerges clearly from the figures published in the 2010 National Statistical Survey of the ceramic tile, sanitaryware, tableware and refractory materials industries conducted by the Confindustria Ceramica Studies Centre. According to the survey, the sector (made up of 284 companies with a total of 37,990 employees) generated a turnover of 6.517 billion euro (compared to 4.508 billion euro in 2009), of which 2.552 billion euro derived from sales on the Italian domestic market and 3.965 billion euro from exports worldwide.

The lion’s share of turnover was as always generated by the ceramic tile sector with 4.629 billion euro (+2.79%), followed by ceramic sanitaryware with 421 million euro, tableware with 68.1 million euro and refractory materials with 409.2 million euro.

Foreign sales continued to be a vital source of revenue in 2001 with all sectors reporting strong export turnover. In the Italian domestic market, the tile (-2.95%) and sanitaryware (-5.62%) segments saw a further fall in turnover, whereas tableware and refractory materials reported turnover growth of 10.76% and 26.19% respectively.