The Italian industry internationalises

29/05/06 - Production internationalisation has been a source of major success for the Italian ceramic tile producers.
According to the 26th Assopiastrelle national survey (which considered only facilities with an Italian shareholding greater than 50%), Italian companies were responsible for production of more than 100 million sq.m abroad.
This consisted of 40.5 million sq.m of single fired tile (40.04% of the total), 30.1 million sq.m of glazed porcelain tile (29.74%), 12.1 million sq.m of double fired tile (12.01%) and 10.7 million sq.m of unglazed porcelain tile (10.53%).

More than 18 foreign companies entirely or partially owned by 9 Italian ceramic groups generated a turnover of 698.6 million euro (sales of 99 million sq.m). Italian companies have operations in 10 countries (United States, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Ukraine and Russia), although 77% of production is in Europe.

Including this output abroad, the Italian ceramic tile industry as a whole controls 31% of the European market and 30% of the North American market, further consolidating the Italian industry’s world leadership position.