The Italian sanitaryware, tableware and refractories sectors

The ceramic sanitaryware, refractory materials and tableware sectors reported a combined turnover of 817 million euro in 2012. All three segments saw losses in both the domestic and export markets, with the sole exception of the refractories industry which maintained essentially stable levels of exports.

Ceramic sanitaryware

The number of industrial level ceramic sanitaryware manufacturers operating in 2012 remained at 41, including 36 located in the Civita Castellana area (province of Viterbo). They employed a total workforce of 4,041 (-3.7%). 2012 output totalled 4.12 million pieces (-10.4%), while sales dropped to 3.88 million pieces (-13.4%).Turnover fell to 337.7 million euro (-10.7%), consisting of 125 million euro of domestic sales (-21.69%) and 212.7 million euro of exports (-2.67%), which accounted for 56.4% of turnover. According to figures published by Istat, Italy's National Institute of Statistics, sanitaryware imports slumped to 85.4 million pieces (down 13% on 2011).

The refractory materials industry

With an output of 468,336 tons (7.7% down on 2011) and sales of 487,411 tons (-7.1%), the refractories industry reported a turnover of 426.6 million euro, made up of 268.2 million euro of domestic sales (-7.5%), 95.8 million euro of exports to the EU (-1.3%) and 62.5 million euro of exports outside the EU (+0.8%). The number of operational companies remained substantially stable (35), as did the size of the workforce (2,219).

Ceramic tableware

The tableware sector is also facing hard times. The 10 Italian companies operating in the sector (2 fewer than in 2011) employed a total of 786 people (-20.85%) and reported production and sales of 13,200 tons of finished product, a fall of respectively 18.3% and 18.6%. Exports dropped to 2,600 tons (-26.2%) and Italian domestic sales to 10,500 tons (-16.5%). The resultant 2012 turnover totalled 52.3 million euro, consisting of 41.7 million euro deriving from Italian sales (-22.3%) and 10.6 million euro from exports (-36.5%).One particularly significant development was the introduction of antidumping measures on imports of Chinese tableware to Europe in May 2013, which will result in duties of between 13.1% and 36.1% being applied to Chinese exporters over the next 5 years.