A poor 2003 for Italian tiles

Dec 18, 2003

18/12/03 - The Italian ceramic tile industry has experienced another negative year. According to the yearly Assopiastrelle-Prometeia survey, there was a further fall in production in 2003 from 606 million to about 594 million square metres (-1.8%). Total sales were down by 3.4% as the net result of a domestic market expansion of 1.9% and a 5.5% fall in exports.
However the export trends have varied substantially. Whereas sales in North America have continued to grow (+5.8%), if at lower rates than in 2002, and the European Union has improved its negative performance (-2.6%), Eastern European countries and the “Rest of the World” have shown contractions of 13% and 18% respectively.

Nonetheless, the outlook is positive for the next two years. According to Prometeia, at the end of next year production is expected to increase by 1.8% to return to year 2002 levels. Further growth is expected for 2005. The preliminary study forecasts a 2.7% increase over 2004.
The increase in production will be driven by an expansion in total sales of 1.9% in 2004 and 2.8% in 2005. In 2004 domestic market sales are expected to increase by 1.5% and foreign sales by 2%. In 2005 further growth of 1.1% is expected in the Italian market and 3.5% in the foreign market.
Furthermore, according to the Assopiastrelle-Prometeia survey the Italian share of world ceramic tile consumption will continue to fall, dropping from 34.3% in 2001 to an expected 26.7% in 2005.

The in-focus section contains a table with the figures for the Italian ceramic tile manufacturers' results. Further details on the Assopiastrelle-Prometeia Survey will be published in the issue of Ceramic World Review due to be released at Cevisama 2004.grafico.gifThe figures for the Italian ceramic tile manufacturers' resultstabella_preconsuntivo.pdf