Russia, a growing market

Mar 24, 2005

24/03/05 - The Russian tile market is continuing its growth trend. Again in 2004 it registered growth rates that would be unthinkable for a mature market, sparking considerable interest amongst industry professionals.

According to a survey entitled “The Ceramic industry and market in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus”, commissioned by the Italian Trade Commission ICE and Acimac (Italian ceramic plant and machinery manufacturers’ association) from D&E (a study centre specialising in legal and economic aspects of Russia and the CIS) and presented in February this year, the Russian ceramic tile market reached a value of just over a billion dollars in 2004, 15.8% up on the 865 million dollars of 2003 (itself a year of record growth with a 40% increase on the previous year).

In 2004 local production reached 104.209 million sq.m, 27% up on 2003. The quality of tile production has also improved. As a result, imported quantities have fallen to 24 million square metres (down 9.5% on 2003). By contrast, exports have increased to almost 4 million square metres (up 14.2%).

There are about 38 producer companies. The largest, Welor (recently acquired by the Marazzi Group) produced 15 million square metres in 2003 and has its own distribution network (Kerama) which holds about 20% of the domestic market.
The other large companies in terms of production volumes are Sokol (annual production of 11 million sq.m), Strojfarfor (9 million sq.m) and Lira Keramika (8.5 million sq.m).