Italian ceramic industry driven by exports

With 273 companies and 37,058 employees, the Italian ceramic industry (ceramic tiles, sanitaryware, tableware and refractory materials) closed 2011 with a turnover of 6.66 billion euro, 2.6% up on 2010.

According to figures from Confindustria Ceramica's annual statistical survey, exports made a significant contribution to the results just like in 2010. Together with turnover generated by Italian companies operating abroad, they accounted for 5 billion euro, 75% of total turnover.

The lion's share of turnover was as usual generated by the ceramic tile sector. Domestic Italian production totalled 399.7 million square metres (+3.2%), while total sales (413 million sq.m, stable at 2010 levels) generated a turnover of 4.716 billion euro (+1.86%), consisting of 1.146 billion euro of domestic Italian sales (-5.8%) and 3.570 billion euro of exports (+4.6%). Exports performed particularly strongly in Russia (+20.2%), Africa (+14.9%) and Australia/Oceania (+11.8%). In spite of a sharp contraction in the weaker economies such as Ireland, Greece and Portugal, the European market saw overall growth of 4.6%, with the best performances in Lithuania (+38.4%), Latvia (25.3%), Czech Republic (+19.5%), Austria (+9.8%), France (+9.1%), Hungary (+8.9%) and Germany (+8.4%).

The sector counted 163 companies (9 fewer than in 2010) and 22,189 employees (-5%). In spite of the current difficult period, it reported sharp growth in investments (+10.9%) to 5.3% of annual turnover.

The 20 Italian-owned tile manufacturers located outside Italy also reported good results, including a turnover of 1.045 billion euro (+5.6%), including 866.8 million euro from domestic sales (+6.3%) and 178.3 million euro from exports (+2.4%). The production levels of these plants also increased, reaching 122 million square metres (+5.2%), as did the number of employees, up to 7,451 (+5.6%).

The first quarter of 2012 essentially confirmed the trend already observed in 2011. The sharp growth in sales to non-EU countries (+8.7% overall, including peaks of +45% in the Gulf region, +16.8% in Russia, +10.7% in the USA and +7.8% in Asia) was offset by the fall of a few percentage points in European markets and the slump in sales in the domestic Italian market (-16.25%).