World Ceramic Tile Production passes the 12 billion sq.m mark

Ceramic World Review anticipates the key figures of the third edition of the publication "World production and consumption of ceramic tiles" produced by the Acimac Research Department and due to be released in November.

• In 2014 world tile production reached 12,409 million sq.m, 3.6% up on 2013 and world tile consumption reached 12,095 million sq.m (up 4.2%).
• The Import and export growth showed a slowdown, with an increase by just 1% to 2,683 million sq.m: Chinese exports decrease, while EU exports increase. 

The September issue of Ceramic World Review, which will be distributed at Cersaie starting from Monday 28th, anticipates the key figures of the third edition of the publication "World production and consumption of ceramic tiles" produced by the Acimac Research Department: the study provides detailed analysis of the ten-year trends up to 2014 in industry, market, per capita consumption and export flows in large geographic regions and in the 76 largest tile producer, consumer, exporter and importer countries.

In 2014 world tile production and consumption continued to expand, although more slowly than in previous years. World tile production reached 12,409 million sq.m, 3.6% up on the 11,973 million sq.m of 2013. Growth was reported in almost all areas of the planet and in 8 of the 10 leading producer countries.

World tile consumption reached 12,095 million sq.m (up 4.2% on the 11,604 million sq.m of 2013).

The slowdown in import and export growth was even more evident. World exports increased by just 32 million sq.m, +1.05% from 2,655 million to 2,683 million sq.m, a much slower rate of growth than the average annual growth rate of 9.4% in the period 2009-2013. The biggest increase in both percentage and absolute terms was in the European Union, which exported 819 million sq.m (up 3.9% on 2013) thanks to the continued recovery of Spain (339 million sq.m, up 6.6%) and Italy (314 million sq.m, ip 3.6%). The EU's share of total exports rose to 30.5%

Main responsible for the slower growth were the exports falls in non-EU Europe (-3.2%), North America (-2.9%) and Africa (-16.7%), and, above all (due to the biggest export volumes), the first real slowdown in Asian exports, which remained virtually stable at 1,488 million sq.m (+0.6%), 55.4% of the world total. This was mainly due to China's exports, which experienced the first real downturn, dropping to 1,110 million sq.m (down 3.3% on 2013).

Read the full article publieshed on Ceramic World Review 113/2015