African production and consumption of ceramic tiles continue to rise, as well as imports from India and Spain, while imports from China registered a sharp slowdown in 2018.

The magazine Tile Italia has published the rankings of the largest Italian ceramic tile manufacturers updated to 31/12/2018.

In 2018 the African construction industry saw a real boom. with the number of projects increasing by 60%.  del 60% per numero di progetti. Egypt is the country topping the rankings.

By the year 2030 Africa will have 17 cities with more than 5 million inhabitants.

The decline in investments in the construction sector in many countries worldwide has also affected manufacturers of capital goods for the ceramic industry. The industry’s revenue has fallen by 3.5% to 2.1 billion euros. Exports have been the worst hit with a 4.3% decline.

According to figures unveiled by Confindustria Ceramica for the performance of the three sectors in 2018, refractories and tableware performed well but the sanitaryware industry saw a downturn.

Tile production dropped to 415 million sq.m (-1.6%), while the sector’s turnover fell by 3% to 5.4 billion euros. Investments in technology remained very high at more than 500 million euros.

US ceramic tile companies filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission to impose antidumping duties on Chinese imports.

The new study by Acimac Research Department examines the 2015-2017 economic and financial data for 345 companies, of which 75 operating in Italy, 72 in Spain and 198 in other countries worldwide.

Confindustria Ceramica Chairman Giovanni Savorani describes the various factors that have contributed to the slowdown of the sector as well as the measures that have been put in place to exploit new opportunities.

While carpet and hardwood are suffering a decrease of their market share, the US floor covering market experiences the strong advance of LVT.

According to the 86th Euroconstruct Conference report, building production in the area will grow until 2021 (+2.8% in 2018).