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[February 2002]
Italians Dominate Machinery Exhibit at Cevisama
ACIMAC said that nearly half of the companies in the ceramic plant and machinery section of this year's Cevisama show - just having finished its run in Valencia in Spain - were Italian, making them the largest foreign country group in this sector.The sector's leading companies were set to take part, including the best known names in this area of ceramic technology. ACIMAC - together with the Italian Trade Commission - organised a 'Punto Italia'. This was a 150 square metre stand which was designed as an institutional information centre, a catalogue distribution point for companies taking part in the initiative and as a meeting point for local professionals.
Spain is the number one export market for the Italian ceramic plant and technology suppliers with easily the largest share of Italian exports to Western Europe - an area that as a whole accounts for exports of 370 million euros, 36% of the sector's total exports of 1.033 billion euros.
Many of the Italian machinery manufacturers have been operating in the Spanish market for years with their own production units and sales branches, located at the heart of the ceramic district of Castellon, where most of Spain's 255 tile manufacturers are based.
With a production of 621 million square metres per annum, Spain is the third largest ceramic tile producer in the world after PR China (1.6 billion square metres) and Italy (632 million square metres). In spite of the unfavourable situation for the ceramic industry, during the first nine months of 2001, Spanish exports rose by 6.3% compared to the same period in 2000 and reached a value in the period of 1.5 billion euros.
ENDS