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[June 2002]
Brick to Feature at BAU
According to Messe Muenchen, the organisers of BAU 2003, new developments in heavy clay product manufacture including all types of brick and roofing tile, are keeping up the deserved reputation of this building material sector. At BAU 2003 - which takes place from 13-18 January 2003 at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre - around 30 exhibitors in Hall A3 will be presenting innovations in brick.The brick and roof tile making industry, which employs 12,000 people in total in 250 factories in Germany, is not having an easy time of it at present. It is particularly hard hit by the recession in the German building and construction industry. In 2001, the sector suffered a 9.6% drop in production compared to the previous year.
Total sales fell by around 17.2% to around 1.25 billion euro - just one previously sales had been as high as 1.51 billion euro. In 2001, the fall in sales of masonry brick alone was 16.6%. Around 9.82 million cubic metres of masonry brick (backing brick, frostproof brick, engineering brick and paving bricks) were produced in 2001, with a production value of 510 million euro.
The situation in the paving brick sector was not quite so extreme, as this segment found it could still profit from the renovation business. However, for the first time the economic downturn had an adverse effect on roof tile sales. Up until 2000, this business area had enjoyed strong growth in production value but, in 2001, production volumes fell by 9.5%. In terms of value this represents sales of around 710 million euro, a drop of 11.9%. Clay roof tile in Germany has traditionally enjoyed a strong market, being still the most popular roof covering material. Only around one-third of turnover comes from new build; the larger proportion is from renovation work.
One aspect of clay building materials expected to be featured at BAU is energy efficient building. This is exemplified by the largest low energy building in Europe: in Vienna a seven-story complex of 300 low energy apartments has been built in brick. Although it has attractive features such as a swimming pool on the top floor, saunas, kindergartens and a supermarket, the square metre price is just 930 euro. If these additional features are factored out, the price per square metre is 770 euro. Other exemplary brick-built projects are a social housing estate in Bochum-Werne and a three-litre house in Celle (both Germany).
BAU 2003 will be the 15th in this series of international trade fairs for building materials, building systems and building renovation.
For further information, e-mail Roger Sherman at: munich@pattern.prestel.co.uk
ENDS