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[June 2006]
Italian Ceramic Machinery Sector Reports 11.5% Turnover Growth
The 14th National Statistical Survey of the Italian ceramic plant and machinery industry has been unveiled by Acimac. The sector performed strongly in 2005 with a turnover of 1.777 billion euro. The Italian market returned 2% growth while export turnover rose by 15.3% to reach 74.3% of total salesThe Middle Eastern market remains strong with a 3.3% increase in sales to 289.5 million euro and likewise the European market with 17.9% growth and 282.1 million euro sales and the Eastern European market with 32% growth to 198.1 million euro. Sales to Asia (excluding China) have soared by 54.8%.
Exports to Africa are recovering with 16.8% growth, whereas sales to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan have seen a fall of 33.7% essentially due to the increased capacity for penetration of Chinese products. Exports to Central and South American countries have increased by almost 30%.
Acimac said that there were a total of 156 Italian suppliers of ceramic machinery in 2005, 19 fewer than the 175 of the previous year (-10.9%). This figure is due to the natural processes of company mergers and diversification of activities.
Reviewing markets, the organisation said that the Middle East, which has been showing uninterrupted growth since 1999, remained the most important geographical area for exports of Italian ceramic technology in 2005 with sales of 289.5 million euro. Iran and Turkey continue to be the countries with the strongest demand for Italian plant and machinery.
Sales within the European Union increased from 239.3 to 282.1 million euro (+17.9%), accounting for a 21.4% share of total foreign turnover. However these results were not sufficient to allow the EU to recover its position as the leading export destination and it remained in second place just behind the Middle East.
Eastern European countries remain the third largest export market with growth in sales to 198.1 million euro (32% up on 2004).
Sales to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan continue to fall, down from 97.9 to 64.9 million euro (33.7%). By contrast the rest of Asia has experienced 54.8% growth.
The African market is showing a strong recovery, up from 86.9 million euro in 2004 to 101.5 million euro in 2005 (an increase of 16.8%). North America, including Mexico, accounted for 103.6 million euro of exports (+10.1%). Exports to Central and South America have further increased by 29.9% to 121.2 million euro.
Looking at client manufacturing sectors, the year 2005 broadly confirmed the now well-established breakdown of machinery sales to the six different client ceramic sectors. The tile machinery sector continues to dominate with almost 80% of turnover, followed by machinery for heavy clay with 9.3%, sanitaryware with 5.2%, tableware with 3.3%, refractories with 3.2% and lastly various ceramic products, which remains at 0.1%.
Specifically, the value of sales of tile production machinery increased to 1.403.3 billion euro (+6.3%). This was mainly due to exports, which alone accounted for more than 1 billion euro (+8.4%,). There was a smaller increase in sales in Italy (+0.9%) bringing turnover to 365.1 million euro.
Machinery for heavy clay generated a turnover of 165.4 million euro (33.8 million euro higher than in 2004). Tableware machinery is recovering from the difficulties of 2004 and is regaining share with a turnover of 58 million euro (an increase of 26.8 million euro). After considerable growth in 2004, sanitaryware machinery sales have stabilised at a value of 92.2 million euro (an increase of 1.1 million euro). Refractory machinery also saw a significant increase in sales with a turnover of 57.6 million euro, largely generated by exports. Sales of machinery for various ceramic products have continued to fall, reaching about 1 million euro.
As in 2004, the contributions of individual types of machine to the sector’s total turnover have shown no significant changes compared to previous years. Increases in turnover have been reported for all families of machinery with the sole exception of those for product finishing.
Acimac said that the 2005 figures reflect a period of internal reorganisation in the sector. Orders are generated mainly by exports, although the Italian market has also seen a recovery. However, the domestic market is continuing to experience long-term structural difficulties deriving from the weakness of the Italian ceramic industry and its failure to react with determination to the growth of international competitors.
To remain competitive in an unstable international situation, the ceramic machinery sector must continue to offer increasingly innovative technological proposals and therefore maintain its investments in research. For this reason, it must gradually pursue the concentration process as a key factor for absorbing the growing costs of research and market presence.
The macroeconomic forecasts for the sector suggest that the growth in output of the last two years is unlikely to be repeated this year. Acimac said it therefore expected 2006 to be a year of consolidation and stabilisation in which some markets have completely suspended their investments while other areas are reorganising their commercial expansion policies.
www.acimac.it
ENDS