Ceramic machinery sector reports 11.5% turnover growth

Ceramic machinery sector reports 11.5% turnover growth

Acimac (Association of Italian Manufacturers of Machinery and Equipment for ceramics)

The 14th National Statistical Survey of the Italian ceramic plant and machinery industry has been unveiled by Acimac. The ceramic machinery sector’s 2005 results confirm the positive trend that began in 2004. The sector closed the year with a total turnover of 1777.4 million (up 11.5% on 2004), an increase of 184 million . The Italian market continues its recovery with 2% growth (457.1 million ) following R&D investments in machinery and technology. The values of exports have increased from 1145.4 to 1320.3 million (+15.3%). The percentage of total turnover attributable to exports has consequently risen from 71.9% to 74.3%.

The companies
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.

Markets
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 . 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 (+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 (32% up on 2004).
Sales to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan continue to fall, down from 97.9 to 64.9 million (–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 in 2004 to 101.5 million in 2005 (+16.8%).
North America, including Mexico, accounted for 103.6 million of exports (+10.1%).
Exports to Central and South America have further increased by 29.9% to 121.2 million .

Client 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 (9.3%), sanitaryware (5.2%), tableware (3.3%), refractories (3.2%) and lastly various ceramic products (unchanged at 0.1%).
Machinery for heavy clay has generated a turnover of 165.4 million (33.8 million higher than in 2004).
Refractory machinery also saw a significant increase in sales with a turnover of 57.6 million , largely generated by exports.

Types of machinery
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.

Forecasts for 2006
The 2005 figures reflect a period of internal reorganization in the sector. Orders are generated prevalently 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 in 2006. Therefore it is expected that 2006 will be a year of consolidation and stabilization, in which some markets have completely suspended their investments while other areas are reorganizing their commercial expansion policies.