Ceramic machinery revenues fall to 1.7 billion euros

The Italian ceramic and brick machinery and equipment industry posted revenues of 1.73 billion euros in 2019 following five years of record growth that had led Italian manufacturers to a turnover in excess of 2.2 billion euros.

In 2019, the signs of a slowdown that had already emerged the previous year intensified and the decline in volumes reached 19.8%. This decline was a combined result of the expiry of the Industry 4.0 tax incentives in Italy and the slowdown in international construction sector investments, particularly ceramic tiles.

Ten years on from the disastrous year 2009 when the sector abruptly lost more than 30% of its revenues, this niche segment of the Italian mechanical engineering industry, 73% of which is dependent on foreign markets, is now facing a second severe contraction. In particular, it saw a more than one fifth decline in exports in 2019, down 20.4% to 1,262 million euros. Meanwhile, the Italian domestic market contracted by 18.3% to a turnover of 468 million euros.

This photograph with its many shadows and just a few bright spots was captured by the 28th edition of the Statistical Survey conducted by the ACIMAC-MECS Research Department ahead of the annual meeting of the Confindustria-affiliated trade association which currently represents 141 companies with 6,971 employees.

One positive aspect is the fact that employment has remained stable, rising by one percentage point in 2019 despite the slump in turnover and the consolidation of the sector’s manufacturing structure. 70% of activities are concentrated along the Via Emilia, in particular around the Sassuolo ceramic tile district, while the provinces of Bologna, Modena and Reggio Emilia alone account for over 80% of the total employment and turnover generated by Italian-made technology, which despite the economic difficulties maintains its world leadership position.

“Given the signs at the end of 2018, we were already expecting a decline in volumes, albeit not of this magnitude, especially after the significant technological investments driven by the Industry 4.0 incentives. The weakness of the global construction industry isn’t helping us and we now also have to deal with the effects of the Covid-19 emergency and lockdown, which have impacted our manufacturing operations and disrupted world trade,” said ACIMAC’s outgoing chairman Paolo Sassi. “We are counting on a rebound effect next year and in 2022.”

Exports

Exports have always been the sector’s main strength but in 2019 saw an even worse decline than in 2018, dropping by 20.4% year on year to reach 1,262 million euros, 73% of total turnover.

The European Union remains the Italian ceramic machinery industry’s most dependable market with a very small decline in sales (down 0.9% on 2018) and has also confirmed its role as the top export destination with a 28.8% share of total exports (363.8 million euros). And while exports to Greater China (China together with Hong Kong and Taiwan) fell by a half in the space of twelve months, plummeting to eighth place in the market rankings with 63.5 million euros, the rest of Asia (“others Asia”) climbed to second position with 186.7 million euros in exports (14.8% of the total) despite a 21% contraction compared to the previous year.

Africa rose to third place with 12.5% of total exports and a turnover of 157.7 million euros (-15%), while South America recorded 2.9% growth in 2019 and a sales volume of 143.4 million euros to become the fourth largest market. Non-EU Europe saw a 43.0% decline to 135.4 million euros, or 11% of total exports, dropping to fifth place from second in 2018. The Middle East likewise saw a contraction (-31.3%), falling to sixth place with a volume of 122.1 million euros (9.7% of the total). In contrast, North America rose by one position to seventh place despite an 18.4% fall in turnover to 87.9 million euros. Oceania played an increasingly marginal role with just 1.3 million euros of exports (down 53% on 2018).

Client sectors and families of machinery

Despite the severe decline (-21.2%), the tile industry remains the leading client sector for the Italian ceramic machinery manufacturers and accounts for 85% of total turnover and a total value of 1,471 million euros.

The sanitaryware machinery market remains in second place with sales of 84.5 million euros (compared to 106.7 million euros in 2018). Despite registering a 20.7% decrease on an annual basis, sanitaryware was the only ceramic machinery client market that last year saw significant growth in domestic sales (+15.2%), counterbalanced however by an even bigger decline in export sales (-24.1%).

The heavy clay machinery manufacturers ranked third with a turnover of 80.5 million euros (8.4% of the total) despite a further 11.1% contraction. The refractory machinery sector was in fourth position with a turnover of 60.9 million euros. It remains the most dynamic client segment with 10.4% growth in turnover compared to 2018.

The tableware industry saw a 21.1% reduction in turnover to 23.7 million euros, 97.5% of which was generated by exports. Although the technical ceramics sector marked up 9.3% growth, its 9.5 million euro turnover accounted for less than one percentage point of overall export sales.

Among the various types of machines, digital and green technologies saw particularly strong growth as a result of investments in environmental sustainability: digital decoration systems +4.8% (turnover of 164 million euros), purification systems +10.5% (36.2 million euros), quality and process control machines +27.1% (17.2 million euros) and laboratory instruments +9.9%.