World ceramic tile market returns to 2019 production levels

As expected, ceramic tile production fell in 2022, registering 16.76 billion square meters, or 9.7% below the 18.57 billion of 2021, a decrease of 1.8 billion square meters, mainly attributed to China.

However, other regions also saw a drop. The European Union recorded an 8.4% drop in production. In the same vein, countries outside the EU recorded a 13.5% drop compared to the previous year.

On the American continent, the situation was not very different. North America maintained the same levels as 2021, 378 million square meters, with a small increase of 0.3%, however production in Central and South America registered 1.24 billion square meters, a drop of 8.4%.

In contrast to the other continents, Africa showed a 13% growth in production, thanks to gains in Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia, with a total production of 1.04 billion square meters.

Inflation, the energy crisis and the decrease in demand following the post-pandemic boom are factors that have impacted the industry's performance in general.

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Exports also felt the impact of the fall in production

All continents saw a drop in the number of m² sold to the international market. Only North America saw an increase of 5.8%.

Asia fell by 4.3%, the European Union by 8.2% and Central and South America by 10.2%. Non-EU European countries saw the sharpest drop, reaching 26%.

The European Union had the highest export quota in 2022, totaling 76.2% of its entire production. All the other continents were well behind this figure.

In the first half of 2023, the largest exporters saw a decrease in their exports, with the exception of India, which grew by 31% in volume and 24.8% in value.

Overall, the year 2022 saw a decrease of 8.1%, totaling 2.77 billion square meters traded internationally. The data was taken from Ceramic World Review. The full article (in English) is in issue 153/2023 and you can access it by clicking here.

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