Economy and markets

Total new home starts grew by 3.2%, while new single-family home sales were at their highest level in twelve years: +10.3%.

Acimac Research Dept. updates the yearly analysis of the world ceramic sanitaryware imports/exports flows. In 2018 sanitaryware exports continued to rise with 9.4% growth on 2017, marking a positive trend in all geographical areas of production.

With the acquisition of Micro, a specialist producer of technical porcelain mosaic, the group now owns four brands along with Terratinta Ceramiche, Ceramica Magica and Sartoria

The magazine Tile Italia has published the rankings of the largest Italian ceramic tile manufacturers updated to 31/12/2018.

La produzione di piastrelle si ferma a 415 milioni mq (-1,6%), il fatturato del settore perde il 3% scendendo a 5,4 miliardi di euro. Elevatissimi gli investimenti tecnologici, ancora oltre i 500 milioni di euro.

Total net sales grew by 5.9% to $9.5 billion. Sales of the Global Ceramics Division grew to $3.405 billion in 2017 (+7%), equivalent to 36% of the group’s net sales.

As part of its focus on China, Laminam has signed a new joint venture agreement with Fhr Resources and won major orders in Beijing.

The US ceramic tile demand reached 283 million sq.m in 2017, the highest value since 2006, boosting both the domestic production and imports.

The Spanish group led by Fernando Roig posted sales of 584 million euros in 2017 (120 million euros more than in 2016) and aims to reach 630 million euros in 2018.

Continua il trend positivo di crescita dell’industria spagnola delle piastrelle, che si conferma uno dei top player a livello mondiale del settore

Construction volume in the Euroconstruct area is expected to grow by 3.5% in 2017. 

Cities could tackle the global problem of rising levels of waste and depleted resources by using organic waste, such as bananas, potatoes and maize as building materials, Arup predicts

According to the European Outlook 2018, presented in Milan by "Scenari Immobiliari", after ten years of crisis, the European real estate markets are finally beginning to recover.

In 2016 global construction investments reached a value of around 8 trillion euros. Read the interesting analysis by Francesco Doria, head of Mapei Research Department.

In 2016 the turnover of the Spanish ceramic tile industry grew by 7% to 3.3 billion euros while the tile production reached 492 million sq.m (+12%).

Strengthened by steady growth in the housing and construction markets, the U.S. economy continued to expand in 2016, helping lift the U.S. ceramic tile market to a seventh straight year of growth.

For 2016 as a whole CRESME estimates total investments (including VAT) of 29.2 billion euros and 1.7 million applications.

Wienerberger Group remained on track throughout the first nine months of 2016.

According to the report released at the end of the 81^st Euroconstruct Conference held in June in Dublin, it is estimated that GDP will grow by 1.9% per annum for the 19 Euroconstruct countries in the three years 2016-2018.