2022 World Production and Consumption of Ceramic Tiles 10th Edition

October 14, 2022 from ACIMAC Research Center

Despite the negative expectations caused by the Covid pandemic and factory lockdowns, global tile production and consumption figures increased in 2020 after declining in the previous two years, while trade is affected by the sanitary emergency and the consequent slowdown in international transport and logistics, with a drop in exports and imports of tiles.

However, examining the data in more detail we see that there are many distinctions to be made. This is the reason why also in this ninth edition of our best-selling report we continue to propose a thorough examination of the current situation and of the evolution in the last ten years both at macro-area level and at single country level, with an analysis by volumes in square meters and also by values in euros.

The final figures for 2020 present us an unexpected growth in both world tile production (+1.6%) – even higher than the average CAGR of the last decade (+1.1%) – and consumption (+2.3%) – still higher than the average growth rate since 2011 (+1.4%). International trade, instead, registers a decrease (-2.1% with respect to the previous year, while CAGR 2011-2020 is +1.9%). Asia continues to be the leading producer and consumer of ceramic tiles, accounting for over 70% of the world market. But the most interesting growth rates are in non-EU countries, with a double-digit increase, over +11% in terms of production, consumption and exports. On the other hand, European Union and the entire American continent suffer.

We must emphasize right away that the 2020 global volumes as well as the entire historical data set for Chinese and Asian tile production has undergone a substantial revision. A deeper and more thorough examination of Chinese tile manufacturers (see MECS, “China ceramic tiles & slabs” 2021), recently realized by our study center, allowed us in fact to revise the figures related to the actual installed Chinese production capacity.

It turns out that China alone is worth 52.7% of global tile production, with 8.47 billion sqm and 3% growth between 2019 and 2020, after two years of production declines and compared to a CAGR in the last decade of -0.3%. However, the most interesting producing countries in terms of dynamism and volumes are now India (1.3 billion sqm, +8.8% average annual growth), Turkey (+25% in 2020), Iran (+12.8%), Algeria (+32%), Bangladesh (+14.1%).

If we consider the market in terms of value, European countries stand out in the rankings: Italy is still the world leading tile exporter, even if it loses 1.8% with respect to 2019, while Spain is in third place. Germany and France (surpassed only by the United States, whose demand is decreasing) remain on the podium of the main importing countries (in value). The average price per square meter shows big differences in the various markets, with price lists ranging from the average 1.1 euros/sqm of exported Ugandan tiles to 13.6 euros of Italian exports. On the other hand, China imports mainly high-end tiles with an average price of 19.5 euros per sqm, against 2.3 euros of tiles imported by Paraguay.

This study sets out the data in a simple and clear way with the aim of providing the reader with a document that can be consulted immediately and simply as a work tool.