WORLD TILE TRENDS REVEALED
The ninth edition of World production and consumption of ceramic tiles produced by MECS/Acimac Research Centre is published this month.
Consisting of almost 300 pages of charts, tables and commentary, this provides detailed analysis of global trends over the ten-year period up to 2020. It also includes an outlook for the period 2021 to 2025.
In spite of the pandemic, 2020 saw a partial recovery in global tile production and consumption, after two years of downturn. World tile consumption climbed to 16,035 million sqm (+2.5%), while world production, which was hindered by temporary plant interruptions in many countries, grew by 1.7% to 16,093 million sqm.
Production in Asia rose by 2.8% to 11.9 billion sqm, mainly due to the increase in volumes produced in China, India and Iran, which offset contractions in Vietnam and Indonesia.
Production fell in the EU (1,218 million sqm; -6.6%), while it grew in non-EU Europe (638 million sqm; +11.9%), thanks to a sharp upswing in Turkey.
Production on the American continent also fell to 1,409 million sqm: in North America the losses amounted to just -2.7% (321 million sqm), while in Central and South America, the region worst hit by the extended 2020 lockdowns, production fell to 1,088 million sqm (-7.6%).
Growth continued in Africa, where production reached 918 million sqm (+6.1%).
During 2020 India became the world’s second largest exporter and the EU exported 75.7% of its production.
Regarding the future outlook, further growth is expected in 2021. Chinese production was up 14.7% in the first half of 2020; Brazil was up 52% (+24% forecast for the whole year); Spain was up 34%; Iran up 10% and Mexico up 48% (+18% forecast for the end of the year). Italian production is also expected to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, driven by increasing exports.
The five-year outlook published by MECS is also very positive and suggests that world tile production may reach 20 billion sqm by 2025 (CAGR 2021-2025 +4.7%), with the strongest growth in Asia and Africa.
The full report is available to purchase from the MECS website.