فصلنامه گزیده دنیای سرامیک
پیاپی 66 (اردیبهشت 1404)

The fourth edition of the forecast report for the global ceramic tile market, published last November by the MECS-Acimac Research Centre, analyses production and consumption trends for the period 2024-2028, both by macro-areas and for 91 individual countries. The 238-page report concludes with summary tables ranking 90 producer and 146 consumer countries based on projected volume changes over the five-year period. Unsurprisingly, India tops the list for both production and consumption growth, while China sits at the bottom of the ranking with a negative outlook.

With a total attendance of more than 95,000 visitors, almost 50% of whom came from abroad, Cersaie once again reaffirmed its status as the premier international event for the ceramic tile and bathroom fur-nishings industry. A total of 95,321 visitors were recorded over the five-day exhibition, a decrease of 4% compared to the previous year. This slight decline was the result of a relatively stable turnout of interna-tional attendees (47,095 compared to 47,634 in 2023, a drop of just 1%) and a 6.7% decrease in Italian visi-tors (48,226 compared to 51,685).

The 28th Tecna, the International Exhibition of Technologies and Supplies for Surfaces held in Rimini last September, reaffirmed its status as the leading international trade fair for the ceramic industry, offering an in-depth look at the latest innovations in materials, processes and products.

On 25 September, Tecna hosted one of its most eagerly anticipated events, the presentation ceremony for the TecnAwards 2024.
Held in the Innovation Arena in the Rimini Expo Centre, the event was attended by top managers from many of the world’s leading ceramic companies.
Now in its second edition, the competition organised by Acimac and IEG in collaboration with the magazine Ceramic World Review recognised outstanding technological investments made by tile, sanitaryware and brick manufacturers in the last two years, based on nominations submitted by exhibitors at Tecna 2024. Three Special Jury Awards were also presented.

Founded in 1989 in Sadat City, Al Ezz Ceramics & Porcelain (Gemma) is one of Egypt’s leading manufactur-ers of high-end ceramic and porcelain tiles. Continuous investments in cutting-edge Italian technology have enabled the company to stand out for its design, innovation and production capacity, which now stands at 18 million square metres annually. These achievements were recognised last September at Tecna 2024 in Rimini, where Gemma won the Innovation and Sustainability category of the TecnAwards 2024 for the best technology investment in Africa in the last two years.

During the show, we met the company’s Managing Director Karim Abdel Galil to find out more about Gemma and the manufacturing and market context within which it operates.

In the period 2010-2023, global import/export flows of ceramic sanitaryware grew by 59.8% from 2.16 mil-lion to 3.45 million tonnes, corresponding to a compound annual growth rate of 4%. Following more than a decade of almost uninterrupted growth (the pandemic year 2020 saw the only contraction between 2010 and 2021), global exports of ceramic sanitaryware experienced a second consecutive year of decline in 2023, falling by 5.8% compared to 2022. The downward trend was observed in virtually all areas of pro-duction with the sole exception of the NAFTA region, which was sustained by the strong growth of Mexican exports.

The Villeroy & Boch Group’s acquisition of Ideal Standard – announced on 18 September 2023 and complet-ed on 29 February 2024 – has proved a big success, establishing the company as one of the world’s largest sanitaryware manufacturers and propelling it past the one-billion-euro revenue mark for the first time ev-er.

The German multinational achieved this milestone on 30 September 2024, when its consolidated revenue for the first nine months of the year reached €1,007.8 million (including licence income), a 55% increase compared to €650.6 million in the same period of 2023. The result was significantly bolstered by the €364.6 million contribution from Ideal Standard since 1 March 2024.

Geberit, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of sanitaryware and bathroom solutions, reported better-than-expected results in an extremely challenging environment in the first three quarters of 2024. Despite the sharp decline in the building construction industry and unfavourable currency developments, the Swiss multinational achieved slight growth in sales volume and maintained its operating profitability at a high level. Net sales increased by 0.4% to CHF 2.4 billion, or 3.1% in currency-adjusted terms. Operating cash-flow (EBITDA) reached CHF 754 million (+0.7%, or +4.6% adjusted), while EBITDA margin increased by 10 basis points to 31.4%. Net income decreased by 3.1% to CHF 501 million (currency-adjusted +1.3%) due to the significantly higher tax rate, which was primarily driven by the OECD minimum taxation law in force since 2024.

Sacmi Sanitaryware has reached a significant milestone with the production of mould number 7,400, deliv-ered recently to a leading Italian producer that has adopted Sacmi technology throughout its production process for the past twenty years. This mould, like 80% of those manufactured by Sacmi this year, was produced using the tooling method which involves direct milling of porous resin blocks via CNC work islands. Known worldwide for the design and development of porous resin moulds, Sacmi Sanitaryware has made significant advances in this technology in recent years. Alongside the traditional casting process, where moulds are produced from a case mould, Sacmi has increasingly adopted the tooling system. This approach drastically reduces mould development times while enabling the mould production department to operate continuously without personnel, as workstations can run 24 hours a day unmanned.

Effediesse of Campogalliano (Modena) chose the international exhibition Tecna 2024 in Rimini this Septem-ber to present its latest ceramic raw materials, one of which was the SA01 clay. While this material has already been successfully adopted in ceramic tile and slab production, the technological test results high-lighting SA01’s potential for use in sanitaryware production drew particularly strong interest from visitors.

The laboratory tests aimed to evaluate the individual properties of the clay and its contribution to the overall characteristics of sanitaryware bodies when used in specific compositions.

On 14 October, Esmalglass-Itaca (part of the Altadia Group) welcomed the partners in the H2frit project to its facilities in Villareal (Castellón) to see first-hand the results of the first pilot test of a hydrogen-powered ceramic frit kiln. Promoted by the Spanish ceramic frit, glaze and colour producers’ association ANFFECC and financed by the Generalitat Valenciana, the H2frit pilot project, entitled Decarbonisation of the ceramic frit sector through the use of hydrogen in the melting process for the production of ceramic frits, was approved last October by the Ministry of Industry of the Generalitat Valenciana. The project aims to assess the technical feasibility of replacing natural gas with hydrogen as a fuel for ceramic frit melting, thereby supporting the sector’s efforts toward decarbonisation.

In today’s increasingly unpredictable energy market, optimising energy resources at manufacturing sites has become essential. For ceramic manufacturers, kiln exhaust gases present a valuable opportunity for energy recovery despite the presence of contaminants.

Recognising this, numerous ceramic companies around the world are opting for advanced solutions from Poppi Clementino S.p.A., most notably the latest generation of P-Rex© Series heat exchangers.

Quality is paramount in ceramic slab production. Sacmi’s Id-Tiles application assigns each slab a “digital identity card” containing detailed information about its characteristics throughout production, storage and sale, thereby optimising intralogistics. Launched by Sacmi at Tecna 2024 in Rimini, the application is a module belonging to the HERE suite, a ce-ramic plant monitoring and management software capable of connecting machines and devices on the line with the factory ERP. Sacmi has further enhanced this software by developing dedicated packages tailored to specific objectives.

Infinity DRY is the new digital grit and powder application system with which System Ceramics (Coesia Group) accelerates the evolution of ceramic decoration. This new solution sums up the synergy between the excellence of digital printing expressed by Creadigit Infinity and the use of dry powders in the digital bars. The result is the possibility to reach new decoration performances for porcelain surfaces, taking the product to an increasingly realistic and three-dimensional level.

Energy efficiency has always been a top priority for the ceramic industry given the sector’s energy-intensive nature. This was particularly evident at the recent edition of Tecna, where numerous technologi-cal innovations aimed at enhancing sustainability were unveiled, and the topic featured prominently in de-bates, conferences and award ceremonies held during the exhibition. For this reason, the ceramic industry has always looked favourably on European and national initiatives designed to facilitate the energy transi-tion, including the new Transition 5.0 Plan which is allocating €6.3 billion of EU funding exclusively to pro-jects aimed at improving the energy efficiency of Italian industry.

For over a decade, Tosilab, part of System Ceramics, a Coesia company, has been studying trends and translating them into product proposals, exploring specific natural materials and designing colour and ma-terial combinations that reflect the evolution of design. Our analysis follows a dual approach: on the one hand, we collaborate with DOS Design Open Space, a Mi-lan-based agency specialising in interior design; on the other, our ongoing trendwatching efforts take us to major European cities and trade fairs. By integrating these two perspectives, we define ceramic-inspired trends, transforming insights into colour, surface and material. This process takes place in our handcrafted laboratory, where we recreate innovative surfaces shaped by the times in which we live. We then share these surfaces at our Open House events, important moments of dialogue with key industry players that allow us to translate the future of ceramic design into tangible projects.