Official data offered good news to the ceramics sector in Spain at the end of 2016, which saw its turnover increase by 7% compared to the previous period.
This rebound in billing was largely due to the sector achieving a new record in exports, but let’s analyze the data in detail:
In 2016, the ceramic sector achieved a turnover of 3,316 million euros in total, thus improving the data from previous years, which have been offering encouraging figures of continuous growth for 6 years. Of this total turnover, 2,570 million euros belong to exports, which improved by 4.8% compared to 2015, and 746 million belong to the national market, which increased a spectacular 16% in 2016 compared to the previous year.
The Spanish Association of Ceramic Tile and Flooring Manufacturers (ASCER) is not only happy to offer these very positive figures in terms of turnover, but also states that more than 500 direct jobs have been created and the number of employees has also multiplied. private investments.
All of this consolidates the ceramics sector in Spain as the main producer in Europe and the second in the world, only behind China.
However, although we are the main producer in production volume, we are still second in terms of productivity, since Italian ceramic companies continue to be above our market in average prices.
The president of ASCER, Isidoro Zarzoso, explained in an interview that the productive investments that are achieving these successes in numbers in the ceramic sector in Spain are divided into two main lines:
- QUANTITY: On the one hand, companies are increasing their production capacity (by purchasing industrial machines for ceramics, hiring new operators, etc.) to be able to cope with the increase in demand in recent years.
- QUALITY: But, in addition, quality is being improved by investing in R&D, that is, making investments in cutting-edge technologies, expanding the product offering, and optimizing the performance of production processes and their competitiveness, among others. Other actions.
We hope that these good data will accompany us again throughout 2017.