Final end-of-year figures confirm earlier forecasts: Italian manufacturers close 2024 with revenue of €1.82 billion after the previous year’s record high. Chairman Lamberti warns: “Unfortunately, the results were entirely expected. Tariffs and wars are already weighing on 2025.”
The Italian ceramic machinery and equipment manufacturing sector ended 2024 with a turnover of €1.82 billion, 23% down onthe record €2.37 billion achieved in 2023. These results are in line with last December’s preliminary figures and confirm that the slowdown already reported in 2023 continued into the following year with all key indicators in negative territory.
These data were published in the 33rd National Statistical Survey compiled by the Mecs-Acimac Research Centre, which provides an annual snapshot of the sector.
Exports
Exports, traditionally the sector’s main driver, generated revenue of €1.29 billion, down 25% year on year while still accounting for 70.7% of total sales. The European Union remained the leading destination market for sales of Italian machinery with €335.6 million (-13.4%), followed by Southeast Asia with €184.4 million (-37.7%) and the Middle East with €183 million (-22.8%).
The domestic market
Sales in the Italian domestic market fell by 17.6% to €534.3 million.
Companies and employees
In 2024 the sector comprised 135 companies (three fewer than in 2023) employing 7,152 people, a small 1.8% year-on-year decline.
Client sectors
An analysis of turnover by client sector shows that ceramic tiles continued to account for the vast majority of sales with a total turnover of €1.52 billion, down 24% on 2023. Sanitaryware climbed to second place with €101.5 million (-14%), overtaking bricks and roof tiles at €101.4 million (-24.6%). Next came refractories, tableware and technical ceramics.
Turnover by product type
Changes in turnover shares generated by the various types of machinery have had little effect on the rankings compared with the previous year. Forming machinery retained the top position at €332.3 million (-18.5%), ahead of clay preparation machinery at €246.5 million (-41%). Finishing machinery and equipment ranked third with €245.4 million (-9.8%). These were followed by firing machinery, digital decoration machines, storage and handling machines, moulds, glazing and decorating machines, sorting, packaging and palletising machines and finally drying machinery.
Outlook for 2025
The difficulties encountered in 2024 are continuing into 2025, with companies reporting a similar performance to that of a year ago. The highly unfavourable economic situation is confirmed by an analysis of business sentiment, which reveals a sharp increase (to over 40%) in negative expectations for a recovery in sales.
“Geopolitical tensions are also having a negative impact”
Commenting on the figures, Acimac Chairman Paolo Lamberti offered a number of insights:
“Last year our sector found itself squeezed between a cyclical downturn and a number of endogenous factors, such as unscrupulous international competition and rising production costs. If anything, the pressure has now intensified further as a result of US tariffs, the uncertainty caused by President Trump’s continued policy U-turns, and fresh conflicts in the Middle East. The consequences of the war in Ukraine continue to be felt, with Russia still under trade sanctions, while stubbornly high energy prices are impacting customers’ operations not only in Italy and Europe but also across Asia. We have little influence over geopolitics, so we must roll up our sleeves and leverage the strengths of Italian manufacturing in all markets and regions. With this in mind, we launched the “We Are Acimac” brand in 2024 to promote the quality, innovation and reliability of our technology. We will have to wait until 2026 to see a recovery in global investment, but in the meantime I’d like to note a number of positive aspects. First, digital decoration technology saw only a very modest decline in sales (-1%), while finishing machines and moulds achieved an above-average performance, despite the overall contraction. And amid the general slowdown, some export markets showed less negative and in some cases even positive performances. For example, sales volumes to Africa and East Asia actually grew while exports to the EU fell far less than the overall average.”