tile international 1/2015

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Schlüter®-DITRA-HEAT-E Elektrische Flächentemperierung an Wand und BodenElectrical heating within walls and floors

Vom Boden an die Wand Keramik und Naturstein sind wegen Ihrer Fähigkeit, Wärme zu spei-chern und gleichmäßig abzugeben, nicht nur für die Bodentemperierung ideal geeignet, sondern auch für den Einsatz an der Wand. Daher haben wir konsequent die Anwendungsmöglichkeiten des innovativen Schlüter®-DITRA-HEAT-E Systems weiterentwickelt und bieten es nun auch für die Temperierung von Wandbelägen an.

From floor to wallThanks to their ability to retain and evenly dissipate heat, ceramic tiles and natural stone are not only ideally suited for floor heating, but also for use in walls. We therefore have consistently expanded the application options for the innovative Schlüter®-DITRA-HEAT-E system, which is now also available to create heated wall coverings.

Entkoppeln neutralisiert Uncoupling neutralizes

Formveränderung deflection forces

Lastabtragungdirekt in den Untergrund

Load transferdirectly into the substrate

RissüberbrückungCrack-bridging

Einfache Verlegung der HeizkabelSimple installation of heating cables

Schlüter-Systems KG · Schmölestraße 7 · D-58640 Iserlohn · Tel.: +49 2371 971-0 · Fax: +49 2371 971-111 · www.schlueter-systems.com

schafft wohlige Wärme Creates instant cozy warmth

temperierte Zonen können individuell ausgelegt werden Heating zones can be configured individually

ideal für Renovierungen dank niedriger Aufbauhöhe Ideally suited for renovation projects thanks to low assembly height

entkoppelt mit bewährter DITRA-Technologie Uncoupling with proven DITRA technology

AbP geprüft als Abdichtung zugelassen AbP certified – approved as waterproofing

Funktionen auf einen Blick: Functions at a glance:

Argumente, die überzeugen: System benefits include:

DitraHeat_Wand_Tile_Internat A4 D_GB_2015.indd 1 10.02.15 10:58

Schlüter®-DITRA-HEAT-E Elektrische Flächentemperierung an Wand und BodenElectrical heating within walls and floors

Vom Boden an die Wand Keramik und Naturstein sind wegen Ihrer Fähigkeit, Wärme zu spei-chern und gleichmäßig abzugeben, nicht nur für die Bodentemperierung ideal geeignet, sondern auch für den Einsatz an der Wand. Daher haben wir konsequent die Anwendungsmöglichkeiten des innovativen Schlüter®-DITRA-HEAT-E Systems weiterentwickelt und bieten es nun auch für die Temperierung von Wandbelägen an.

From floor to wallThanks to their ability to retain and evenly dissipate heat, ceramic tiles and natural stone are not only ideally suited for floor heating, but also for use in walls. We therefore have consistently expanded the application options for the innovative Schlüter®-DITRA-HEAT-E system, which is now also available to create heated wall coverings.

Entkoppeln neutralisiert Uncoupling neutralizes

Formveränderung deflection forces

Lastabtragungdirekt in den Untergrund

Load transferdirectly into the substrate

RissüberbrückungCrack-bridging

Einfache Verlegung der HeizkabelSimple installation of heating cables

Schlüter-Systems KG · Schmölestraße 7 · D-58640 Iserlohn · Tel.: +49 2371 971-0 · Fax: +49 2371 971-111 · www.schlueter-systems.com

schafft wohlige Wärme Creates instant cozy warmth

temperierte Zonen können individuell ausgelegt werden Heating zones can be configured individually

ideal für Renovierungen dank niedriger Aufbauhöhe Ideally suited for renovation projects thanks to low assembly height

entkoppelt mit bewährter DITRA-Technologie Uncoupling with proven DITRA technology

AbP geprüft als Abdichtung zugelassen AbP certified – approved as waterproofing

Funktionen auf einen Blick: Functions at a glance:

Argumente, die überzeugen: System benefits include:

DitraHeat_Wand_Tile_Internat A4 D_GB_2015.indd 1 10.02.15 10:58

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ACIMAC RESEARCH DEPARTMENTFINANCIAL STATEMENT A N A L Y S I S

ACIMACVia Fossa Buracchione 8441126 Baggiovara (MO)

ITALYT. +39 059 510 336

[email protected]

WORLD SANITARYWARE MANUFACTURERS

PRODUTTORI MONDIALI DI SANITARI

WORLD MANUFACTURINGCOMPANIES:

CERAMIC MACHINERY, COLOR&GLAZEAvailable from January 2015MORE THAN 200 COMPANIES

CERAMIC TILESAvailable from January 2015MORE THAN 300 COMPANIES

HEAVY CLAYAvailable from February 2015MORE THAN 200 COMPANIES

SANITARYWAREAvailable March 2015MORE THAN 100 COMPANIES

ACIMAC RESEARCH DEPARTMENT


ITALYT. +39 059 510 336

[email protected]

WORLD HEAVY CLAY MANUFACTURERS

PRODUTTORI MONDIALI DI LATERIZI

FINANCIAL STATEMENT A N A L Y S I S

Is the company growing or decreasing?L’azienda ha valori in

crescita o in contrazione?

Is the company’s financial structure well-balanced?L’azienda ha una struttura finanziaria equilibrata?

FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS: MAIN CONTENTS


mr. Luca [email protected]

T. +39 059 510336



ITALYT. +39 059 510 336

[email protected]

WORLD CERAMIC TILES MANUFACTURERS

PRODUTTORI MONDIALI DI PIASTRELLE


English and Italian text


ACIMACVia Fossa Buracchione 84

41126 Baggiovara (MO) ITALY

T. +39 059 510 [email protected]

WORLD CERAMIC AND HEAVY CLAY MACHINERY MANUFACTURERS

AND COLOR & GLAZE MANUFACTURERS

PRODUTTORI MONDIALI DI MACCHINARI PER

L'INDUSTRIA CERAMICA E DEL LATERIZIO E COLORIFICI


2nd EDITIONyear 2014

2nd EDITION

FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSISANALISI DI BILANCIO

BOOK NOW THE NEW STUDIES!www.acimac.it - [email protected]

3-year series: 2011-2013

3 anni di dati: 2011-2013

Assets, liabilities and capital structure

Struttura dell’attivo e del passivo

Balance Sheet

Stato patrimoniale

Income statement

Conto economico

Liquidity and Financial Structure Ratios

Indici di liquidità e struttura finanziaria

WORLD PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF CERAMIC TILES

• Tile Production, consumption, export and import data by macro-regions and single countries• Time series: 2004-2013• 66 countries examined

PRODUZIONE E CONSUMO MONDIALE DI PIASTRELLE CERAMICHE

• Dati di produzione, consumo, export e import di piastrelle per macroaree e singoli paesi

• Serie storiche 2004-2013 • 66 Paesi censiti

Available from NOVEMBER 2014SECOND EDITION

Is the company stable and solid?L’azienda è solida?

Does the company perform better than its competitors?L’azienda performa meglio o peggio dei suoi competitors?

FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS: MAIN CONTENTS


WORLD PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF CERAMIC TILESPRODUZIONE E CONSUMO MONDIALE DI PIASTRELLE CERAMICHE

PRENOTA SUBITO I NUOVI STUDI!www.acimac.it - [email protected]

In italiano e inglese

Profitability, structure, operational, per employee rations and indexes

Indici di redditività, struttura, operativi, per dipendente

Comparison between the company indexes and ratios with national and international ones

Confronto dei valori aziendali con i valori medi nazionali e internazionali di redditività

Financial stability and default probability ratings

Rating di stabilità finanziaria e rischio default

C

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TC_CWR_21x29.7.pdf 1 13.11.2014 11:32

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N. 1/2015

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Contents

Cover picture by Giancarlo Pradelli @ Cersaie 2014:

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Translations:

Geoff Day / John Freeman

18 20

11 - Editorial Worldwide economic palpitations by Chiara Bruzzichelli

Photonews12 - EXPO 2015: Casalgrande Padana brings a new dimension to the shitang

14 - Seramiksan sanitaryware: a unique design

16 - Type 32 wins the Good DesignTM Award

18 - Good Design Award for Evolution by Porcelanosa

20 - Raimondi S.p.A. celebrates 40th anniversary

22 - Tilefax

In the spotlight 40 - Thinking outside the box to keep one step aheads

46 - Kajaria, number 1 in India

50 - Achillea Mosaics: impeccable green credentials

54 - Wienerberger continues its growth

161412

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58 - Topics Prodeso Heat System by Progress Profiles

Economy & markets64 - 2014 U.S. Ceramic Tile Industry Update by Andrew Whitmire

72 - A new cycle for construction in Europe 76 - Russian Construction market: upturn in 2016 80 - World sanitaryware exports pick up by Luca Baraldi

Projects88 - Tagina tiles for San Lorenzo market in Florence

92 - Living Art: the world's largest work of art

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11 Tile International 1/2015

Editorial

by Chiara Bruzzichelli

Worldwide economic palpitations

The upturn in the US economy appears to be consolidating, to the extent that one million new jobs have been created in the past three months, from November to January. The commercial sector has been the biggest driver of em-ployment, with 46,000 new ap-pointments, followed by the construction industry with 39,000 and manufacturing with 22,000. This marks a significant up-turn, which has the potential to withstand the impact of in-ternational tensions caused by the European crisis, the slowdown in China, and more particularly the stand-off with Russia over Ukraine, and the nightmare of ISIS.Latin America's construction industry is also reporting good performance, partly on the strength of government social housing and infrastructure ini-tiatives, with the result that construction growth in many

South American countries has outstripped growth in national GDP as a whole.

Europe is showing glimpses of an upturn in the property mar-ket. Having closed 2014 with growth of 1%, the property market is expected to see growth of 2.1% over the course of 2015, according to Euro-construct forecasts, although there are still big differences between one country and the next.On the macro-economic front, Europe is still mired in stagna-tion, as witness the German in-dustrial output figures pub-lished in February, which showed growth of just 0.1% in December as against the fore-cast figure of 0.4%.European markets now have to deal with the uncertainty of the situation in Greece, in the wake of the ECB's decision to no longer accept Greek sover-eign bonds as security for

loans to banks. Pending the Eurogroup meeting sched-uled for 11 February, calls are now being made for new solu-tions to get Greece and the rest of the Eurozone out of a hazardous impasse.

Construction output is also coming under pressure in Rus-sia. According to a report by PMR Publications based on the latest data released by Rosstat (Russia's national sta-tistics institute), after good performance in 2012 (+2.5% year on year), construction output grew by only 0.1% in 2013. This negative trend con-tinued into 2014, resulting in a contraction of 4.8% over the first 11 months of the year. The recently approved sanc-tions against the Russian gov-ernment in response to the tensions in Ukraine have obvi-ously contributed to the indus-try's downturn. But the country's macro-eco-

nomic performance is also under threat, prompting An-ton Siluanov, the Finance Min-ister, to announce that, due to falling oil prices, GDP could fall by 4% in 2015, while rouble ex-change rates are expected to remain at about 66 to the dol-lar on average. Since the start of the new year, however, infla-tion has risen by 10.4%.

China, meanwhile, closed 2014 with its lowest growth rate since the 1990s, at “just” +7.4%. One of the key factors behind this slowdown is the sharp downturn in the property mar-ket. Industrial output saw a year-on-year rise of 7.9% in De-cember, however, which marked an improvement on November's figure of 7.2%, while retail sales in December showed an annual increase of 11.9%, as against the fore-cast figure of 11.7%.

5



12Tile International 1/2015

PHOTOnews - PHOTOnews - PHOTOnews - PHOTOnews - PHOTOnews - PHOTOnews - PHOTOnews - PHOTOnews -

Tile International 1/201513


EXPO 2015: CASALGRANDE PADANA BRINGS A NEW DIMENSION TO THE SHITANG

On 13 May 2014, Wang Shi, President of Vanke, the prestigious Chinese real estate company, unveiled the renderings of his pavilion to an audience that included Giuliano Pisapia, Mayor of Milan, Liao Juhua, Consul General of China, and Giuseppe Sala, Sole Commissioner for Expo 2015.The work is now approaching completion and occupies a strategic position, not far from the Lake Arena and Palazzo Italia.Overseen by Studio Daniel Libeskind, with interior design by Ralph Appelbaum and graphic design by Han Jiaying, the project commands attention with the strongly figurative nature of its shell, which reflects the theme of Expo 2015 (Feeding the Planet) by reinterpreting a traditional shitang or Chinese dining room.The spectacular shell of the pavilion, covered entirely in three-dimensional, lacquer red, large-format porcelain tiles

developed and manufactured by Casalgrande Padana in partnership with Daniel Libeskind, is made with the exclusive Fractile line of ceramic. This material features a distinctive finish that generates a dynamic, three-dimensional effect which, when exposed to sunlight, animates the shell by deconstructing and reconstructing its surfaces.The design of the interior, meanwhile, stimulates reflection on the importance of rooms dedicated to food consumption and their ability to transcend their basic function: "The Vanke pavilion," explains Wang Shi, "is intended to draw attention to the delicate transition between traditional rituals and the habits introduced by contemporary society, and to bear witness to the possibility and the need to provide opportunities for socialisation within appropriately designed environments."



SERAMIKSAN SANITARYWARE: A UNIQUE DESIGN

Seramiksan, one of the most innovative brands in the ceramics industry, brings ceramic tile and sanitaryware together with a unique design. After winning plaudits for its styling and high-tech designs,

Seramiksan is now also impressing the market with its sanitaryware products. Featuring solid oval forms and minimalist designs, Seramiksan sanitaryware creates a unique ambience in bathrooms, with impeccable taste and simple beauty.Eco-friendly products offer

a range of water-saving technologies, while product design embraces both form and function. Numerous new features, like “soft close” have also won the acclaim of customers. According to Selami Tek, Seramiksan’s Sanitaryware Plant Manager, Seramiksan products bring together the

unique design and technology that enhance quality of life, and are the result of highly innovative production processes. Seramiksan’s sanitaryware factory occupies a site measuring 112,000 square meters and has reached its target production of 1,000,000 pieces per year.”



TYPE 32 WINS THEGOOD DESIGNTM AWARD

Type 32 Slimtech, the Lea Ceramiche collection designed by Diego Grandi, won a 2014 Good Design Award in the worldwide design competition that's been held by the Chicago Athenaeum since1950.

Over 700 projects from 48 countries were selected by two juries, based in New York and Los Angeles, which picked the winners for each category, including Type 32 by Lea Ceramiche, the winner of the Floor and Wall Covering section. The idea is based on the overlaying of two

distinct layers. The first, centring upon the material itself, comprises a screen-print that plays upon the theme of verisimilitude, and replicates a species of wood. The second has a more graphic focus, and consists of a decoration based on the recurrence of oblique lines in four different patterns. The project represents a fresh departure in every respect, including format. Instead of working with standard dimensions, the new line uses the Lea Slimtech long floorboard format (20 x 200 cm) in a new thickness of 5.5 mm. Type 32 starts with a material, but ends up transcending it and transporting it into an abstract dimension, where invention



brings new meaning to the word "decoration", by writing a new but familiar language, like the first four letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha, beta, gamma and delta. The sources of inspiration range from art to graphic design, but the work also touches upon the themes of illusion and memory. As in certain dreams or visions, the object becomes something other than itself, and is reinterpreted as pure image through a

contemporary language that transforms the material into a semblance of itself, while the classic ornamentation is transformed from a line into a potentially infinite surface, something like an immense carpet.

This is the second time that the Fiorano-based company has won the award, having been singled out in 2008 for City, another project by Diego Grandi, which revolves around the concept of urban maps.



GOOD DESIGN AWARD FOR EVOLUTION BY PORCELANOSA

PORCELANOSA Grupo kicks off the year with some good news, because in 2014, for the second year running, a Gamadecor kitchen, namely Evolution, won a Good Design Award.

Organised by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, in conjunction with the European Centre of Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies, the Good Design Award is the world's most historic industrial design award (founded in Chicago in 1950, ed.) and among the best known at international level.

The Evolution kitchen by Gamadecor was selected from among thousands of products from 48 countries, all competing for honours in the 2014 Good Design Award. The section about the Evolution kitchen is available on the Chicago Athenaeum Museum web site - www.chi-athenaeum.org - and will also be published in the 2014-2015 Good Design yearbook, along with all the other class winners of 2014.

Combining premium materials with the most advanced technology, Evolution consists of an island, which neatly conceals the domestic appliances and storages spaces that are essential to a modern kitchen. At the touch of a button, the Krion® worktop slides open to reveal the domestic appliances, containers and drawers, which remain concealed within a single, cubic volume when the top is closed.As for finishes, the kitchen combines the beauty and hygiene of Krion®, with the premium quality of natural oak veneer. For a smooth, seamless look, the kitchen is made with imperceptible joints and fittings, and the drawers are free from handles.



Ivan Raimondi, Carla Lucherini, Giorgio Sighinolfi

Riccardo Sighinolfi and Marco Raimondi



RAIMONDI S.P.A. CELEBRATES 40TH ANNIVERSARY

Raimondi was founded in 1974 at the initiative of Mirco Raimondi and his wife Graziella Fontanesi, and the company's first headquarters was at Via Allende 78, Modena. In 1994 they opened a second site, at Via dei Tipografi 11, also in Modena, because business was booming and there was never enough space. By then, after all, Raimondi S.p.A. had become a world leader in the field, and was exporting over 50% of its output. In 2013, Raimondi S.p.A. opened its third site, at Via Raimondo Dalla Costa 300/A, and on 25 September, at the end of the fourth day of Cersaie, the Company celebrated its 40th anniversary.The party was held at the “Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari” and the guest-list included all the company's agents and main international distributors (from as far afield as France, Germany, Spain, Benelux, the Balkans, Turkey, Russia, New Zealand and the USA), plus the entire Italian sales force.There was nothing random about the choice of venue either. What could have been a more appropriate backdrop for celebrating 40 successful years in business for the Modena-based company Raimondi S.p.A.? And needless to say, the visceral appeal of Ferrari immediately grabbed the 70-plus guests, who were thrilled by their tour of the house in which the Drake was born, which has been finely restored and transformed into a showcase for vintage Ferraris. They were equally thrilled by the beauty of the futuristic pavilion built in the shape of a car bonnet.

Celebratory paperweight of"Lupetto", the first product made by Raimondi in 1974

Tilefax

Companies,News & Markets

Tile International 1/2015 22

NEW SHOWROOM FOR OLYMPIA TILE + STONE

Olympia Tile + Stone, Canada's largest tile importer and one of the top players on the US market too, inaugurated its new 3,500 sq.m showroom in Toronto (Ontario, Canada).CEO Ralph Reichmann and the entire staff of Olympia Tile + Stone welcomed over 2000 illustrious guests from 45 differ-ent countries for the official opening of the company's new showroom, de-signed to showcase the best floor and wall coverings in the world, in the shape of ceramic, porcelain and natural stone tiles.Occupying an entire block and also comprising 60,000 square metres of warehousing and office space, the building was designed by K.C. Au Archi-tect Inc., while the interior design was handled by II by IV Designers, one of the top 50 design firms worldwide. The cost of the development as a whole amount-ed to some 10 million dollars.Since its foundation over 50 years ago, Olympia has remained faithful to its mis-sion of offering an exceptional variety of high-quality products, at fair prices and with excellent service. The preferred sup-plier of developers, contractors, dealers and private customers, Olympia is a by-word for quality, innovation and assort-ment.The company operates more than 50 distribution centres, showrooms and production facilities, and employs over 900 people. Its long experience has en-abled it to foster excellent relations with tile manufacturers all over the world.Over the years, Olympia has won nu-merous awards, such as "Supplier of the Year" from the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) in Canada (2006, 2009 and 2013), the prestigious "North American Distributor

Award" from Confindustria Ceramica (2003) and the "Best Distributor Award" from the Greater Toronto Home Builders Association (2006 and 2009).Olympia currently acts as agent and distributor for over 200 manufacturers worldwide. It enjoys very close links with all the major players in the ceramic in-dustry, and has worked with many Ital-ian manufacturers uninterruptedly for several decades: "We are grateful to the Italian ceramic industry for having sup-ported us and worked consistently with us," commented CEO Ralph Reich-mann, "with a view to creating the most modern and attractive product from a technical and stylistic point of view. Our aim is to continue this type of partner-ship, and we believe that loyalty and long-term relationships are extremely im-portant for fulfilling our respective poten-tial to best effect, and projecting our his-tory of success into the future."

ITALY 2014: VIGOROUS GROWTH FOR CERAMIC MACHINERY

Italy's ceramic machinery and equip-ment manufacturers reported strong performance in 2014. According to pre-liminary figures published by Acimac Studies Centre (Italian Ce-ramic Machinery and Equipment Manufactur-ers' Association), the sec-tor's 2014 turnover should total 1,890 million euros, representing a year-on-year increase of 10.5%. If this is confirmed by the final fig-ures due to be published next June, it will be the second best result in the sec-tor's history following the 1,937 million euros posted in 2007.This excellent result has been achieved through growth in both the international and Italian markets. At around 1,500 mil-lion euros (up 9% year on year), exports continue to account for the lion's share of turnover in the industry (almost 79%).This result is particularly significant con-sidering the overall state of the world economy and the social unrest and economic slowdown affecting many geographical areas.The sector also reported excellent per-formance in the Italian market with total domestic sales of 400 million euros, 16.6% up on 2013 (21.2% of total turno-ver). Tecnargilla, the world's most impor-tant ceramic technologies exhibition, held in Rimini in September, no doubt made an important contribution to this result. "The forecasts for 2015 are cau-tious," said Acimac's Chairman, Fabio Tarozzi. "In recent months we have seen a slowdown in the main economic indi-cators in many countries worldwide. Based on the latest information in our possession, we are expecting current levels of business to be maintained."

From ancient rocks used to build fortresses today still standing, comes the inspiration for Castlestone, re-elaborated by Piemmegres technicians working for architecture. Modern architecture founds its roots in history, reinterpreting the past in geometrical lines, but also in materials. Castlestone represents the connection between the past and the future, the material for new fortresses, those made of design and engineering, of inspiration and technology. A tactile surface with natural shades combined with rectified edges and 3d surfaces which create the right mixture having an age old spirit and a modern design.

Industrie Ceramiche Piemme S.p.A. Via Del Crociale 42/44 41042 Fiorano - Modena - Italy - tel+39 0536 849111 - fax+39 0536 849402 - www.ceramichepiemme.it - [email protected]

f i n e p o r c e l a i n s t o n e w a r e

COVERINGS • ORLANDO APRIL 14-17, 2015 • ITALIAN PAVILION BOOTH 5046

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KALE STRENGTHENS PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN ITALY AND TURKEY

The Turkey-Italy Business Forum, an im-portant event aimed at promoting eco-nomic cooperation between the two countries, was held in Istanbul last De-cember.Attended by numerous Italian and Turk-ish business leaders, the event also in-volved major international decision-makers, including the Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.A leading exponent of the constructive partnership between Italy and Turkey, Zeynep Bodur Okyay, President of Kale Group and of the Turkey-Italy Business Council, took part in the event in her ca-pacity as a member of the DEIK Foreign

Economic Relations Board and a key player in the development of relations between the two countries.In the course of 55 years in business, Kale Group has forged solid commer-cial relations with Italy, and promoted an innovative, global business culture. Zeynep Bodur Okyay explained: "Vari-ous Turkish enterprises have acquired Italian companies in recent years, with a view to boosting business on the strength of Italy's worldwide manufac-turing reputation. In parallel with these developments, Italian companies have been attracted by the entrepreneurial prowess and talent of Turkish compa-nies. This has given rise to fruitful and highly strategic long-term partnerships." The past five years have seen a substan-tial increase in trade between the two countries, which has risen from 13 billion dollars in 2009 to 20 billion in 2014.

Picture, from left: Ömer Cihad Vardan (President of the Fo-reign Economic Relations Board), Zeynep Bodur Okyay (Member of the Foreign Econo-mic Relations Board of Turkey and President of the Turkey-Italy Business Council), Matteo Renzi (Italy's Prime Minister).

WALLDOOR MASSIMA BY BERTOLOTTO:A FLUSH-MOUNT DOOR FOR ALL THICKNESSES

Bertolotto Porte, a major Italian manu-facturer of interior, contract and security doors, recently launched a unique flush-mount door solution known as Walldoor Massima. Walldoor Massima by Bertolot-to Porte is a coplanar/flush wall door system with extruded aluminium perim-eter frame with white porous paint finish. This model can be integrated into walls of the most common thickness (8-10-12-16-18-20 cm), thanks to a series of differ-ent-sized extensions, which are part of the frame and ensure greater stability.Walldoor Massima is the ideal solution for minimal spaces with end-to-end ceil-

ings. The absence of crossbeams in the frame gives a sense of continuity, with-out interruptions between rooms and corridor.Depending on the surface, this new door-frame system by Bertolotto Porte can be coated with wall paints or matt and/or gloss lacquer from the RAL and NCS ranges available in the collection. This special finish, which also serves as a primer, allows for the use of water-based paints. The Walldoor Massima system is available with two different profile sec-tions in both the push and pull versions.The Maxima door is made with honey-comb core panels with a thickness of 58 mm. This model comes with a satin chrome magnetic lock with key, and three 3-axis adjustable concealed hing-es (4 hinges for heights over 2400 mm) with satin chrome finish. Also available in a full-height version without upper cross-beams up to 3000 mm.The Walldoor Massima frame can mount any door from the Bertolotto Porte de-sign collection: Lacquered Fashion doors, Costellazioni, Natura, Venezia Pantografato and PantoQuadra, and 25° by Arnaudo.

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REALITYREMOD BY MATICAD: VIRTUAL REALITY TABLET APP FOR FLOOR AND WALL COVERINGS

The new products presented at Cersaie 2014 included RealityRemod, an aug-mented reality app developed by the software house Maticad. Maticad has been in the business for many years with DomuS3D®, a professional product avail-able in over 15 languages and used by major ceramic manufacturers and showrooms worldwide.RealityRemod enables you to see how your interiors would look with alternative tiling solutions, which can be superim-posed onto existing situations, all on a tablet, in real time and with no effort at all. The app is built around three key fea-tures: the ability to recognise - automati-cally thanks to the sensors supplied with the device - the perspective with which the tablet's camera is framing the scene; the ability to identify the entire surface to be tiled, once a single point of it has been indicated, thereby avoiding ob-structions and overlaps of objects in the foreground; and the ability to apply the new virtual covering over the top of the real one, with the same perspective and the right scale, in order to give the scene a highly realistic appearance.No other product in the world offers

these three capabilities, which make Re-alityRemod a state-of-the-art, must-have technology in the field of augmented re-ality 3D simulation. Anyone who wants to generate a simulation, either at home or elsewhere, can do so by framing the scene with their tablet, selecting any of the published tiling and panelling solu-tions (the catalogues can be down-loaded from the cloud), and seeing them applied in real time. All without the aid of any artifice, and with the possibili-ty of playing around with the installation pattern, by moving and rotating pieces, and dynamically adjusting the colour and width of the joints.The app has a wide range of features and applications: first and foremost, it is a simple, innovative tool for showing the visual impact of different materials on a furnished environment. As such, it is out-standingly useful for planning renova-tion work. Since it is available to every-one, what's more, it also serves as a promotional vehicle for floor and wall coverings, by bringing its selection of vir-tual proposals into people's homes, without any commitment, arousing the interest of end-users, and prompting them to get down to their nearest show-room for further technical and commer-cial details, with much clearer ideas than they would otherwise have had.Lastly, it gives professionals (interior de-signers and showroom sales staff) the opportunity to share hypotheses and solutions dropped into their real context, at the homes of potential customers. This service undoubtedly helps profes-sionals get inside the minds of their cus-tomers and earn their trust.The app can be downloaded free of charge and is available for iPad from the Apple Store. The Android version will soon be available on Google Play.

MAPEI WINS LONG-TERM INVESTOR UK-ITALY BUSINESS AWARD Mapei received a Long-Term Investor Award in Milan on 22 January, at the awards ceremony for the UK-Italy Business Awards, an annual event held by the Brit-ish government for Italian investors who have chosen the United Kingdom as a destination for their international busi-ness development. The ceremony was held at Palazzo Mezzanotte, home of Bor-sa Italiana. Mapei has been operating in the United Kingdom since 1989 through Mapei UK Ltd, which now generates reve-nues of 42 million GBP, representing a rise of 65% on 2010 and average annual growth of 13% over the past five years. Mapei UK employs 180 people, including 12 who make up the efficient Technical Service Department, serving over 1200 customers. The company has a state-of-the-art production facility in Halesowen, near Birmingham, with annual produc-tion capacity of 300,000 tonnes of ce-mentitious and paste adhesives and a wide range of other building products. In addition to this facility and the compa-ny's offices in the West Midlands, Mapei UK has a dedicated team of Specifica-tion Managers working throughout Brit-ain, and plans to open a new showroom and specification centre this year in Clerkenwell, in the heart of London.Founded in Milan in 1937, Mapei is now the world's largest manufacturer of adhe-sives and complementary products for the setting of all types of floor and wall tiles. It is also a specialist in other chemi-cal products for the building industry, such as water-proofing compounds, spe-cial mortars, admixtures for concrete and products for the restoration of historic buildings. These figures reflect Mapei's

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performance: total revenues of 2.3 billion euros and over 7,500 direct Group em-ployees. Mapei has built its strategy on three key principles: specialisation, Re-search & Development and international-isation. The Group currently comprises 68 associate companies, with 64 production facilities in operation across 31 countries and 5 continents. Mapei has also devel-oped an extensive sales and technical service network with offices all over the world, and offers an efficient technical support and on-site consulting service.

CERAMICHE KEOPE FOR 4SPA RESORT HOTEL

Ceramiche Keope, a leading manufac-turer of porcelain floor and wall tiles has written another first-class reference with its products, in the shape of the 4Spa Re-sort Hotel, one of Europe's most refined Luxury Beauty Thermal Spas.Occupying a magnificent position on the Cyclops Riviera, a stone's throw from Cat-ania, the 4Spa Resort Hotel is a 4-star complex nestling in a breathtaking land-scape. With a surface area of 2,000 sq.m, the resort is the ideal place for regenerat-ing the mind and body, in an atmosphere of complete relaxation. The factors that go into creating that atmosphere include

the building's design choices: for the cov-erings of the water and wellness area, which includes the swimming pool and gym, the architects opted for the Norge series by Ceramiche Keope, in the colour Teak and sizes 22.5x90 and 15x90 cm. Its natural tones give the entire complex a warm, welcoming and contemporary feel. This latest project, undertaken by the architect Tommaso Guerriero of Studio GMC, offers further evidence of Ceram-iche Keope's strong bonds with the world of design and architecture. Pictured: the coverings of the water and wellness area of the 4Spa Resort Hotel, made with the Norge series by Ceram-iche Keope, in the colour Teak and sizes 22.5x90 and 15x90 cm.

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FILA: THE WINNERS OF THE 2014 EDITION OF “TREATED LIKE A KING”

The winners of the 6th edition of “Treated Like a King”, the competition for Floor Treatment Experts that awards prizes to the best projects undertaken in Italy us-ing treatment, restoration and conserva-tion systems by Fila Surface Care Solu-tions, have just been announced.First prize went to the Bergantin brothers for their treatment of the Reggia di Ve-naria Reale in Turin. A silver medal went to Roberto Rossetto, who undertook the treatment of Piazza Candiani in Mestre. And third place went to Vincenzo Caso-laro, who oversaw the treatment of the Cappella di San Severo in Naples.23 projects from all over Italy took part in the project, including restoration and re-covery work done in a vast range of dif-ferent contexts, from recently built resi-dential buildings to historic monuments and public premises. The works were as-sessed by a jury of representatives of technical publishers and the presidents of the sector's three most important trade associations, namely Paolo Co-lombo of Assoposa, Vittorio Borelli of Confindustria Ceramica, and Stefano Ghirardi of Confindustria Marmomac-chine.“Like its predecessors, this 6° edition of Treated Like a King featured Italian build-ings that are known worldwide for their splendour," commented Fila's Chair-man Beniamino Pettenon. "Thanks to the high degree of technical prowess in play, works that form part of the artistic and cultural heritage of our country have been revitalised, and we are proud to have played our part. This success in-volves the whole company, because it

derives from the quality of Fila products and the coordinated commitment of our Treatment Technicians and techni-cal laboratory.”The winners of previous editions of the competition include projects in Castello di Murisengo (Alessandria), Centro Congressi Arezzo Fiere, ex-Convento dei Neveri in Bariano (Bergamo), Hotel Colzani in Cassago Brianza (Lecco), Palafuksas in Turin, Abbazia di San Gallo in Moggio Udinese (Udine), Palazzo Ve-nusio in Matera, Palazzina di Caccia in Stupinigi, and Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari.

IMPRONTA 125 BY CATALANO WINS GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2014

The Impronta 125 washbasin, designed by Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas for Catalano, won the bathroom and ac-cessories category in the Good Design Award 2014 run by the Chicago Athe-naeum Museum of Architecture and De-sign and Metropolitan Arts. First unveiled at Cersaie 2011 as part of the “Catalano for Architecture” project and already a winner of the Designer Kitchen and Bathroom Award, Impronta 125 features the soft styling with which Fuksas has interpreted the innovative and technological spirit of Catalano, by evoking the idea of sandy surfaces shaped by ocean waves, across which the water flows in sinuous patterns.The organic matrix, which is a recurring theme in Fuksas's architecture, is skilfully contrasted with more rational structures and geometries and constitutes the common thread running through the entire collection, which also comprises shower trays, wall-hung, flush-mount and free-standing washbasins, which can be combined with towel rails, back-lit mir-rors, dedicated vanity units and drawer units in polished steel and gloss white and black. The entire collection is now available on the market after a long pro-cess of fine-tuning necessitated by the complexity of the project.

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KORAMIC ESTABLISHES ALL-ITALIAN LUXURY HUB

Koramic Chemicals&Ceramics, one of Europe's leading multinational manu-facturers of ceramics and construction chemicals, has signed a letter of intent for the purchase of 14Ora Italiana, a trend-setting producer of luxury ceramic floor and wall tiles, headquartered in Castelvetro in the province of Modena.With the due diligence and audit now successfully completed, Koramic Chemicals&Ceramics will take posses-sion of a majority stake in 14Ora Italiana under a capital increase subscribed by its Italian subsidiary Petracer’s Ceramics, another renowned manufacturer of lux-ury floor and wall tiles and bathroom fur-nishings – for total turnover of approxi-mately 9 million euros – which the Belgian group acquired in 2013.The acquisition of 14Ora Italiana, a rela-tively young company that has achieved outstanding results (generating reve-nues of around 5 million euros and ex-

porting its prod-ucts worldwide),represents an-other step in the building of an all-Italian luxury hub, something which Graziano Verdi – Chair-man and Man-aging Director of the multina-tional group since April 2013 – is very keen to do. In 2014, Pe-tracer’s Ceram-ics also ac-

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quired a majority stake in “Toscane et Tradition”, an exclusive ceramic bou-tique in Rue D’Aboukir in the heart of Paris, five minutes from the Palais Royale, the Louvre Museum and Place Vendo-me, with a view to promoting Italian lux-ury products to Parisian architects and designers.So in September, Petracer’s supplied the ceramics for the remodelling of “Ne-gresco” in Nice, one of the world's most prestigious hotels, and then signed an agreement for the renovation of the pri-vate villa (wall tiles and sanitaryware) of a member of the Qatari royal family, for a value of approximately 1 million euros.Koramic Chemicals&Ceramics intends to develop and expand its business fur-ther, on an international scale, with a luxury “floor tiles, wall tiles and sanitary-ware hub”.Koramic Chemicals&Ceramics Group – with consolidated turnover of almost one billion euros and about 500 million euros of its own resources – is majority-owned by Christian Dumolin, a well known financier and former Vice-Chair-man of the Bank of Belgium. In the ceramic floor and wall tiles sector, the multinational Koramic Chemicals & Ceramics owns Desvres and Sphinx, as well as Petracer’s, but also owns several companies that manufacture chemical products for the building industry, such as Cermix France, Cermix Switzerland and Cermix Turkey. It also owns Resiplast, which has headquarters in Belgium and the United States (the new HQ opened in October 2013) and specialises in the production of latest-generation resin flooring and in structural work in support of architectural projects. But the Koramic Chemicals & Ceramics Group's full portfolio includes a whole

array of companies, which employ a to-tal of over 2,500 people, operate manu-facturing facilities worldwide and have interests in business sectors as diverse as property, finance, textiles, telecommu-nications, plastics processing and met-allurgy.

OVER 100 FANTINI DRINKING FOUNTAINS FOR AFRICA

Soon after getting back to work at the start of the new year, Daniela Fantini, proprietor of Fantini Rubinetti, a major company headquartered in Pella sul Lago d’Orta, Italy, was pleased to an-nounce that the target set in 2012 under the 100 FONTANE_FANTINI FOR AFRICA project – in other words to bring clean water to the population of Masango in Burundi – has been achieved.In about two years, and in the face of considerable difficulties, the results on the ground are: 12 water sources that capture water from rock; 27 kilometres of aqueduct; 100 drinking fountains al-ready in operation and 30 more close to completion. The drinking fountains bring clean water to approximately 25,000 people. Each fountain now has a number and is assigned to a named individual in the Masango community, who is responsi-ble for looking after it and attending to its maintenance. “The key goal of the project", explained Daniela Fantini "was to enable children to spend far less time fetching water and to spend that time on schooling in-

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stead, by way of a first step in laying the foundations for a better future. In the near future, meanwhile, there is plenty of scope for new projects aimed at consol-idating and implementing the positive effects of "100 Fontane", and we are working on them!”The target of building more than the 100 Fountains first planned was achieved through the enthusiasm and participa-tion of everyone, in Italy and abroad, thanks to donations from Fantini's cus-tomers and agents, the campaign to re-issue the I Balocchi collection, and un-expected donations from generous members of the public. “Above and beyond the results achieved”, concluded Daniela Fantini, “100 Fontane has been an extraordi-nary adventure from a human point of view for all of us. Thank you all very much!”The launch of the initiative, at a special event held during Cersaie 2012, was supported by the video 100 Fontane_Fantini for Africa, made by the American film director Justin Tipping. The project's development, the feelings experienced and the current situation are now told in a new vIdeo, made by the Catalan film director Nilo Mur Zimmerman.

MAPEI WINS TRANSATLANTIC AWARD 2014

At the 9th edition of the Transatlantic Award Gala Dinner, held in Milan on 1 December, the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy, headed by Simone Crolla, assigned awards to the US and Italian companies that made the big-gest investments in the transatlantic axis between Italy and the United States. The winners included Mapei, which won an award for the acquisition of GRT - Gener-al Resource Technology Inc., an Ameri-can manufacturer of admixtures for concrete - which will help it step up its strategic presence on the US, Canadian and Mexican markets.The award was collected by Giorgio Squinzi - President and Sole Director of Mapei Group - from John R. Phillips, Unit-ed States Ambassador to Italy, in the presence of Philip T. Reeker, US Consul General in Milan, and Armando Varric-chio, Diplomatic Councillor to the Italian President. On receiving the award he said: "We are delighted to have been able to welcome GRT into the Mapei family. The Mapei Group has a long his-tory of worldwide operations in the con-crete admixture business, and GRT will give us the boost we need to increase our market share in the Americas. Thanks to synergies with its own product lines, we expect to increase our market share in both the east and west of the United States, as well as in Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. By comple-menting the Group's portfolio with con-crete admixture production directly in the Americas, we will also speed up growth in our line of systems for con-crete. What's more, since our Under-ground Tunnelling Technology division is

enjoying ongoing expansion, GRT will provide an ideal source of highly spe-cialised products for the important mar-ket of major works worldwide. The Group operates 23 production facilities in the Americas, including GRT's two sites, and two distribution centres, plus the head-quarters of Mapei Corporation and Pol-yglass USA in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Mapei is an environmentally aware manufacturer, as borne out by its mem-bership of the U.S. Green Building Coun-cil since 2001 and of the Canadian Green Building Council since 2008. Ma-pei Americas is also an AIA/CES accred-ited supplier, and offers training through its dedicated training facility, the Mapei Technical Institute. The majority of Mapei facilities hold ISO 9001 Quality System certification and LEED certification. The acquisition of GRT marks another mile-stone in Mapei's expansion in the Amer-icas, and the investment will make Ma-pei Group a significant player in the concrete admixtures market."As well as to Mapei, 2014 Transatlantic Awards were assigned to Accenture, BlackRock, IBM, Philip Morris, Whirlpool, Brembo and Chiesi Farmaceutici. Two special prizes were also given to Cloud-4WI and Friends of the USA Pavilion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8PDJnrkDm0&noredirect=1

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NEST SLIMTECH BY LEA WINS BEST OF YEAR AWARD

Nest Slimtech, the Lea Ceramiche col-lection designed by HOK Product De-sign, has won Interior Design’s Annual Best of Year Award 2014 in the Flooring: Tile and Stone category. Celebrating its 9th edition this year, the prize is promot-ed by the American magazine Interior Design and represents one of the world’s most prestigious design competitions.Nest won the Best of Year Award 2014 in the tile and stone floorings category within the products section. Drawing in-spiration from forms found in the natural world, Nest is made of irregular elements (edge measurement 100 cm) which are combined to create large hexagonal shapes. This infinite woven puzzle, which offers a new and unconventional use of ceramics, gives a unique touch and a structural element to surfaces, with a view to transforming the architectural and domestic landscapes of any city. Nest offers an infinite variety of combina-tions of shape and colour, which be-come patterns that can be used to ex-

press the creativity of any designer. "Nest is a range of hexagons and triangles, af-fectionately named Pac Man, which can be used in many aesthetic solu-tions and allows architects and design-ers to truly use their imagination", ex-plained Susan Grossinger of HOK Product Design. Nest is made with Lea Ceramiche's Slimtech ultra-thin laminat-ed porcelain tiles. Strong and durable despite its thickness of just 3mm, this product has revolutionised the ceramics sector in recent years.

UNICERA 27TH INTERNATIONAL CERAMIC, BATHROOM AND KITCHEN FAIR

Home to the latest designs and techno-logical innovations of leading global brands, UNICERA 27th International Ce-ramic, Bathroom and Kitchen Fair was held at the Tüyap Fair and Convention Center, Büyükçekmece, Istanbul be-tween February 24 and 28, 2015.Being one of the world's leading events, UNICERA attracts a very large number of visitors and hosted more than 350 exhib-itors from 17 countries (including United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Bulgaria, Slove-nia, Serbia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Ukraine, India, China and Taiwan) in 11 halls and 98.000 square meters. The ar-ray of products on show included floor

and wall coverings, ceramics, granite, marble, natural stone, mosaic, bath-room and kitchen furniture and acces-sories, sinks and embedded equipment, vitrified products, fixtures, and radiators and towel racks. The CERAMICTECH Ce-ramic Processing Technologies specialty section in Hall 9 further expanded the scope of the event with chemicals, raw materials, ceramic machinery, machin-ery spare parts and components.The programme of side events that took place during the show was also very rich, featuring a number of matter ex-pert speakers on designs influenced by the latest trends and the most ad-vanced technologies enabling partici-pants and exhibitors to stay abreast of the necessities of changing times.

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TEUCO: NEW BLOG AND HOME PAGE FOR “DESIGN LOVERS”

Teuco, a global brand dedicated to the creation of exclusive total-look bath-room collections, has stepped up its digital presence, by launching a new company blog and creating a new look for its home page, which now features even more eye-catching graphics, with a view to creating a fully fledged com-munity of “design lovers” around the brand.Available in English, the new blog pro-vides a hub from which to explore the world of Teuco. Users of the site will find a wide range of constantly updated infor-mation and other content, not only on company-related news, but on more general topics too, such as interior de-sign and spa@home. Full of useful con-tent and emotionally appealing imag-es, the blog provides a new source of reference for people who love design and want to keep up to date with the latest bathroom furnishing trends. Thanks to its social feeds, what's more, the blog enables users to make direct contact with Teuco's Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest profiles.Teuco has also restyled its home page,

which offers users news and updates on the most significant contract projects, new developments and the company as a whole, while also enabling users to access the new blog, subscribe to the newsletter and check out the store loca-tor. Making everything accessible at the click of a mouse is a strategic choice that forms part of a broader digital plan designed to step up the brand's web presence and maximise interaction with users.

CAESAR SUPPLIES THE WORLD OF FASHION

Major names from the world of Italian and international fashion have opted for Caesar's style for the interior design of their stores. Caesar has successfully interpreted the style and requirements of each of the brands it has worked with, and studied their structural needs, over-all philosophy, lines and trends. It has then offered each brand an extensive range of opportunities, so that they can choose the ceramic collection that best matches their profile in terms of colours, sizes and surface finishes.In Milan, for example, we have the Con-cept Store Bassetti in Corso Buenos Aires, whose floors are tiled in Wabi wood-ef-fect porcelain, in the Sawcut version; the Les Copains store in Via della Spiga, which is tiled with the Brera version of the Concept.s series in size 60x120 cm; the La Perla showroom, also located in the heart of Milan's fashion district and equipped with magnificent windows, through which the light enhances the Barrique colour of the ceramic based on Wabi natural oak, in size 30x120 cm.

And in Via Frattina in Rome, Caesar sup-plied the coverings for the Elena Mirò shop near Piazza di Spagna. The premis-es were comprehensively restyled using the Gate collections in the colour Breath in size 60x120 cm.

CLOSER BY ZUCCHETTI WINS GOOD DESIGN™ AWARD 2014

The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the Euro-pean Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies gave a 2014 Good Design™ Award to the CloSer Shower head deSIgned by dIego grandI for ZUC-ChettI.Established in Chicago in 1950, the Good Design™ Award is the most histor-ic and internationally recognised award for design excellence. Out of more than 700 projects and prod-uct images from over 36 countries, all se-lected for the design quality, the eclec-tic Closer won the award thanks to its innovative stylistic and functional fea-tures, thereby re-asserting Zucchetti's ex-cellence in bathroom design.Elena Zucchetti, an architect and CEO of Zucchetti and Kos, commented: “We are very proud to have received anoth-

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Tilefax

er Good Design™ Award, this time for Closer. We had faith in this unusual, inno-vative product right from the start, and dedicated significant resources to its design, production and communica-tion, in close partnership with Diego Grandi. I believe that the nature of in-dustrial design is such that it cannot originate from the creativity of a single person, but has to be the result of under-standing and cooperation between a team of people who contribute to for-mulating and producing the project. This important award will encourage us once again to maintain our commit-ment to researching new and original designs.”Dynamic, flexible and iconic, the Closer shower head reinvents the physical ac-tions involved in showering: it reflects the styling of a lamp, while the cylindrical counterweight at one end of it keeps it stable whatever height or position it is set to. The entire structure is designed to be simply and intuitively adjustable and extendible.Thanks to Closer, water can dance through the air, free itself from conven-tional constraints, and become a free expression of our needs.

PIEMME EXTENDS RANGE WITH “PIEMME 20MM”

Piemme is extending its product range with a new thickness of 20mm.The extreme versatility of this new mate-rial makes it ideally suited to a vast range of outdoor design applications, while at the same time offering the ut-

FERRARI&CIGARINI EXPANDS COMPACT-LINE RANGE

Ferrari&Cigarini's CompactLine series of automatic machines continues to earn plaudits from both manufacturers and resellers of floor and wall tiles. Designed for multi-disc cutting, profiling and edge-grinding, these machines offer top qual-ity production but occupy only a mini-mum of space; and because they are so easy to use, they can be operated by personnel with no particular expertise.

The machines are capable of quickly producing strips, mosaics, skirting boards, trim pieces, mitre cuts, polished marble plinths with straight edge, bull-nose, half bullnose, etc. This makes them ideal for ceramic, marble and natural stone dealers, who are thus equipped to offer their customers an additional ser-vice.Ferrari&Cigarini will be presenting their new CompactLine models at Batimat Russia in Moscow and at Coverings in Orlando.

most coordination between interior and exterior.Piemme 20mm is a strong, reliable de-signer covering, which retains its original appearance year after year.Applications: Walkways, terraces, gar-dens, public parks, parking areas, street furnishing, beach resorts.

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NUOVOCORSO AT MAISON&OBJET ASIA 2015, SINGAPORE

Nuovocorso, the only Italian manufac-turer of large-format, edge-ground, ex-truded porcelain panels, made a suc-cessful appearance at the Maison & Objet trade fair in Singapore from 10 to 13 March. Nuovocorso is no newcomer to this mar-ket, however, as the Far East has been particularly receptive towards large for-mats and therefore represents an im-portant opportunity for the company. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Singa-pore are just some of the countries to which Nuovocorso exports its products. Although Nuovocorso's main focus is on graphics that reinterpret natural stone, such as the 7Stone series (pictured), and wood-inspired products, such as the Essenze, New Biolegni and Fossil se-ries in sizes 20x180 and 30x180. The 120x120 range has been very suc-cessful too, thanks to the immense graphic variety made available by the use of digital technology.

TEK ARREDAMENTI GEARS UP FOR COVERINGS 2015

To meet the spatial and product presen-tation needs of showrooms, Tek Arreda-menti offers two series of extremely prac-tical display cabinets equipped with specifically designed mechanical sys-tems, known as Jolly Girevole and Jolly Swing. Jolly Girevole enables you to ex-tract the panels by vertical rotation, so that products can always be positioned in the foreground.

Jolly Swing enables you to extract the panels by horizontal rotation, thus offer-ing an innovative solution for the display of floor tiles.Both models are available in versions with 3, 6 or 10 two-sided frames for the display of a total of 6, 12 or 20 series of ceramic tiles, which are easy to change over. The two-sided frames, measuring 100x200 cm, are made of metal and available in RAL colours. To find out more, visit www.tekarredamentI.It



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MLTS Tile 2014 cartaceo.indd 2 29/07/14 17:31

INVESTMENT AND GROWTH FOR CERAMICA RONDINE

Ceramica Rondine, an Italian company which has been manufacturing and selling floor and wall tiles for residential and public premises since 1961, is in-vesting in the extension of its production facilities and the fine-tuning of new pro-duction processes.Operating from three production sites in Italy's ceramic cluster, namely Rubiera, Vetto and Sassuolo, the company has launched two new automatic sorting and packaging lines at its Rubiera plant, as well as an innovative, green-oriented, dry cutting and edge-grinding line, which operates without water, so is more environmentally friendly. The dust gener-ated by edge-grinding is then recov-ered and re-introduced into the ceramic body production process.


These major investments have enabled Rondine to extend its range of sizes to in-clude a new 45x90 format, with sub-mul-tiples in 22.5x90 and 15x90m, and a 60x120 format, with sub-multiples in 20x120 and 30x120. The investment pro-gramme is fully in line with the Group's philosophy of embracing technological development and state-of-the-art de-sign research.

MONTOLIT PRESENTS FLASH

Brevetti Montolit has always kept a close watch on developments in the ceramic industry, with particular reference to the latest large-format porcelain tiles, meas-uring in excess of 3 metres. As such, it presents the new FLASH line of manual tile-cutters, which are capable of mak-ing perfect cuts on porcelain tile to lengths of up to 340 cm, even on slim-gauge panels (3mm).Flash Line is a very user-friendly product consisting of a lightweight alloy guide bar, comprising three parts which snap together easily without using any tools, a sliding carriage supporting the small-di-ameter scoring wheel, which is titanium-coated for maximum penetration, and a special separating gripper, all of which are contained in a handy, robust carry-ing bag.One major advantage of Flash tile-cut-ters over conventional tools lies in the new system for positioning and securing the guide on the ceramic surface. Based on the powerful friction forces generated between the two parts by special rubbery strips on the underside of the aluminium bar, it is entirely free from suction cups and mechanical clamping systems.

Scoring is quick, easy and intuitive: to get the cut you want, all you need to do is run the scoring-wheel carriage along the guide, while pressing down. By sim-ply adjusting the pressure you exert, the special separating gripper supplied, which can be used both in leverage and gradual advance mode, com-pletes the cutting operation.Flash Line is a revolutionary product be-cause of its immediacy, ease of use, practicality and versatility. It cuts the widest imaginable range of ceramic tiles and panels, in all sizes from 0 to 340 cm and thicknesses of up to 15 mm.And like most Brevetti Montolit products, it is covered by an international patent.

38

Tilefax

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Private House in Oldtown, Dublin - EireSPA Hotel Aulanko - Finland

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FACTORY:Zona Industrial de Oiã 3770-908 Oiã PortugalTel. +351 234 722 395 - Fax +351 234 722 397E-mail: [email protected]


In the spotlight

We spoke to Federica Mi-nozzi, appointed operations

manager of the Iris Ceramica – Graniti-Fiandre Group (consolidated turnover of 440 million euros in 2013, Editor’s note) by her father Romano Minozzi, the Group’s founder, chairman and manag-ing director.This major generational shift confirmed the decision to keep the company in the hands of the family and to continue to invest, an important strategy in a peri-od of crisis as it enables the group to look to the future and keep one step ahead of the competition.The Group has also made a major in-vestment of 30 million euros at the Cas-tellarano facility for the production and processing of large ceramic panels alongside a further 60 million euros for the construction of a new manufactur-ing facility in Russia. These investments are entirely self-financed. “We have no problems of liquidity,” declared Romano Minozzi in an interview given to Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera dur-ing Cersaie. “We won’t be launching on the stock market, we’re not selling up and we have no need of partners.”

Tile International: Iris-Fiandre Group is

Thinking outside the box to keep one step ahead

Federica Minozzi

completing two investments at the facil-ities in Castellarano. 22 million euros was used to double up the large panel pro-duction line and a further 8 million euros to build an automated logistics centre for storing semi-processed panels and subsequently cutting them to custom-ers’ specifications. Could you tell us about this latest innovation project car-ried through in cooperation with the company Elettric 80 owned by Enrico Grassi? Federica Minozzi: It’s been a very inter-esting venture. The project was devel-oped by Elettric 80 based in Viano, prov-

ince of Reggio Emilia, a supplier of logistics systems to multinationals such as Coca Cola, Ikea and Barilla. Having had previous negative experiences with the ceramic sector, the owner Enrico Grassi initially said he was not interested in designing a system for the storage of semi-finished ceramic material and sub-sequent cutting. It was only the long-standing friendship with my father and the idea of creating something truly in-novative for us that finally persuaded him to accept the challenge. In just six months we built a fully auto-mated factory using intelligent robots to


In the spotlight

guarantee maximum flexibility. The semi-finished panels are now produced in their maxi-mum size (320x160 cm, Edi-tor’s note) and stored in the new centre built inside the for-mer Ariostea factory. The final production schedule is deter-mined by individual orders and is performed automati-cally inside the same facility, where robots controlled by highly advanced software pick up, move, cut, number and package the products

ready for shipment.Tile International: So after us-ing yards as open-air ware-houses where goods are pre-pared for shipment and then installing automated vertical warehouses, this system has now superseded the ware-house entirely.F. Minozzi: That’s right. In addi-tion to automation of the man-ufacturing process and the possibility of rapidly changing the sizes and even the thick-ness of products directly on


In the spotlight

the line, we have entirely elimi-nated the need to store differ-ent size panels. We simply store semi-finished products in their largest size ready to be cut to order.Tile International: What about the traditional market? F. Minozzi: Our Group’s current strategy is to focus on two dif-ferent markets. The first is the end consumer market, which we reach through the tradi-tional channel of retailers with showrooms. For this market, which accounts for about half of our sales, we produce, store and distribute our products using conventional methods under the Group’s various brand names, particularly Iris Ceramica but also Fiandre, Ar-iostea and FMG. To ensure that each product type achieves its full potential, we also use the Iris Ceramica brand name for red body products as the highest ex-pression of colour, aesthetics and decoration. The other half of our turnover is generated through large-scale projects carried out in cooperation with international engineering and architecture firms, for which purpose we supply large-format panels under the GranitiFiandre, FMG and Ariostea brands. Our inter-nal team not only creates products according to the de-signer’s specifications, but also sends out groups of tile setters capable of training the people who are actually car-rying through the project,

wherever they are in the world.Tile International: So in this segment you have effectively overcome the limitations of the traditional market. In this model the manufacturer not only supplies standard prod-ucts ready for installation but also offers customers its servic-es in creating a specific prod-uct for a given project.F. Minozzi: Yes, the ground rules have changed in this market segment. A transac-tion-based relationship has been replaced by a fully-fledged partnership between buyer and producer. Moreo-ver, new technologies have led to forms of cooperation that would have been unim-aginable only a short time ago and allow for the highest degree of product customisa-tion. One of the best examples of a project we have carried out in cooperation with leading ar-chitecture practices is the Ex-poForum in St. Petersburg. This 40,000 sq.m consignment consisted of 3,700 panels, each cut in a unique way to form 24 designs, faithful repro-ductions of eighteenth centu-ry prints to be used for the en-trance façades to the six pavilions of the ExpoForum. The panels, produced with a tolerance of ±2 mm, were numbered to make it easy to recompose the individual pieces of the design.The project by architects Evg-eny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban engaged the com-

44

pany’s entire staff of engineers and workers, who worked tire-lessly and with great enthusi-asm throughout the difficult undertaking. It’s great to be able to work like that.Another example is the Mon-drian, a 6 star hotel in Qatar. The Dutch designer from the famous interior design firm commissioned to design the interiors of the hotel had initial-ly chosen natural marble. South West Architecture, a ma-jor architecture practice locat-ed in Doha, organised a pres-entation in which they showed him two different solutions, one natural marble and the other an FMG panel. When he discovered he had chosen the industrially-made product, he sportingly ac-knowledged the qualities of an innovative material he had previously been unfamiliar with. And so we won the supply contract for their entire hotel, including more than 300 bath-rooms complete with vanity tops and shower trays. We were also commissioned to create all the accessories, in-cluding soap dishes!Tile International: Do you

think this innovative ceramic material will conquer the world of architecture.F. Minozzi: I recently coined a phrase that I feel aptly de-scribes our mission: for many years Iris-Fiandre Group drew inspiration from great archi-tecture, but today it is the Group’s new products that are influencing the world of archi-tecture. It is a totally new form of ceramic material. Rather than just floor and wall cover-ings, our products are ideal for use on curved surfaces (the panels have a curvature of up to 17 cm, Editor’s note), for cladding tables and doors, and for creating countertops and furnishing accessories. It is a material that can be trans-formed into a second skin.Tile International: At Cersaie you announced that you had purchased an area to build a new production facility near Stupino in Russia. Have you ex-perienced any problems due to the political climate and the EU sanctions?F. Minozzi: Strangely enough, the opposite has been the case. We are one of the few European companies to invest in manufacturing operations

in Russia and I must say that the authorities are being very helpful. For the time being we have purchased the land and are designing the structures. The next step is to build the plant itself.Tile International: What kind of technologies will you install in Stupino?F. Minozzi: We haven’t yet be-gun designing the production line. We are still at the stage of defining the structural pro-jects, but whenever our Group starts up a production activity we always make sure we use the most advanced technolo-gy available. This will be the case here too, although I don’t want to give away too much about it.Tile International: Will you use the same large panel produc-tion technology that you in-stalled in Castellarano: Con-tinua+ from Sacmi and GEA from System?F. Minozzi: Yes, although we haven’t yet finalised the de-tails of the project, the first and only experiment of its kind to combine the two most ad-vanced technologies for pressing large panels current-ly on the market. We are also


In the spotlight

working on a secret techno-logical project. We expect to see the final results in the spring and will present them at the next Cersaie. In any case, production in Russia is not expected to begin for an-other 18 to 24 months.Tile International: Do you think that research will enable the Italian ceramic industry to maintain its leadership posi-tion?F. Minozzi: We believe that the Sassuolo ceramic cluster is still the world leader in terms of hi-tech, innovative products. It is here that we can find the hu-man resources capable of carrying through ambitious projects, which is why we are continuing to invest here. And when Iris Group invests abroad it naturally takes the very best of its technology with it. The Italian market has re-turned to the levels of the 1990s and remains stagnant. We are continuing to grow be-cause 95% of our turnover is generated through exports and direct sales from the Por-celaingres factory in Germany and the Stonepeak facility in the United States.

5


In the spotlight

When we met Mr. Ashok Ka-jaria one year ago, the

company’s goal was very clear and ambitious: “We aim to reach an output of 100 million sq.m/year by March 2018,” he told us. With that aim in mind, the year 2014 has been a year of great produc-tion investments, bringing the installed capacity of the Indian giant from 45 to 54 million sq.m/year and positioning Ka-jaria as the largest Indian ceramic tile manufacturer. At the end of 2014 we met again Mr. Ashok Kajaria and asked him which further steps are planned to support the company’s growth.

Tile International: Which are the most relevant outcomes and results that Ka-jaria achieved last year?Ashok Kajaria: In one of the most chal-lenging years marked by declining consumer spending and spiraling gas prices, our company reported an all-round improvement. We commissioned 5.60 million sq.m fresh capacity (14% of its year-start ca-pacity); the topline increased by close to 17% over the previous year. We fo-cused on value-added products; the blended realizations improved from Rs 347 per sq.m (4.47 €/sq.m) in 2012-13

Kajaria, number 1 in India

Ashok Kajaria

to Rs 354 per sq.m (4.56 €/sq.m) in 2013-14. And in a year when the average Indi-an focused on keeping his money close at hand, Kajaria managed to shrink its working capital cycle to 25 days – an in-dustry benchmark. We attracted an in-vestment of Rs 1.50 billion (about 19.3 million Euros) from WestBridge Crossover Fund, LLc. in a year when foreign invest-ments in India ran dry -- an important watermark to our business model. Tile International: How many plants be-long today to your group? Ashok Kajaria: Kajaria has seven man-ufacturing plants across the country – one in Gailpur (Rajasthan), one in Si-kandarabad (Uttar Pradesh), one in

Andhra Pradesh and 4 in Gujarat. We have around 2300 employees on the roll of Kajaria. Tile International: Can you describe your latest investments and in which plants have they been made?Ashok Kajaria: Kajaria decided to put up a 5 million sqm plant at new location in Rajasthan, the plant is expected to complete by July 2015. The company also decided to put a Brownfield facility at its existing location in Gailpur (Rajasthan) for production of 3 million sqm capacity of ceramics wall tiles. The production is expected to complete by March 2015. The company also en-


In the spotlight

tered in to another joint ven-ture with Taurus Tiles P Ltd, which is putting up a 5 mil-lion sqm polished porcelain tile capacity at Morbi (Guja-rat). So by December 2015 we should reach a total in-stalled capacity of 67 million sqm/year. This is 25% growth in current capacity.Tile International: What technologies have been and will be installed?Ashok Kajaria: Our new production lines are mostly supplied by Sacmi and in-clude the latest bigger kilns,


In the spotlight

as well as the 6500 ton press for bigger tiles. We are also in-creasing the number of printers for the digital decoration: in our 7 plants we use a total of 9 dig-ital units and we have just sourced another one from Spain.Tile International: Are you also increasing your product range? Ashok Kajaria: We have launched new sizes, 40x80 cm in glazed porcelain and 25x75 cm in ceramics and bigger siz-es in 80x80 cm and 80x120 cm in polished porcelain. Currently Kajaria is producing more than 1200 products across its various product cate-gory.Tile International: Which are your forecasts about the Indian tile consumption and de-mand?Ashok Kajaria: Despite being the No.3 consumer in the world, the per capita consumption of tile is one of the lowest in the world. As the Indian GDP pro-gresses at a CAGR of 6-7% be-tween 2013 and 2023, urbani-sation is expected to increase from 32% to 37%, catalysing home building (and hence tile offtake). Besides, India is getting young-er, wealthier, aspirational and aesthetic. Also the replace-ment market is growing very fast. Also, there is a big thrust on “Clean India” by the newly elected Government, which will boost the demand for tile and sanitaryware.Tile International: What are your future projects?

Ashok Kajaria: In addition to enhancing tile capacities in our facilities, we are looking at a lateral yet synergic shift. Kajaria initiated the manufac-ture of sanitaryware in Morbi with the objective to comple-ment its trading model – a dif-ferentiated approach from the existing practice of tile compa-nies selecting to outsource sanitaryware. We have also initiated setting up a faucet plant of 1.50 mil-lion pieces facility at Rajasthan. This response has been in-spired by two reasons: Tiles, sanitaryware and faucets are marketed by a majority of the tile retail outlets, so the deci-sion to manufacture sanitary-ware will help address a larger share of the dealer’s business and customer’s wallet. Over the last number of years, we seeded sanitaryware demand through prudent outsourcing (imports) for which it is now creating a captive manufac-turing back-end. This diversifi-cation will position Kajaria as a holistic bathroom solution pro-vider. Strengthening mind share and wallet share among discerning customers.Tile International: How is your ongoing expansion reflecting on company’s revenues and what is the goal you forecast in the next 2 years?Ashok Kajaria: In 2014 we closed with a top line of Rs.20 Billion and a market cap of Rs.50 Billion and our target is to reach top line of Rs.30 billion by 2016. 5

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Achillea Mosaics srl was estab-

lished in 2013 in the wake of Oppimitti Group’s acquisition of the former Aquileia plant (a historic brand of the Finc-uoghi Group) in Borgotaro di Parma, Italy. At the time of the takeover, production had been moth-balled for over four years, but the new company re-hired more than half of Aquileia's former employees in 2014 and re-launched the produc-tion of top-quality mosaic with a thickness of 4 mm, while en-dowing it with the green cre-dentials that are the hallmark of everything that Oppimitti Group does. The plant engi-neering and managerial strat-egies adopted result in a sub-stantial reduction in emissions of pollutants and consump-tion of natural resources.At Borgotaro, we met Margh-erita Moruzzi, Achillea Project Manager, and Stefano Oppi-mitti, Group representative, who talked us through the

company’s first steps and forthcoming projects.

Tile International: What is Op-pimitti Group's main line of business?Stefano Oppimitti: “Oppimitti Group operates chiefly in the environmental sector and in power generation from renew-able sources, mainly by build-ing and managing wind farms. When we bought the former Aquileia plant, we felt that it was essential to apply our environmental principles to the production of porcelain mosaic. That’s why we have set things up so that the entire production process is pow-ered by renewable energies. So Achillea has risen from the ashes of Aquileia, and added some valuable ecological in-put to the already outstand-ing intrinsic qualities of the material. We find it deeply sat-isfying to explain that our por-celain tile ‘is fired by wind’.”Tile International: What spe-cial features does the Achillea

In the spotlight

Achillea Mosaics: impeccable green credentials

plant offer?S. Oppimitti: “Every stage in the production of Achillea mo-saics is geared towards the highest environmental stand-ards because our plant engi-neering and managerial strat-egies substantially reduce emissions of pollutants and consumption of natural re-sources.The spray-dried body and glaze powder (colour) are combined by means of a dry pressing process, without the use of water and therefore

Margherita Moruzzi and Stefano Oppimitti

without generating any efflu-ent, while at the same time en-suring higher product strength and quality, despite the low thickness that makes our ma-terials ideal for all the typical applications of porcelain tile.Firing takes place in a modern electric kiln, powered by re-newable energy (like the rest of the line), thus avoiding the use of fossil fuels, while pro-cessing waste is reduced to a minimum and sent to recovery plants.”Tile International: What are

In the spotlight


the technical properties of your product?Margherita Moruzzi: “In tech-nological terms, because of its reduced thickness (4 mm), Achillea is a lightweight, versa-tile product that’s easy to in-stall, even over existing floor-ing, thus avoiding demolition work and reducing the cost of renovation projects. Achillea mosaics are 100% made in Italy and endorsed with a full complement of cer-tifications: they are frost-resist-ant and resistant to tempera-

ture changes (and therefore suitable for both interior and exterior use); impermeable to water and stains (thus making day-to-day cleaning a whole lot easier); extremely resistant to bending, surface abrasion, cracking and chemical at-tack.”Tile International: And how does your pre-mounting sys-tem work?M. Moruzzi: “Our mosaic piec-es are made in several sizes and put together on sheets measuring 31.6x31.6 cm by


In the spotlight

52

means of a spot-glueing pro-cess performed automatical-ly by a dedicated production line. The result is an extremely strong, practical, managea-ble sheet, which is easy to in-stall even on curved surfaces thanks to the low thickness of the mosaics.We’ve opted for pre-mounting on sheets using spot glueing because it offers the same flexibility as fibre netting, but greater strength and better retention of joint gaps, so it simplifies installation and gives surfaces unrivalled reg-ularity.”Tile International: How many

collections do you produce?M. Moruzzi: “Achillea currently produces porcelain mosaic in various sizes (1.7x1.7, 1.7x3.8, 1.7x7.8, “mixer 1” and “mixer 5”), but the production tech-nology enables the company to create custom sizes to cus-tomer specification at any time. We produce eight series - Arcobaleno, Derby, King, Met-all, Natural, Rocks, Snoopy and Tiffany - all of which differ from conventional mosaics be-cause of their special surface finishes, such as matt and gloss, rough and smooth, and vitreous, metallic or textured effect. Achillea Mosaics are a

testament to the holistic belief that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”Tile International: How do you plan to approach the market?M. Moruzzi: “Our top priority is to get ourselves known and recognised by Italian show-rooms, so we have set up a website - www.achilleamosa-ics.com - and printed our first Achillea Mosaics catalogue, which presents the eight col-lections we produce. Now we are making vigorous efforts to set up an effective sales net-work, with a view to introduc-ing Achillea to dealers, and

forging close relations with partners, who will receive con-sultancy, merchandising sys-tems and appropriate sales-support services.”Tile International: Are you in-terested in the world of archi-tects?M. Moruzzi: “Absolutely, and we are well aware of the fact that green manufacturing cre-dentials are of particular inter-est to specifiers, especially when combined with the abil-ity to produce mosaics with to-tally customised patterns and images. But the adaptability of Achil-lea’s production, combined

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In the spotlight


with all the certifications that guarantee its outstandingly high quality, is also a big plus for dealers, who know that they can rely on all-Italian pro-duction of mosaic with the ut-most flexibility in terms of both the sizes of the individual tesserae and the reproduction of designs and images.”Tile International: What are your goals for 2015?Stefano Oppimitti: “We are only too aware that we have yet another “difficult” year ahead of us, but we are choos-ing to believe the Cresme fore-casts, which point to a slight upturn in building activity in 2015, after eight consecutive years of recession. We know that this growth will derive exclusively from invest-ments in refurbishment, espe-cially in the residential and public non-residential sectors. That’s fine by us, because Achillea mosaic is well suited to this type of application: ide-al for both interior and exterior floor and wall tiling, its slim gauge means that it can be laid over existing coverings, thus offering savings on dem-olition costs. At the same time, the unique qualities of the “sheet” mean that it is flexible and easy to in-stall even on curved surfaces. We have major expansion plans for our sales network in 2015, and we also plan to step up our presence on export markets, which yielded very promising results in 2014.”

5


The Wienerberg-er group is con-

tinuing its expansion. The results for the third quarter of 2014 show that the reve-nues of the Vienna-based multinational rose by 3% to 798.9 million euros for the peri-od from July to September, compared with 773.4 million euros in 2013. Operating EBIT-DA increased 8% to 113.0 mil-lion euros, compared with 104.2 million euros in the pre-vious year. Heimo Scheuch, Chief Execu-tive Officer of Wienerberger, explained: “This performance is very satisfactory consider-ing the more challenging market conditions in the third quarter.There were no signs of recov-ery in Europe, above all in new residential construction. A number of markets, includ-ing France and the countries in Southern Europe, contin-ued to weaken, and the Ger-man market cooled signifi-cantly. In contrast, new

residential construction in Great Britain remained on a sound course. We reacted quickly to benefit from this situation and began to restart mothballed plants during the third quarter. Central-East Europe recorded generally favourable develop-ment for the reporting period in line with our expectations. On a positive note, the Ukraine crisis has not had any major negative direct effects on our business up to now. The third quarter earnings growth was supported, above all, by the scheduled cost sav-ings, our efficiency improve-ment program and the earn-ings contribution from the recently acquired Tondach Group.”

Clay Building Materials Europe

The Clay Building Materials Eu-rope Division recorded an in-crease of 8% in revenues to 446.8 million euros and 15% in

In the spotlight

Wienerberger continues its growth

Heimo Scheuch, Ceo Wienerberger

In the spotlight


operating EBITDA to 77.8 mil-lion euros in the third quarter. The negative market develop-ments, above all in Western Eu-rope, were offset by the initial consolidation of Tondach Gleinstätten as well as 6 mil-lion euros of savings from the cost reduction program and further optimization measures.

Pipes & Pavers Europe

Revenues in the Pipes & Pavers Europe Division were 4% lower than the comparable prior year period at 283.5 million euros in the third quarter of 2014. Operating EBITDA re-mained constant during this period and totalled 34.7 mil-lion euros (compared to 34.5 million euros in the third quar-ter of 2013).

Continued recovery in US new residential construction

Revenues in the North Ameri-ca Division rose by 8% to 67.3 million euros. The continuing recovery in US new residential construction led to higher rev-enues and earnings in the brick business, even though the price situation was less than satisfactory. Wienerberger also expanded its positions in the relevant markets. In contrast, the mar-ket environment in Canada re-mained challenging. Full capacity utilization in the plastic pipe business allowed for only limited reactions to re-

cent negative shifts in the product mix. This was reflected in an earn-ings decline in the North America Division, where oper-ating EBITDA fell by 6% to 4.9 million euros.

Conclusion of the Tondach Gleinstätten acquisition

An important strategic mile-stone in the third quarter was the takeover of Tondach Glein-stätten, the leading producer of clay roof tiles in Central-East Europe. Tondach operates 14 plants in eight countries and is the mar-ket leader in this region. Heimo Scheuch is pleased with the positive conclusion of the takeover: “This major growth step will strengthen our profita-ble clay roof tile business in Europe and create further op-portunities to expand our posi-tion on the renovation market. Tondach made a positive contribution to the Wiener-berger Group in the third quar-ter, and I expect a contribu-tion of roughly 90 million euros to Group revenues and 15 mil-lion euros to operating EBITDA in 2014.”

Business development from January to September 2014

The Wienerberger Group grew by 6% during the first nine months of 2014 and generat-ed revenues of 2,148.4 million

euros. The initial consolidation of the Tondach Gleinstätten Group contributed 47.3 million euros to Group revenues. Operating EBITDA rose by a significant 18% to 248.1 million euros due to the positive de-velopment of key markets like Great Britain, Poland and Bel-gium, efficiency improvement measures and higher capaci-ty utilization in the plants.Tondach Gleinstätten contrib-uted 10.0 million euros to oper-ating earnings. The program to sell non-operating assets generated income of 2.6 mil-lion euros (6.4 million euros in third quarter of 2013). Third party revenues in the Clay Building Materials Europe Division rose by 9% to 1,166.4 million euros and operating EBITDA by 33% to 174.9 million euros in the first nine months. The Pipes & Pavers Europe Divi-sion recorded stable third par-ty revenues of € 801.6 million, compared with € 792.6 million in the previous year. EBITDA re-mained constant at 80.5 mil-lion euros. The North America Division re-corded a 3% increase in third party revenues to 175.7 million euros. EBITDA fell from 9.6 mil-lion euros in the previous year to 7.2 million euros.

Increase in profits and cash flow

The Wienerberger Group re-corded a significant improve-ment in operating EBIT to 89.2 million euros in the first nine


In the spotlight

56

months of 2014 (54.8 million euros in 2013). After the de-duction of financial results to-talling -19.5 million euros, prof-it before tax for the period from January to September 2014 was substantially higher at 69.7 million euros (6.4 mil-lion euros in 2013). Wiener-berger recorded net profit of 55.7 million euros after the de-duction of taxes, a big im-provement on the -5.6 million euros of 2013. Gross cash flow improved by 35.5 million euros due to the substantial increase in oper-ating earnings and totalled 185.9 million euros for the re-porting period. Expenditures for mainte-nance, technical upgrades for production processes and smaller growth projects amounted to 77.5 million eu-

ros for the first nine months, compared with 63.6 million euros in the previous year. Growth investments amount-ed to 35.9 million euros and in-cluded the purchase price for the shares in Tondach Glein-stätten that were purchased at the beginning of July, less liquid funds recognized dur-ing the initial consolidation.

Outlook and Strategy

The current market trends in Europe and the USA are pro-jected to continue during the remainder of this year. In the Clay Building Materials Europe Division, Wienerberger expects a stable environment in the European core markets with positive developments in Great Britain, Belgium and Po-land as well as declines in

France, Italy, the Czech Repub-lic and Hungary. Germany will be stable to slightly weaker. The consolidation of Tondach Gleinstätten will make a posi-tive contribution to Group re-sults. The pipe business should see continued healthy devel-opment in the Nordic markets and Eastern Europe as well as weaker markets in the Nether-lands and France. The con-crete paver segment should record an improvement in earnings for the full year. Fore-casts for the US market call for a further increase in new resi-dential construction.

Annual targets confirmed

“Our targets for the full year re-main intact,” said Heimo Scheuch. The Wienerberger

Group has emerged from an intensive and far-reaching re-orientation period. Our portfolio is well-balanced, and we have reduced the de-pendence on new residential construction. Our strategy to pursue organ-ic growth through innovative, energy-efficient and ecologi-cally friendly products is con-firmed by our customers, who increasingly choose to rely on our system solutions. Wiener-berger has returned to the growth path, and we are in-creasingly outpacing our mar-kets. I am therefore confident that we will meet our targets to generate operating EBITDA of 315 million euros and com-plete our return to the profit zone in 2014.”

5


Cristin

Topics

Technological innovation for high levels of

home comfort

Progress Profiles, a leading manufacturer of technical and decorative trims and waterproofing and decou-pling membranes, head-quartered in Asolo in the Ital-ian province of Treviso, chose Cersaie 2014 to showcase Prodeso Heat, the compa-ny's new underfloor heating system, which heats rooms effectively while significantly reducing installation costs and energy wastage through heat dispersal.

Long remodelling times are now a thing of the past be-cause Prodeso Heat can be installed in a single day, di-rectly over existing flooring. First you lay the Prodeso spe-cial membrane, which is made of waterproof polypro-pylene with square-shaped reliefs and serves to sepa-rate and compensate for any tension arising between covering and substrate. Then you lay the electric ca-ble, apply the adhesive and set your floor covering. Ceramic tiles are excellent heat conductors, so when laid directly on top of the heating cable, they ensure first-class heat diffusion.

Thanks to its low-profile de-sign - the Prodeso mem-brane is just 5.5 mm (¼ inch)

Prodeso Heat System by Progress Profiles

thick - this innovative heating system provides the perfect solution for remodelling pro-jects, because it enables the new covering to be laid di-

rectly over the existing floor. Thanks to the specific char-acteristics of the membrane, what's more, the underfloor heating and tiles can be in-

stalled on a wide variety of difficult substrates, without using the expansion joints that would otherwise be necessary.

Topics

You can choose to install the Prodeso Heat electrical heat-ing cable in only the most stra-tegic areas, thus reducing overall running costs and in-

creasing home comfort. But more importantly, the special thermostat means that the heat can be differentially con-trolled and programmed by

area (even remotely), thus eliminating waste.

The Prodeso Heat system, which is patented by Progress Profiles, ensures real well-being in the home, because there are no bulky radiators sending dust into the air, there's less hu-midity and there's better sound insulation between floors. Unlike traditional water-based heating systems, Prode-so Heat requires no commis-sioning and is ready for use as soon as it's installed: heat is transferred quickly and effec-tively to the floor, and is con-trolled according to the actu-

al needs of each room.

Progress Profiles exports to more than 50 countries world-wide and offers over 12,500 ar-ticles made of stainless steel, aluminium, brass, PVC and real wood, in addition to de-coupling and waterproofing membranes for the installation of ceramic and wood flooring for residential applications and other coverings for indus-trial premises. This vast range of products is 100% certified original Italian, and combines elegant styling with high technology.

5



Economy & markets

Andrew Whitmire - Tile Council of North America

2014 U.S. Ceramic Tile Industry Update

U.S. ceramic tile con-sumption, which has increased for each of

the last four years, levelled off in 2014. In spite of healthy gains in both the construction and housing markets, as well as positive signs from other key economic indicators, the U.S. tile market did not respond similarly.In the residential market, total new home starts increased for the fifth consecutive year and were at their highest annual level since 2007. The 1,006,000 units started in 2014 represent-ed an 8.8% increase from the previous year. However, even with the steady growth in housing, 2014 starts were down 44.2% vs. 2006, the year before the recent reces-sion began (Fig. 1).Single family new home starts in 2014 increased 4.9% from 2013 to 648,000 units, and mul-ti-family housing starts were up 16.4% from 2013 to 358,000

units.New home sales were at a six-year high of 435,000 units, up 1.2% vs. 2013. Compared to historical levels though, 2014 new home sales were down almost 60.0% vs. 2006 (Fig. 2).Existing home sales in 2014 were at a level of 4.34 million units, down 3.1% vs. 2013 and the first year-over-year de-crease since 2009-2010.Despite the decline in existing home sales, the National Asso-ciation of Homebuilders’ (NAHB) Remodeling Index, which takes into account both current remodeling activity and indicators of future re-modeling activity, was at an all-time high in 4Q 2014. Re-modeling is closely linked to existing home sales, as buyers often look to renovate their newly purchased home. Another key indicator of the residential market’s health is foreclosure activity. There

were 1.12 million foreclosure fil-ings on U.S. properties in 2014, down 17.9% from 2013, and the lowest annual total since 2006. Four consecutive years (2010-2014) of declines in fore-closures indicate stabilization of the U.S. housing industry. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose from 3.98% in 2013 to 4.17% in 2014. Even with this in-crease the 2014 annual rate was still the third lowest on re-cord.As of Dec. 2014 the U.S. unem-ployment rate was 5.6%, down from 7.4% in 2013 and the low-est rate since 2008.U.S. construction spending (in-cludes both private and pub-lic residential and non-residen-tial construction) in 2014 was $961.4 billion, a 5.6% increase from the previous year.The overall U.S. economy also experienced solid growth in 2014, as GDP increased 2.4% vs. 2013. This represented five consecutive years of growth

and was the largest year-over-year increase since 2009-2010.

U.S Ceramic Tile Consumption Overview

Through 3Q 2014 U.S. ceramic tile consumption was at 1.87 billion sq. ft. (173.8 million sq. m), down 1.1% vs. 3Q 2013 YTD (1.89 billion sq. ft./175.8 million sq. m) (tab. 1). Based on data available to date, we estimate 2014 U.S. ceramic tile consumption to be 2.49 billion sq. ft. (231.4 mil-lion sq. m), up 0.5% vs. 2013 (fig. 3).

Imports

Through 3Q 2014, 1.28 billion sq. ft. (119.3 million sq. m) of ceramic tile arrived in the U.S. This was a 2.0% decrease from 3Q 2013 YTD, in which 1.31 bil-lion sq. ft. (121.7 million sq. m) of ceramic tile were imported into the U.S., but an 11.7% in-

FIG. 1 - USA: New Housing Starts FIG. 2 - USA: New single family home sales


Economy & markets

Del Conca "Fast"

FIG. 3 - U.S. consumption of ceramic tile, 2005-2014crease from 3Q 2012 YTD. Imports through 3Q 2014 made up 68.6% of U.S. tile consump-tion (in sq. ft.), down from 69.6% in the previous year. Mexico, the top exporter to the U.S. from 2008-2012, lost its top exporter status (in sq. ft.) last year to China. However, through 3Q 2014, Mexico was once again the top exporter to the U.S. with a 30.5% share of imports. China was in sec-ond place with a 28.9% share, followed by Italy, which was in third place with a 17.7% share. Spain and Turkey rounded out the top five with a 5.9% and

4.4% share of imports, respec-tively (tab. 2). Of the top ten countries from which the U.S. imported tile (in sq. ft.), Turkey (+33.2%) had the highest increase in exports to the U.S. (3Q 2014 YTD vs. 3Q 2013 YTD), and Thailand (-36.2%) had the largest de-crease over the same time-frame. Italy remained the top export-er to the U.S. on a dollar basis (3Q 2014 YTD), comprising 34.7% of U.S. imports. China was second with a 25.3% share, and Mexico was third with a 17.0% share (tab. 3).

TAB. 1 - U.S. ceramic tile shipments, imports, exports, and total consumption

Year U.S. shipment Imports Exports U.S. Consumption* % var. in

consumption from previous year

2014 (Jan-Sep) 56.9 119.3 2.4 173.8 -1.1**

2013 73.7 160.1 3.7 230.2 12.9

2012 69.5 138.6 4.2 203.9 5.4

2011 66.7 131.1 4.2 193.6 4.0

2010 60.3 129.6 3.9 186.0 7.7

2009 53.1 123.9 4.2 172.8 -18.1

2008 58.9 156.6 4.7 210.9 -15.2

2007 50.6 202.4 4.4 248.7 -19.3

2006 58.5 253.8 4.2 308.1 1.8

2005 61.1 245.1 3.4 302.8 3.5

2004 64.6 231.2 3.2 292.6 11.8

2003 57.1 207.2 2.7 261.7 6.6

2002 60.3 189.0 3.1 245.5 16.2

2001 54.9 159.5 3.1 211.3 0.5

* U.S. Shipments + Imports - Exports ** % change from 3Q 2013 YTDValues in million sq.m Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce & Tile Council of North America


Economy & markets

62

U.S. Shipments

Through 3Q 2014 YTD, domes-tic shipments (less exports)

TAB. 2 - US Ceramic tile imports by country of origin, in volume (Jan-Sept.)

Country 2012Sq.m

2013Sq.m

Var. % 2013/2012

2014Sq.m

Var. % 2014/2013

% on total 2013 - 2014 imports

Mexico 34,111,980 36,896,428 8.2% 36,435,623 -1.2% 30.3% - 30.5%

China 28,894,337 35,631,432 23.3% 34,435,793 -3.4% 29.3% - 28.9%

Italy 18,256,526 21,099,764 15.6% 21,165,205 0.3% 17.3% - 17.7%

Spain 5,751,432 6,925,557 20.4% 7,056,629 1.9% 5.7% - 5.9%

Turkey 3,323,447 3,957,646 19.1% 5,272,298 33.2% 3.3% - 4.4%

Brazil 5,376,852 6,043,467 12.4% 4,964,171 -17.9% 5.0% - 4.2%

Peru 2,823,566 2,801,623 -0.8% 2,886,860 3.0% 2.3% - 2.4%

Colombia 2,156,997 2,359,711 9.4% 1,890,886 -19.9% 1.9% - 1.6%

Thailand 1,447,758 1,306,030 -9.8% 833,035 -36.2% 1.1% - 0.7%

Portugal 451,567 577,554 27.9% 549,060 -4.9% 0.5% - 0.5%

Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce

TAB. 3 - USA: Ceramic tile imports by country of origin, in value* (Jan-Sept.)

Country 2012US $

2013US $

2013/2012 % Change

2014US $

2014/2013 % Change

2013 - 2014 Average price

US $/sq.m

% on total 2013-2014

imports

Italy 381,150,405 445,918,738 17.0% 471,972,521 5.8% 21.1 - 22.3 34.3% - 34.7%

China 251,914,697 327,984,124 30.2% 344,695,559 5.1% 9.2 - 10.0 25.3% - 25.3%

Mexico 207,889,992 229,965,470 10.6% 231,488,116 0.7% 6.2 - 6.3 17.7% - 17.0%

Spain 89,713,659 106,345,308 18.5% 120,081,499 12.9% 15.4 - 17.0 8.2% - 8.8%

Turkey 32,374,578 41,313,443 27.6% 60,634,057 46.8% 10.4 - 11.5 3.2% - 4.5%

Brazil 35,872,099 41,430,037 15.5% 37,334,335 -9.9% 6.9 - 7.5 3.2% - 2.7%

Peru 14,843,619 14,982,617 0.9% 15,134,126 1.0% 5.3 - 5.2 1.2% - 1.1%

Colombia 13,468,918 14,818,506 10.0% 11,439,531 -22.8% 6.3 - 6.0 1.1% - 0.8%

Japan 9,500,348 9,523,613 0.2% 9,556,090 0.3% n.a. 0.7% - 0.7%

Argentina 11,396,345 8,062,417 -29.3% 7,862,246 -2.5% n.a. 0.6% - 0.6%

All Countries 1,102,934,452 1,298,801,427 17.8% 1,359,805,159 4.7%

Including duty, freght and insurance - Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce

sq. m) of ceramic tile were shipped domestically. In dollar value U.S. FOB factory sales of domestic shipments (less exports) through 3Q 2014 were $866.1 million, up 4.8% vs. 3Q 2013 YTD ($826.6 million). The per unit value of domestic shipments (less exports) rose from $1.42 sq. ft. to $1.48 sq. ft. from 3Q 2013 YTD to 3Q 2014 YTD.

Exports

U.S. exports through 3Q 2014 were at 26.1 million sq. ft. (2.4 million sq. m), down 16.1% vs. 3Q 2013 YTD. The vast majority of these exports (in sq. ft.) were to Canada (63.8%) and Mexi-co (16.2%).The value of U.S. exports fell 0.9% from $30.6 million (3Q 2013 YTD) to $30.3 million (3Q 2014 YTD). 5

were at 587.0 million sq. ft. (54.5 million sq. m), up 0.8% from 3Q 2013 YTD, in which 582.5 million sq. ft. (54.1 million


The Latin Ameri-can countries

have seen rapid eco-nomic growth over the last decade, much of which is at-tributable to the dynamic con-struction industry. Driven by government-backed social housing initiatives (aimed at reducing the housing deficit that afflicts many countries) and modernisation of nation-al infrastructures, in many countries the sector’s growth has outstripped that of GDP. Growth across the region slowed in 2013, however, albe-it with significant differences between the various coun-tries.

According to the 2013/2014 economic report published by

the Federación Interamerica-na de la Industria e de la Con-strucción (FIIC, an organisa-tion that embraces the sector associations of 19 Latin Ameri-can countries: Panama, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, El Sal-vador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, Co-lombia, Nicaragua, Domini-can Republic, Bolivia, Hondu-ras, Paraguay and Venezuela), in 2013 the overall GDP growth of Latin American countries was 2.6%, smaller than the 3.1% growth of 2012 in line with the downward trend that be-gan in 2011.According to the FIIC report, the negative results of 2013 were largely caused by the non-optimal performance of the continent’s two largest

Economy & markets

The construction industry in Latin America

TOTAL GDP TREND AND TOTAL CONSTRUCTION GDP IN LATIN AMERICA IN 2013

economies, Brazil and Mexico (GDP growth respectively +2.4% and +1.1%). Excluding these two countries, the re-gional average rises to 4.1%. Against this economic back-drop, the construction sector has also seen modest growth (below 2%), although the situ-ation remains very heteroge-neous at a country level. For example, Colombia saw growth of more than 10% while Nicaragua and Panama marked up record perfor-mances (respectively +17.2% and +30.5% year on year). Very good results were also achieved by Peru (+8.9%), Ec-uador (+8.6%), Bolivia (+10.6%) and the Dominican Republic (+7.5%). The forecasts for the end of 2014 and 2015 are cau-

tiously optimistic, indicating that the construction industry in some countries such as Ar-gentina and Mexico will grad-ually pick up in line with the re-covery in the national economies.

ARGENTINA

In Argentina the construction sector has grown considerably since 2002. It now accounts for almost 5% of GDP and is the country’s second most impor-

Economy & markets


CountryTotal GDP Per capita

GDPGDP

Construction

% GDP Construction/

Total GDPInflation Population Unemployment

billion US$ Var. % US$ Var. % % % Million %

Argentina 488.2 2.94 11,766 1.8 4.8 10.1 41.5 7.1

Bolivia 29.8 6.78 2,700 10.6 2.6 4.4 11.0 5.4

Brazil 2242.9 3.02 11,311 1.6 4.6 5.5 199.9 6.0

Chile 277.0 4.07 15,776 3.2 7.8 3.0 17.6 6.5

Colombia 381.8 4.68 8,098 12.0 8.7 2.4 47.2 10.3

Costa Rica 49.6 3.50 10,433 2.4 5.1 5.0 4.7 6.5

Ecuador 94.1 4.48 5,968 8.6 8.7 2.7 15.5 5.8

El Salvador 24.5 1.29 3,875 -1.9 3.9 0.8 6.3 5.7

Guatemala 54.4 3.69 3,513 1.7 4.1 4.5 15.5 n.a

Honduras 18.8 2.60 2,323 -2.8 5.8 5.9 8.4 4.4

Mexico 1258.5 1.06 10,630 -4.5 7.2 3.8 118.4 4.9

Nicaragua 11.3 4.56 1,840 17.2 5.3 6.9 6.1 7.8

Panama 40.3 8.35 10,839 30.5 12.2 3.7 3.7 4.2

Paraguay 28.3 13.55 4,170 14.0 6.9 3.7 6.8 5.4

Peru 206.5 5.82 6,674 8.9 6.9 2.9 30.9 6.8

Dominican Rep. 60.8 4.06 5,834 7.5 5.1 3.9 10.4 12.5

Uruguay 56.3 4.40 16,609 1.4 8.9 8.5 3.4 6.5

Venezuela 374.0 1.34 12,472 -2.3 7.7 56.1 30.0 7.8

ECONOMIC EVOLUTION OF LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES IN 2013

Source: Evolución de la Economía de los Países Miembros de la FIIC 2013-2014

tant sector after manufactur-ing. According to ISAC (Indicador Sintético de la Actividad de la Costrucción, a sector indicator based on a number of repre-sentative factors and concern-

ing both public and private construction), the sector grew by a total of 4.6% in 2013. The trend was positive in the public works segment (+13%) but more timid in the private resi-dential sector, which regis-

tered +1.9% in the fourth quar-ter. In the same period, commercial and industrial building grew by 7.6%. In 2014, however, the Argentine economy was shaken by two events: in January the devalu-

ation of the Peso by 21.3% against the US dollar, and in July the country’s technical default (the second in 13 years, although far less severe than the previous one in 2001). The uncertainty deriving from


Economy & markets

66

the economic instability has also reflected on the construc-tion sector. According to fig-ures released by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Cen-sos (INDEC), in May alone the sector experienced a 4.6% contraction on the same month the previous year, while the total contraction for the first five months of 2014 was 3%. The downturn affected all seg-ments with the exception of road infrastructures, which grew by 1.2%. The residential building sector also experi-enced a negative trend, which Gustavo Llambías, vice presi-dent of the Asociación de Em-presarios de la Vivienda (AEV), argues is due to poor access to credit. Llambías believes that Pro.Cre.Ar (the govern-ment programme granting mortgages for the construc-tion of first homes) is little help given that homes built as a re-sult of this programme amount to just 10% of the 200,000 built across the country every year. According to the estimates of the international agency BMI, 2014 will close with a 2% con-traction in the building sector, while 2015 will see a small re-covery with 1.1% growth. To give fresh impetus to the sector, the president of the Cá-mara Argentina de la Con-strucción, Gustavo Weiss, re-cently announced that the investments in public works in 2015 would amount to 3% of GDP (15% more than the cur-rent expenditure), or around

162 billion Pesos (15.4 billion euros). This should create 2.5 million jobs, both direct and in-direct. Finally, as early as Au-gust this year Prime Minister Jorge Capitanich announced the construction of 108,000 homes, which will create 400,000 new jobs in the sector.

BOLIVIA

According to figures provided by the Cámara Boliviana de la Construcción (Caboco), the construction sector saw 8.53% growth in the first nine months of 2014. In March 2014 the Bo-livian economy expanded by 6.49% with respect to the same month the previous year as a result of growth in the building, manufacturing and com-merce sectors. The president of Caboco, Christian Eduardo, said that the main driver of the sector’s growth is residential building, where demand is boosted by easier access to credit. Contributions to the sector’s growth also came from invest-ments in public works, espe-cially road infrastructures (esti-mated at 58% of expenditure), urban works and social hous-ing. The Government recently announced a new public in-

vestment plan for 2015 (PGE, Presupuesto General del Esta-do) with an estimated ex-penditure of US $ 6.18 billion dollars, 37% up on the $ 4.52 billion of the 2014 PGE. 69% of this will be devoted to infra-structures and the manufac-turing sector.

BRAZIL

Construction sector growth in 2015 is expected to be close to zero following the very small (0.5%) growth in 2014. These are the estimates released re-cently by José Romeu Ferraz Neto, president of SindusCon-SP (the Civil Construction Sec-tor Syndicate of the State of São Paulo), who maintains that the current stagnation is a consequence of the credit crunch and macroeconomic adjustments. Ana Maria Caste-lo, coordinator of the construc-tion projects of the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), believes that to revive the sector the Government should try to curb inflation, increase investments in infrastructure and begin construction of new housing units as part of the Minha Casa, Minha Vida government public housing programme. Further falls in employment

(-2%) and demand for build-ing materials (-1.5%) are ex-pected in 2015.

COLOMBIA

In the period 2009-2013 the Colombian construction sec-tor grew at an annual rate of 11.91%, largely due to public investments and private sector participation through public-private partnerships (PPP). This growth is expected to contin-ue during the four-year period 2014-2018 as a result of Gov-ernment investments in infra-structure and residential build-ing, with further 10.96% growth forecast. According to the De-partamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (Co-lombia’s national statistics in-stitute DANE), in the first quar-ter of 2014 the value of the construction sector at con-stant prices increased by 16.9% with respect to the same period the previous year, from 6.3 billion Pesos (2.2 billion eu-ros) to 7.3 billion Pesos (2.6 bil-lion euros). In terms of real added value, this is equivalent to 12% growth for the sector in 2013, driven by public invest-ments in infrastructure and by the construction of social housing to meet the growing

COVERINGS_ILAN_BIEN_21x29.7_CON.indd 1 07/02/15 12:18

the construction sector which in 2013 marked up 30.5% year-on-year growth. Over the last five years the sector has ex-panded at an average rate of 20.8%, largely due to infra-structure works including ex-pansion of the Panama Ca-nal, line 1 of the Metro, upgrading of the road system both in the capital and in the interior of the country, and the construction of airports. Pri-vate investments made a ma-jor contribution, growing by 32.4% in 2013. Again in 2013 there were a total of 11,572 building projects (19.3% more than the previous year), in-cluding 11,200 residential building projects and 372 for commercial applications; in-vestments in the sector to-talled US $1.81 billion (up 32.3% on 2012), of which 45.8% was in residential building; the constructed surface area in-creased by 28.1% (4 million sq.m). In the first 8 months of 2014, investments amounted to around $651 million, con-centrated in the northern, eastern and western regions of Panama, especially the dis-tricts of Arraijan and La Chor-rera. At the recent CAPAC Expo Habitat 2014, Roderick McGowen, president of the Cámara Panameña de la Construcción (CAPAC), an-nounced that investments in the sector to the end of 2014 will total $5.6 billion, including $3.2 billion from the public sector and the remaining $2.4 billion from the private sector.

demand. The Government is planning to invest a total of 190.4 billion Pesos (67.2 billion euros) in in-frastructure by 2021, of which 47.6 billion Pesos (16.8 billion euros) will serve to construct 8,000 km of roads throughout the country. The residential construction market will also be sustained by social hous-ing projects. According to Jorge Enrique Gómez, presi-dent of Lonja de Propiedad Raíz of Bogotá, these invest-ments are expected to bring 7.1% growth in the building market in 2015.

ECUADOR

Since 2009 the Government of Ecuador has made a number of investments in the construc-tion sector, largely in the infra-structure segment, which have stimulated the country’s econ-omy and made a significant contribution to GDP growth. As a result, the construction sec-tor has the second highest growth rate (+9% average over the last four years), surpassed only by Defence (+14%). In 2011 and 2012, the con-struction market achieved double figure growth: 21.6% in 2011 and 14% in 2012. This

strong growth slackened con-siderably in 2013 (although the year ended with a reason-able +8.6%) and is expected to slow further in 2014 and 2015. According to the estimates of the international research agency BMI, construction mar-ket growth for the end of 2014 is expected to be 6.5%, while 2015 is expected to bring a fur-ther slowdown to 5.1%, with an average of 4.1% over the next 5 years. However, this is still a good result, especially when compared with the regional average. The slowdown is largely due to a reduction in public spending for the sector, in turn caused by declining oil revenues. In recent months the country’s largest refinery was closed for 40 days for mainte-nance and is expected to continue to operate at 50% of its capacity for much of 2015, further reducing public ex-penditure on the infrastructure sector.

MEXICO

2013 was a difficult year for the Mexican construction industry. Following strong growth in 2011 (+4%) and a small slow-down in 2012 (+1.9%), 2013

brought a sharp contraction (-4.5%), mainly due to the re-duction in public spending which triggered a 4.2% down-turn in the civil engineering sector alone. Employment also fell by 3.9% with the loss of 21,700 jobs. At a regional level, the building sector crisis main-ly affected 19 out of 32 states, of which the worst affected were Chiapas, Tlxcala, Morelos, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Micho-acán and Yucatán.A return to growth is expected in 2014. According to figures released by the Cámara Mexi-cana de la Industria de la Construcción (CMIC), follow-ing a negative trend in the first five months of the year, there was a turnaround in June with 2.2% growth with respect to the same period the previous year. In the second half of the year the sector benefited from the positive effects of the country’s economic recovery and the year is expected to end with overall growth of 2%. The fore-casts for 2015 point to 4% growth.

PANAMA

The Panamanian economy has grown rapidly in recent years, propelled above all by


Economy & markets

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PERU

The Peruvian real estate sector has grown by a total of 61.8% over the last five years with an annual average of 10.1%. How-ever, this trend has slackened in the last two years, dropping from +15.8% in 2012 to +8.9% in 2013. According to the esti-mates of the Instituto de Economía y Desarrollo Empre-sarial (IEDEP) of the Cámara de Comercio de Lima (CCL), the construction sector is ex-pected to record 6.8% growth

in 2014. These estimates are based on the projects an-nounced in July by the Presi-dent of the Republic Ollanta Humala, which include urban building and property redevel-opment programmes. A total of 500 million Soles (around 137 million euros) will also be allocated to support house-hold incomes alongside the Bono Familiar and Bono del Buen Pagador funds that form part of the MiVivienda project (state subsidies for home pur-chases or renovation). Accord-ing to the estimates of the agency BMI, the sector will grow by 7.1% in 2015 as a re-sult of a major Government commitment to infrastructure development projects. The forecasts for the next 5 years point to an average growth of

5%, lower than that of recent years but still a good result compared with the regional average.

VENEZUELA

In 2013 the construction sector suffered a 2.3% contraction as a consequence of non-imple-mentation of public works (-2%), especially in the field of non-residential building. In contrast, the residential build-ing sector saw significant (5.8%) growth, largely as a re-

sult of the Gran Misión Vivien-da Venezuela (GMVV) pro-gramme. Since being launched by the then Presi-dent Hugo Chávez in 2011, the programme has led to the construction of 630,000 hous-ing units throughout the coun-try. These figures were released in October by the Minister for Housing Policies, Ricardo Moli-na, who said that the Govern-ment aims to build a further 600,000 homes by the end of 2015. The goal of the so-called Plan Remate is to complete 125,000 homes by the end of 2014, while a total of 3 million houses will need to be com-pleted by 2019 to eliminate the country’s longstanding hous-ing deficit.

5

Economy & markets

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The European construction mar-

ket in 2014 has entered a new phase of growth. After seven years of deep crisis, dur-ing which the market has lost 21% in volume, and after a fur-ther negative year 2013 (-2.7%), the 78th Euroconstruct conference held in Milan on 19/20th November confirmed that 2014 will be the first year of recovery in construction output. Growth is expected to be moderate in 2014 (+1%) but it will consolidate in the near future: +2.1% in 2015 and +2.2% in the following two-year period.

Economy in Europe

Even with strong disparities within the 19 Euroconstruct countries, the economy is re-covering in Europe. The recent forecasts indicate a slower re-turn to growth than it was ex-pected six months ago. The re-covery has been gaining momentum in the United King-dom; growth has been accel-erating also in Northern Euro-pean countries outside the Eurozone. In the Euro Area, by contrast, the recession ended (except in Italy) but an eco-nomic impasse has set in. Out-put, wages and prices are stagnating and levels of un-employment are at record highs, after four years of gener-al austerity measures. The Eu-ropean Central Bank (ECB) is starting to deploy non-con-ventional measures in an at-

Economy & markets

A new cycle for construction in Europe

CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN EUROPE (EC-19) AT 2012 PRICES

Source: 78th Euroconstruct Conference - Milan, 2014

tempt to stimulate the econo-my. Eastern European economies, on the other hand, have returned to robust growth after a sharp slowdown in 2012-2013. All in all, economic growth will be weak, since the labour market is fragile in many countries, the credit market is tight and public ac-counts correction is still under-way. And mainly in the Euro Area, concerns over the risk of deflation are now more dis-cussed than six months ago.

2015-2017 forecasts

In this weak but slowly improv-ing economic scenario, the new outlook for construction activity in Europe indicates that sectorial production bot-tomed out in 2013 and stabi-lized at a very modest level in 2014. Thus this new phase can be described as one of mod-est recovery, and of low pro-ductive levels, even if the sec-torial growth rates, after some years, will once again overtake

the pace of the economy. Ac-cording to the new estimates, all three main segments within the construction market are expected to grow in the short-to-medium term but with some peculiarities. The residential sector is still suffering, especial-ly new production which, after the further severe reduction last year (-4%), is stagnating (0.1%) in 2014, but in the short-to-medium term will be a very important engine for the Euro-pean sector close to 4 per-centage points on average in the three year period 2015-2017. The trend is similar for new non-residential investment, for which the drop in 2013 was even steeper, but the forecast-ed growth is more moderate than the one for residential (lit-tle more than 2% in the period 2015-2017). For civil engineering the recov-ery in 2014 is stronger if com-pared to the building seg-ments (+1.4%) even if it has been the market segment with

the most marked downward revision with respect to six months ago (mainly due to the UK downward revision). But the sector will continue to grow at a speed set at 2.5% in the next three years, which is ex-pected to accelerate year by year. Finally, renovation build-ing activity continues to have an important cushioning ef-fect for the entire construction sector, indeed it has been able to absorb part of the decline in the past period, and will sta-bilize the trend in the next fu-ture.

Differences within the EC-19 Countries

More heterogeneous, not sur-prisingly, is the scenario for the different territorial areas. At a macro level, Eastern Europe is once again a driving force in the market, showing a relevant growth rate in 2014 (+4.8%) which will surpass 3% in the next two years. Thus the con-struction market in the Eastern

Economy & markets


European countries is expected to enter into a new phase not far from the previous period of growth, mainly thanks to an improved capability in using EU project funds, which will mainly boost the segment of infra-structure. In the current phase these results ap-pear even more relevant when compared to the ones envisaged for the Western countries: in 2014 they will not reach a growth rate of 1% (0.8%) and in the next three years should not exceed 2%. Growth in France, Italy and Spain, among the big 5, is still decreasing in 2014. Ger-many is set to slow down in the near future and could also stop increas-ing in two years time. In this context, UK is set for a very strong general growth: the residential market is booming again, (+16% new invest-ment in 2014) even if it should slowdown in the next three years; non-residential will be boost-ed by a strong demand for commercial, industri-al and educational building; finally, after a halt in 2014, new civil en-gineering works should also return to growth (+4.5% in the two-year period 2015-2016).

5

EUROCONSTRUCT is a group of 19 specialised research organisations in Europe, which has been active sin-ce 1975. Over its period of operation, it has gained international recognition, both thanks to its unique nature and also especially thanks to the high quality of information offered. Euroconstruct regularly provides analyses of the construction market including expert forecasts of further development. The following are member countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.The 79th Euroconstruct conference will take place in Warsaw on 11-12nd June 2015.


Things at last ap-pear to be

changing for the Italian construction industry. The turnaround is confirmed by the 22nd Economic and Forecasting Report produced by Cresme and presented during the 78th Euroconstruct conference. According to the report, building activity will re-sume growth in 2015 with an overall 1.1% upturn following eight years of decline. However, this timid recovery is attributable solely to the reno-vation market, which will grow by 3.5% and compensate for the further 3.4% contraction of the new build segment. Nonetheless the Cresme Re-port has some bad news re-garding the preliminary end-of-year figures for 2014, which in spite of the encouraging signs at the beginning of the year showed a worse perfor-mance than expected (down

Economy & markets

Renovation rescues the Italian building industry

2.9%) due to the sharp down-turn from June onwards. As Cresme director Lorenzo Bellicini explained, this down-turn “extended unexpectedly to the residential renovation sector in spite of the 65% and 50% tax incentives, one of the major driving forces behind the market in recent years”. Looking in greater detail, reno-vation investments rose by 1.7% in 2014, and although they account for around 70% of the total market (118 billion euros in 2014, including 82 bil-lion euros for extraordinary maintenance and 36.3 billion euros for routine mainte-nance), they were insufficient to offset the 10.6% fall in the new build segment. The biggest falls in this seg-ment in 2014 were investments in new housing (-14.5%), new non-residential buildings (-11.9% private investments and -4.9% public investments),

ITALY: BUILDING INVESTMENTS

(Var. % on previous year, calculated on constant values 2005)

2014 2015

New building investments -10.6 -3.4

Residential -14.5 -9.5

- Private non-residential -11.9 -2.9

- Public non-residential -4.9 +1.8

- Civil engineering -6.0 +2.0

Investments in renovation +1.7 +3.5

- Residential +3.0 +4.1

- Private non-residential +2.9 +2.0

- Public non-residential -3.3 +4.7

- Civil engineering -3.5 +2.8

TOTAL -2.9 +1.1

and public works (-6%). Public investments also per-formed poorly in the renova-tion sector (non-residential -3.3% and civil engineering -3.5%), offset by private invest-ments (+3% residential and

+2.9% non-residential). However, the situation is ex-pected to change in 2015 when public works will once again contribute to the gener-al recovery in terms of both new building and renovation.

5

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Economy & markets

Russian Construction market: upturn in 2016

Over the past three years, the Russian

construction market has seen a sharp slowdown. Ac-cording to a report by PMR Publications based on the lat-est data released by Rosstat (Russia's national statistics insti-tute), after good perfor-mance in 2012 (+2.5% year on year), construction output grew by only 0.1% in 2013 (al-though preliminary data point-ed to a downturn of 1.5%). This negative trend continued into 2014, resulting in a contraction of 4.8% over the first 11 months of the year. According to PMR, this reces-sion has been driven by three main factors: firstly, the Russian economy as a whole, which saw GDP growth of just 1.3% in 2013 (a marked slowdown compared with the figure of 3.4% in 2012) and an even more modest +0.5 in 2014; secondly, lower levels of fixed capital investment, which fell

by 0.2% in 2013 compared with the previous year, with a fur-ther drastic drop of 2.8% in the first 11 months of 2014; and lastly, the recently approved sanctions against the Russian government as a result of the tensions in Ukraine, although the negative effects of these are expected to be confined to the first half of the year.The segment with the biggest negative impact on the con-struction market as a whole was civil engineering, as a re-sult of the delayed launch of many new construction pro-jects. The fall in private and public investments, especially those earmarked for transport infrastructures, also adversely affected this segment. Suffice it to say, for example, that the total value of regional funds for road infrastructures in 2014 (RUB 338 billion, approximately EUR 7 billion) was 22% lower than in 2013, while on the pri-vate investment front,

Gazprom reduced its invest-ments from 775 billion roubles (18.3 billion euros) in 2013 to 698 billion (14.5 billion euros) in 2014. These falls were then com-pounded by a contraction (-16.3%) in the Southern Feder-al District following completion of the works for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, which had given the sector a big boost in the period 2010-2013.It's a different story, however, for the non-residential con-struction segment. According to PMR's report en-titled “Construction sector in Russia H2 2014. Development forecasts for 2015-2020”, the segment's output has risen consistently over the past three years: 19,035 buildings were completed nationwide in 2013, representing a rise of 3.8% on 2012, and the positive trend continued throughout 2014. According to preliminary figures, the construction of

7,339 non-residential buildings was commissioned in the first six months of the year, repre-senting a 19% increase on the previous year, while the total housing space built rose by al-most 12% year on year.The residential segment also reported substantial growth, almost reaching its 1987 re-cord of 72.8 million square me-tres. 2013 saw the completion of 929,400 housing units (+10.9% on the previous year), while the total surface area of residential building rose by 7.2% on 2012, to a figure of 70.5 million sq.m. This trend continued through-out 2014 to the extent that, in view of the industry's growth rates in the period January-Au-gust 2014 (an increase in com-pleted housing space of 28.2% compared with the same peri-od in 2013), PMR estimates that the housing space com-pleted nationwide reached 70 million square metres by the

GRAPH. 1 - Investments in fixed capital in Russia (RUB bn) and real change (%, y-o-y),

2010 - November 2014

GRAPH. 2 - Construction output in Russia (RUB bn) and real change (%, y-o-y),

2006 - November 2014


Economy & markets

Del Conca "Fast"

TAB. 1 - Completition of housing space in Russia and change in main residential construction support factors (%, y-o-y), 2010 - August 2014

2010 2011 2012 2013 Jan-Aug 2013 Jan-Aug 2014

Completition of housing space -2.4% 6.6% 5.6% 7.2% 7.9% 28.2%

Real disposable income (y-o-y) 5.9% 0.5% 4.6% 3.2% 4.2% 0.7%

Average mortgage rate (RUB-denominated) 13.1% 11.9% 12.3% 12.5% 12.6% 12.3%*

Source: PMR based on Rosstat, Central Bank of Russia, 2014

end of the year.A report from the Russian state statistical service Rosstat stat-ed that 7.4 million sq.m of housing was completed in September alone, which is an 8.8% rise on the amount fin-ished in September 2013. In terms of regional breakdown, from January to September 2014 the largest amount of housing was completed in the Moscow Region, where 9.7% (4.695 million sq.m) of the Rus-sian total came into use. 3.509

GRAPH. 3 - Construction output in Russia (RUB bn) and real change (%, y-o-y),

2010 - 2020

million sq.m was completed in the Krasnodar Region (7.3% of the national total), 2.333 mil-lion sq.m (4.8%) in the city of Moscow, 2.125 million sq.m (4.4%) in St. Petersburg, 1.859 million sq.m (3.9%) in the Re-public of Bashkortostan, 1.841 million sq.m (3.8%) in the Tyu-men Region, and a further 1.727 million sq.m (3.6%) in Ta-tarstan. Builders of ‘individual housing’ (houses not in apart-ment blocks) finished 167,200 homes covering 22.4 million

sq.m in the same period, 18.6% more than last year. This helped bring the share of indi-vidual house building in all Rus-sian residential construction to 46.5%.In conclusion, PMR's medium- to long-term forecasts for the entire Russian construction market are optimistic. While 2015 is expected to remain in negative territory (-0.8%), due to the continued effects of po-litical uncertainty and lack of investment, 2016 should mark

a return to positive growth (+2.4). The main drivers of this upturn are the numerous multi-billion-rouble public projects aimed at expanding and modernising the country's in-frastructure, and building af-fordable housing. The con-struction industry will then get another shot in the arm from the launch of building projects in preparation for the 2018 Football World Cup, the con-struction of the Moscow-St Pe-tersburg motorway and the

GRAPH. 4 - Russian GDP and the oil price


Economy & markets

78

central Moscow ring road, an increase in projects for the Si-berian railway and in the Far Eastern Federal District, and the construction of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline.

Tile production

After peaking at 166 million sq.m in 2013 (+7.8%) on the back of two years of strong growth, initial estimates point to a sharp slowdown in Rus-sia’s ceramic tile production in 2014, with volumes expect-ed to remain virtually un-changed at 2013 levels or be-low. Floor and wall tiles are following opposite trends, with floor tile production down by about 2% and wall tile output up by around 2.3%.In a fiercely competitive mar-ket, demand continues to be met mainly by domestic pro-duction, although imports have also risen in recent years. Russia’s top tile pro-ducer is Kerama Marazzi (Mo-

hawk Group), which in-creased its output to 30.5 million sq.m in 2014 (up 4.8% on 2013) and has main-tained strong investments in production. In April 2014 it started up a second porce-lain tile line (the previous one was installed in June 2012), while the latest investment was made in February this year with the start-up of the new wall tile production line.The second largest Russian producer is Unitile Holding, which has two factories in the provinces of Voronezh and Rostov and a total out-put (according to PMR) of 26.9 million sq.m following strong growth in 2013.Another major investment was made in 2014 by the Rovese Group, which in April 2014 started up a second production line at the Kuchinski ceramic plant (ac-quired in 2011), bringing the facility’s capacity to 9 million sq.m/year. 5

GRAPH. 5 - Production and consumption of ceramic tiles in Russia (million sq.m),

2006 - 2014

TAB. 2 - Main social and economic indicators for Russia, 2012-2017

2012 2013 2014 f* 2015 f* 2016 f* 2017 f*

GDP growth (%, y-o-y) 3.4% 1.3% 0.6% -0.8% 2.3% 3.0%

Industrial production (%, y-o-y) 3.4% 0.4% 2.0% 1.1% 1.7% 2.1%

Investment in fixed capital (%, y-o-y) 6.8% -0.2% -2.8% -3.5% 1.6% 2.9%

Real disposable income (%, y-o-y) 4.6% 3.2% 0.6% -2.8% 2.6% 3.3%

Note: according to base development scenario*f - forecastSource: Rosstat, Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation, 2014


After remaining substantially sta-

ble in 2012, world ce-ramic sanitaryware export volumes picked up again in 2013 to reach 2.5 million tons, 6.2% up on 2012. This figure is consistent with the 5.8% average world growth recorded over the last decade (total world exports increased by 66% between 2004 and 2013).

Imports/exports by geographical area

However, analysing the ex-ports of the various geo-graphical areas (Table 1), we find a number of different trends and behaviours. Asia, the world’s largest sani-taryware exporter with a total of 1.34 million tons, marked up an 11.6% increase in 2013 and average annual growth

of 18.4% over the decade, up from 19.5% of world exports in 2004 to its current share of 53.8%. In second place amongst the exporting areas is the Europe-an Union with 503,000 tons, 3.3% down on 2012. This corresponds to a total share of 20.1% of world ex-ports. Next comes the NAFTA region (320,000 tons, 10.2% up on 2012, equivalent to 12.8% of the world total), then with smaller volumes non-EU Eu-rope (up 1.1%, 6.8% of the to-tal), Central and South Ameri-ca, Africa and Oceania.The distribution and trends for imports were much more bal-anced with the various geo-graphical areas broadly maintaining their percentage shares of the world total (Ta-ble 2), although total world import volumes rose from 1.5

Economy & markets

by Luca Baraldi - Acimac Research Department, [email protected]

World sanitaryware exports pick up

TAB. 1 - EXPORTS OF SANITARYWARE BY AREA (TONS)

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Var % 13/12

CAGR 13/04

Shares 2013

EU 551,363 572,680 630,549 666,472 613,001 500,693 520,588 530,520 520,692 503,411 -3.3% -1.0% 20.1%

Other Europe 145,218 153,334 161,570 165,503 146,536 124,118 131,063 144,673 168,073 169,838 1.1% 1.8% 6.8%

Asia 294,514 381,583 439,391 493,758 505,439 976,104 1,092,198 1,232,621 1,205,016 1,345,072 11.6% 18.4% 53.8%

NAFTA 294,183 270,193 286,986 296,347 271,861 262,645 268,325 303,495 290,678 320,295 10.2% 0.9% 12.8%

South America 176,180 196,202 174,118 162,447 120,423 83,660 97,643 105,199 100,023 88,015 -12.0% -7.4% 3.5%

Africa 39,165 39,807 41,824 53,888 47,041 35,534 35,822 37,151 68,554 73,638 7.4% 7.3% 2.9%

Oceania 2,702 4,035 1,688 1,821 1,968 2,058 1,959 1,063 875 608 -30.5% -15.3% 0.0%

TOTAL

1,50

3,32

5

1,61

7,83

4

1,73

6,12

6

1,84

0,23

6

1,70

6,26

9

1,98

4,81

2

2,14

7,59

8

2,35

4,72

2

2,35

3,91

1

2,50

0,87

7

6.2% 5.8% 100.0%

BREAKDOWN OF WORLD EXPORTS BY AREA IN 2013

BREAKDOWN OF WORLD IMPORTS BY AREA IN 2013

Pict

ures

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Tile

Edi

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i’s a

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Economy & markets


to 2.5 million tons over the course of a decade. The world’s biggest sanitary-ware importing area in 2013 was the NAFTA region with 701,000 tons (up 12.7% on 2012), equivalent to 28.1% of the total. Next came the European Un-ion with 648,000 tons (25.9% of the total), 2.5% down on the previous year, closely followed by Asia with 645,000 tons (a share of 25.8%), up 11.2% on

2012. In fourth place was Afri-ca with the highest average annual increases since 2004 (+19.9%), then Central-South America, non-EU Europe and Oceania.Interestingly, only Asia and non-EU Europe had higher ex-ports than imports, while all the other areas imported greater volumes than they ex-ported, with NAFTA and the EU displaying the biggest trade deficits.

Top sanitaryware exporters and importers

Looking at individual coun-tries (Table 3), we find China firmly established as the top exporter with total exports of more than 1 million tons (up 10.6% on 2012), equivalent to 40.5% of the world total. The biggest market for Chi-nese sanitaryware (Table 5) is the United States (279,000

tons, up 11.8% on 2012), al-though Chinese exports also saw significant medium-term growth in India (+53.7% annu-al average since 2004), Nige-ria (+52.6%) and Malaysia (+51.7%). It is worth noting that China is almost unique amongst the top sanitaryware exporting countries in that it has signifi-cant export shares in all conti-nents. Scrolling down the rankings of

TAB. 2 - IMPORTS OF SANITARYWARE BY AREA (TONS)

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Var % 13/12

CAGR 13/04

Shares 2013

EU 603,083 641,629 703,274 752,112 660,771 656,286 690,300 709,948 664,848 648,549 -2.5% 0.8% 25.9%

Other Europe 86,501 94,825 107,301 120,432 122,416 90,991 96,237 107,673 115,733 123,955 7.1% 4.1% 5.0%

Asia 206,425 235,006 256,191 279,943 284,497 427,481 476,513 616,240 580,619 645,372 11.2% 13.5% 25.8%

NAFTA 493,566 512,866 516,888 516,792 449,744 572,172 616,636 601,235 622,760 701,541 12.7% 4.0% 28.1%

South America 56,913 59,121 70,548 76,982 78,966 90,091 119,484 138,698 146,726 133,472 -9.0% 9.9% 5.3%

Africa 39,682 53,972 61,445 70,179 86,755 117,838 107,745 140,084 183,089 202,606 10.7% 19.9% 8.1%

Oceania 17,155 20,415 20,479 23,796 23,120 29,953 40,683 40,844 40,136 45,382 13.1% 11.4% 1.8%

TOTAL

1,50

3,32

5

1,61

7,83

4

1,73

6,12

6

1,84

0,23

6

1,70

6,26

9

1,98

4,81

2

2,14

7,59

8

2,35

4,72

2

2,35

3,91

1

2,50

0,87

7

6.2% 5.8% 100.0%


Economy & markets

82

top exporter countries, we find in second place Mexico (268,000 tons, up 12.8% on

2012, 90.9% of which is sold in the United States), third India (130,000 tons, +13%, sold

mainly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE), followed by Turkey (119,000 tons, +5.3%) and Po-

land (70,000 tons, +6.2%). Turkey and Poland have the same top four destination

TAB. 3 - WORLD TOP SANITARWARE EXPORTING COUNTRIES

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Var % 13/12

CAGR 13/04

Shares 2013

China 102,564 149,076 199,636 260,386 244,264 766,344 899,642 955,990 915,450 1,012,181 10.6% 29.0% 40.5%

Mexico 255,721 233,672 245,833 245,536 227,734 223,709 226,569 245,964 237,954 268,502 12.8% 0.5% 10.7%

India 29,522 49,814 42,917 46,383 81,313 68,947 n.a. 87,811 115,681 130,737 13.0% 18.0% 5.2%

Turkey 110,242 117,909 121,199 118,369 101,154 84,925 94,339 101,272 113,424 119,404 5.3% 0.9% 4.8%

Poland 43,809 56,007 72,479 84,084 85,166 59,326 67,572 70,341 66,722 70,889 6.2% 5.5% 2.8%

Portugal 84,055 88,390 104,651 108,959 85,517 78,286 75,025 65,543 67,245 68,502 1.9% -2.2% 2.7%

Thailand 69,606 75,911 70,619 73,039 71,919 52,833 57,134 58,694 56,954 68,096 19.6% -0.2% 2.7%

UAE 40,239 40,097 48,980 49,769 49,404 41,891 44,433 47,439 52,261 59,907 14.6% 4.5% 2.4%

Germany 44,126 45,758 52,528 63,550 66,057 58,721 63,742 68,291 66,708 56,554 -15.2% 2.8% 2.3%

Bulgaria 50,794 44,112 51,327 51,294 45,042 35,829 40,565 47,955 51,895 53,082 2.3% 0.5% 2.1%

Other countries 672,647 717,088 725,957 738,867 648,699 514,001 563,731 605,422 609,617 593,023 -2.7% -1.4% 23.7%

TOTAL

1,50

3,32

5

1,61

7,83

4

1,73

6,12

6

1,84

0,23

6

1,70

6,26

9

1,98

4,81

2

2,14

7,59

8

2,35

4,72

2

2,35

3,91

1

2,50

0,87

7

6.2% 5.8% 100.0%

TAB. 4 - WORLD TOP SANITARWARE IMPORTING COUNTRIES

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Var % 13/12

CAGR 13/04

Shares 2013

USA 438,818 458,144 455,966 448,828 384,692 475,333 497,866 492,476 506,277 584,026 15.4% 3.2% 23.4%

UK 98,771 90,264 98,510 109,703 92,927 98,257 103,693 107,782 106,420 112,208 5.4% 1.4% 4.5%

Germany 76,665 78,690 86,740 98,519 93,914 99,477 107,212 114,306 110,894 107,180 -3.3% 3.8% 4.3%

France 87,389 94,405 106,842 112,861 102,284 111,130 114,995 118,796 117,954 105,470 -10.6% 2.1% 4.2%

Canada 50,219 52,058 56,062 63,017 58,032 84,325 104,607 92,321 105,648 104,113 -1.5% 8.4% 4.2%

Korea 12,972 13,692 15,655 20,998 18,966 69,341 84,340 105,232 94,913 99,654 5.0% 25.4% 4.0%

Saudi Arabia 28,537 30,395 28,927 31,158 33,909 45,733 33,470 48,067 62,993 73,549 16.8% 11.1% 2.9%

Spain 115,733 129,060 148,721 144,305 104,878 82,375 83,633 84,752 70,244 69,796 -0.6% -5.5% 2.8%

Russia 44,057 46,697 51,809 55,949 55,692 39,682 44,230 55,465 63,215 65,167 3.1% 4.4% 2.6%

Italy 36,214 41,193 44,599 48,300 44,484 54,730 60,738 61,457 52,025 51,310 -1.4% 3.9% 2.1%

Other countries 513,950 583,236 642,295 706,598 716,491 824,429 912,814 1,074,068 1,063,327 1,128,404 6.1% 9.1% 45.1%

TOTAL

1,50

3,32

5

1,61

7,83

4

1,73

6,12

6

1,84

0,23

6

1,70

6,26

9

1,98

4,81

2

2,14

7,59

8

2,35

4,72

2

2,35

3,91

1

2,50

0,87

7

6.2% 5.8% 100.0%

The first six months of 2014

The first six months of 2014 saw a further acceleration in export flows. All the major players reported growth in their results, with China marking up the fastest growth rate between January and June 2014 (+32.1%).

markets, with Germany, France, Italy and the UK ab-sorbing 42% of Turkey’s and 58.6% of Poland’s exports.Looking at trade flows from the perspective of importers (Table 4), we find that the United States is the top im-porter with a 23.4% share of the total and a volume of 584,000 tons (up 15.4% on

2012). The biggest suppliers to the USA are China and Mexico (Table 6), which alone make up 89.7% of US imports (524,000 tons). Both countries saw a growth in export vol-umes to the USA in 2013, 11.8% and 16.1% respectively. Most of the other top sanitar-yware importer countries are

in the European Union (UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy) and in Asia (South Ko-rea, Saudi Arabia). On the whole, import growth has been limited to the Asian countries (South Korea +5% and Saudi Arabia +16.8%), while the UK was the only EU country to have shown an in-crease (+5.4%).


Economy & markets

83

TAB. 5 - MAIN DESTINATIONS OF CHINESE SANITARYWARE EXPORTS

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Var % 13/12

CAGR 13/04

Shares 2013

USA 33,010 45,373 63,281 81,885 78,581 212,068 243,325 222,420 250,552 279,998 11.8% 26.8% 27.7%

Korea 9,322 10,230 12,819 17,689 16,447 67,272 81,897 104,027 93,999 99,209 5.5% 30.1% 9.8%

Nigeria 1,039 1,326 2,372 1,776 3,876 20,058 26,280 36,010 41,478 46,533 12.2% 52.6% 4.6%

Canada 2,766 5,257 6,914 8,521 10,448 41,463 49,324 38,387 45,430 46,143 1.6% 36.7% 4.6%

UK 5,997 9,765 12,475 15,737 10,651 32,710 36,644 40,274 30,984 39,537 27.6% 23.3% 3.9%

Philippines 1,508 1,207 1,069 1,567 2,310 18,694 22,872 27,687 37,280 32,425 -13.0% 40.6% 3.2%

Saudi Arabia 2,898 2,848 2,645 2,098 2,317 16,942 14,548 20,700 22,369 25,973 16.1% 27.6% 2.6%

Australia 1,308 3,078 4,358 6,526 5,947 17,564 23,524 22,502 22,236 24,483 10.1% 38.5% 2.4%

Malaysia 545 645 733 928 2,444 12,381 8,140 8,523 8,271 23,135 179.7% 51.7% 2.3%

Spain 3,336 5,186 5,965 7,142 5,285 16,868 19,081 18,943 16,616 20,508 23.4% 22.4% 2.0%

India 425 1,025 1,717 3,266 4,177 13,930 22,914 25,055 20,049 20,379 1.6% 53.7% 2.0%

Singapore 684 1,051 2,158 3,960 2,930 15,291 19,534 24,688 25,484 17,030 -33.2% 42.9% 1.7%

Russia 5,584 7,415 9,480 8,091 7,396 8,204 9,597 12,125 14,529 16,562 14.0% 12.8% 1.6%

UAE 864 967 1,173 1,682 2,744 9,873 9,099 12,447 10,754 15,015 39.6% 37.3% 1.5%

Thailand 112 321 563 436 735 5,227 6,738 8,583 9,711 13,707 41.1% 70.6% 1.4%

Other countries 33,166 53,382 71,914 99,082 87,976 257,799 306,125 333,619 265,708 291,544 9.7% 27.3% 28.8%

TOTAL

102,

564

149,

076

199,

636

260,

386

244,

264

766,

344

899,

642

955,

990

915,

450

1,01

2,18

1

10.6% 29.0% 100.0%


Smaller increases were record-ed by Mexico (+9.3%), India (+0.9%), Turkey (+7.8%), Poland

(+2.7%), Portugal (+12.5%), Thailand (+16.4%) and Ger-many (+1%). By contrast, Italy

(-4.9%), Colombia (-9.2%) and Spain (-1.1%) all experienced a decline in exports. 5

Economy & markets

TAB. 6 - MAJOR EXPORTERS OF SANITARYWARE TO USA

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Var % 13/12

CAGR 13/04

Shares 2013

China 33,010 45,373 63,281 81,885 78,581 212,068 243,325 222,420 250,552 279,998 11.8% 26.8% 47.9%

Mexico 234,280 215,298 227,236 224,865 210,010 206,241 198,354 223,242 210,310 244,113 16.1% 0.5% 41.8%

Thailand 19,170 30,426 31,311 32,832 27,131 17,264 18,221 15,369 15,701 24,286 54.7% 2.7% 4.2%

Colombia 31,725 40,647 35,045 30,140 24,525 15,351 13,449 11,000 10,108 8,686 -14.1% -13.4% 1.5%

India 105 182 417 264 84 157 786 1,265 3,191 7,290 128.5% 60.2% 1.2%

Turkey 18,455 19,486 16,320 12,635 7,093 3,719 4,377 3,877 4,554 5,244 15.2% -13.0% 0.9%

Costa Rica 4,658 5,337 4,600 4,280 2,500 154 922 1,203 1,241 1,819 46.6% -9.9% 0.3%

Ecuador 12,606 13,056 11,571 7,788 6,073 6,555 4,369 4,019 2,370 1,463 -38.3% -21.3% 0.3%

Canada 2,238 1,392 1,727 839 600 686 1,436 1,808 1,700 1,449 -14.8% -4.7% 0.2%

Germany 902 993 1,363 1,323 1,464 612 704 699 737 1,177 59.7% 3.0% 0.2%

Other countries 81,669 85,954 63,095 51,977 26,631 12,526 11,923 7,574 5,813 8,501 46.2% -22.2% 1.5%

TOTAL 438,818 458,144 455,966 448,828 384,692 475,333 497,866 492,476 506,277 584,026 15.4% 3.2% 100.0%

The AcimAc ReseARch DepARtment produces a wide range of documents for the benefit of companies, analysts and economists, journalists and students, including studies, surveys and economic and sta-tistical forecasts for the ceramic machinery indus-try and the sectors making up the ceramic pro-duction chain.

For the Sanitaryware sector in particular, a finan-cial statement analysis covering more than 100 of the world’s leading sanitaryware producers is due to be published in early 2015. This will include three-year economic and financial figures (2011-2013) and allow a comparison to be made be-tween the performances of each company as well as average national and global profitability values.

ACIMAC RESEARCH DEPARTMENTmr. Luca Baraldi - [email protected]

T. +39 059 510336



ITALYT. +39 059 510 336

[email protected]

WORLD CERAMIC AND HEAVY CLAY MACHINERY MANUFACTURERS AND COLOR & GLAZE MANUFACTURERSPRODUTTORI MONDIALI DI MACCHINARI PER L'INDUSTRIA CERAMICA E DEL LATERIZIO E COLORIFICI





ITALYT. +39 059 510 336

[email protected]

WORLD HEAVY CLAY MANUFACTURERS

PRODUTTORI MONDIALI DI LATERIZI




ITALYT. +39 059 510 336

[email protected]

WORLD CERAMIC TILES MANUFACTURERS

PRODUTTORI MONDIALI DI PIASTRELLE




ACIMACVia Fossa Buracchione 84

41126 Baggiovara (MO) ITALY

T. +39 059 510 [email protected]

WORLD SANITARYWARE MANUFACTURERS

PRODUTTORI MONDIALI DI SANITARI

issUU mUltimeDiA

click heRe foR moRe info!

http://www.acimac.it/standard.asp?id=292&idd=528






MAROCCHI ATCOVERINGS 2015

ITALIAN PAV • BOOTH 4206Tel. +39 0542 666136Fax +39 0542 666762

[email protected]

Forg

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Marocchi s.r.l. Via G. Di Vittorio, 3

DISPLAYS & SHOWROOMS - CONCEPT, DESIGN & MANUFACTURING



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1 Roca Spain n.a. 35.4 85 n.a.

1,572.0 (sanitaryware,

tiles, distribution)

21,000

78 (total group). Sanitaryware plants in:Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, Poland, Czech Rep. Bulgaria, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Morocco, Egypt, Malaysia, India, China

Roca, Laufen, Celite, Incepa, Parryware, Jika, Ying, Santeri, Santek

2Kohler Group USA 22* 18* n.a. n.a. n.a. 32,000 12 in USA, Mexico, Brazil, France,

Morocco, Thailand, India, ChinaKohler, Jacob Delafon, Sterling, Ann Sacks

3Sanitec Finland 14.0 12.0 n.a. 532.1 701.8 6,211

18 (total group). 8 sanitaryware plants in: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Ukraine, Italy, France, Netherlands, Poland, UK

Kolo, Keramag, Ido, Ifo, Colombo, Koralle, Selles, Allia, Pozzi Ginori, Porsgrund, Sphinx

On Oct. 14th 2014, the Swiss company Geberit announced a tender offer of USD 1.4 billion to acquire Sanitec

4 Toto Japan 16* 16* 15 n.a. 3,902.0

(bathroom, tiles, other)

25,000

18 in: Japan, China (8), Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Germany

TOTO

5 Corona Colombia 12.0 9.3 25 224.5398.0

(sanitaryware, tiles)

13,000 2 in Colombia, 1 in USA, 3 in Central America

Corona, Mansfield, Incesa Standard, American Standard, Ecoline

6 Duratex Brazil 12.2 n.a. n.a.

424 (Deca

division only)

1,252.0 11,733 6 in Brazil Deca

7Lixil Corporation Japan 10-12* 7-8* 40* n.a. 6,733.0

13,97810 in Japan, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand AS, Lixil, Inax.

In the year 2013 Lixil acquired Grohe and American Standard Asia, as well as the majority of Vaal Sanitaryware (South Africa)

8 Rovese Poland 7.4 6.0 72.3 111.8

464.8 (tiles,

sanitaryware, other)

7,13710 (total group). 4 sanitaryware plants in:Poland, Romania, Ukraine

Cersanit, Opoczno

9Ideal Standard Belgium 5.5* 4.0* n.a. n.a. 749.9 n.a. 2 in Italy, 1 Czech Rep.,

1 in Bulgaria, 1 in UKIdeal Standard, Jado, Armitage Shanks, Dolomite

10 Lecico Egypt 6.7 5.2 46.1 77156.8

(sanitaryware, tiles)

6,500 5 (incl. tiles) in Egypt Lecico

11Eczacibasi VitrA Turkey 5.5 4.4 n.a. n.a. 499.3 n.a. 1 in Turkey, 1 in Russia, VitrA


Economy & markets

THE BIG PLAYERS IN THE SECTOR

To round off the international trade figures for the sanitary-ware sector, we are presenting

the key figures for the sector (large multinationals, groups or individual companies) up-dated to 31 December 2013. Where available we also pro-vide the figures for turnover

generated purely from sales of sanitaryware. This allows for a more uniform comparison between large groups which often operate in multiple segments of the ce-

ramic industry (tiles, tableware, heavy clay) and the supply chain (raw materials, distribu-tion), as well as other sectors (bathroom and kitchen fur-nishings, non-ceramic surface

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12 RAK UAE 3.8 3.8 n.a. 84.0671

(tiles sanitary, tableware)

14,000 1 UAE, 1 Bangladesh, 1 India RAK

13Corporación Ceramica Lima (Trebol)

Peru n.a. 3.6* 30* 39.8 39.8 n.a. 2 in Peru Trebol

14 CISA Group Chile 4.3* 3.5* n.a. n.a. n.a. 3,500* 2 in Chile, 1 Ecuador, 1 USA

Edesa, Briggs, Fanaloza, Colina

15 Duravit Germany 4-5* 3.5 81 n.a. 380.0 5,700 11 in Germany, France, Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, India, China

Duravit

16Sanitarios Lamosa Mexico 2.8 2.7 45 48

530.2 (tiles,

sanitaryware, adhesives)

1,200 (only

sanitaryware)2 in Mexico

Lamosa, Ambiance, Vortens

17 Saudi Ceramics Saudi Arabia 2.5 2.5 3 n.a.

309.0 (sanitaryware,

tiles)4,000 3 in Saudi Arabia Saudi Ceramics

18 Villeroy & Boch Germany 3.5* 2.4* 73* 456.0* 745.0* 7,745 14 (total group). Sanitaryware plants in Germany, Mexico, Thailand

Villeroy & Boch

19 Ferrum Argentina n.a. 2.4* n.a. n.a. 120.6 630 2 in Argentina Ferrum

20Ceramica Cleopatra Egypt 2.5* 2* n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 2 in Egypt Cleopatra

21 Golsar Fars Iran 1.3 1.3 20 n.a. n.a. 500 12 (total group) in Iran Golsar

22 Kalevit Turkey 2.0 1.3 n.a. n.a. 330.0

(tiles, bathroom products)

3,300 1 in Turkey Kale

* estimates - Source: Acimac


Economy & markets

87

coverings, building materials, chemicals, etc.). To provide a more complete picture of group size, we also include total or consolidated turnover and the number of

employees. The figures were supplied di-rectly by the companies them-selves or in some cases were based on estimates or ob-tained from public sources.

Considering the corporate structure of the leading com-panies in this sector, which in many cases are multinationals with production facilities in var-ious countries, it is worth not-

ing that the international im-ports/exports of sanitaryware partly consist of exchanges within the group, although it is not possible to determine the share of total exports. 5


Cristin

Project

Tagina Ceram-iche d’Arte plays

a starring role in the re-generation project recently undertaken on Florence's cen-tral market, 140 years after it was first built. Overseen by Ar-chea Associati, the work has transformed the San Lorenzo market into a meeting place with a sophisticated atmos-phere, which is now nothing short of a “theatre of taste”. For the flooring, the specifiers opted for the 20mm compact version of the Hard Rock Be-ton collection*. In order to preserve the original appear-ance of the market in terms of wall tiling, meanwhile, they opted for the Deco Perlage series**, featuring sophisticat-ed geometric patterns and floral decorations.

The aim of the San Lorenzo market regeneration project is to put one of Florence's histor-ic sites firmly back on the map of contemporary life, and to re-mobilise areas that had been left abandoned for years. With the first floor now fully restored, the San Lorenzo market has become a new staging-post on a European itinerary of historic, eno-gastro-nomic markets. Here you can savour the excellence of Flor-entine culinary tradition side-by-side with street food. Everything is painstakingly managed by the tradespeo-ple who run the various shops, and cook exclusively with pro-duce sold in the market itself,

Tagina tiles for San Lorenzo market in Florence

from bread to fresh fish, vege-tables, meat and patisserie.

Florence Central Market repre-sents a meeting point be-tween modernity and tradi-tion, and the aim of the

architectural regeneration plan drawn up by Studio Ar-chea was to create a covered, urban plaza to showcase a fu-sion between food and cul-ture. The conceptual origin of the

project revolved around reha-bilitating one of Italy's most at-tractive historic markets, by in-troducing contemporary usage systems aimed at meet-ing the needs of an increas-ingly varied and educated

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http://www.tagina.com/en/

http://www.archea.it/en/

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http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g187895-d523520-Reviews-San_Lorenzo_market-Florence_Tuscany.html

http://www.tagina.com/media/files/1150_HRBETON_CAT.pdf

http://www.tagina.com/media/files/1150_HRBETON_CAT.pdf

http://www.tagina.com/en/d%C3%A9co_perlage

http://www.tagina.com/en/d%C3%A9co_perlage


Project

public. The work was not con-fined to interior design, howev-er, and is an example of the complex regeneration of pro-tected architectural heritage. The lightness and luminosity of this magnificent 19th Century

*The HARD ROCK BETON collection reinvents the texture of concrete and transforms it into a work of ceramic art. Hard Rock Beton warrants a closer look, because it's only when you get up close that you di-scover the full depth and richness of its nuances. Tagina's master-ceramicists have worked intensely to replicate the poetry of time-worn indu-strial coverings, with the result that every tile is a square of modern art and an elegantly aged surface at one and the same time.

**The DÉCO PERLAGE collection - Colours, decorative motifs and contrasts. These are the three hallmarks of this collection of ceramic wall tiles, which are renowned for the visual lightness that strikes a perfect balance between tradition and modernity. Painsta-kingly original and distinctly tactile, this collection by Tagina Ceramiche D’Arte combines in-dustry, craftsmanship and a spirit of exploration. With the “Déco Perlage” collection, decoration meets interior design under the banner of quality.


Project

structure, comprising a steel and cast-iron frame-work, was accentuated by the use of simple, nat-ural materials (wood, matting, ceramic and coloured concrete) and flexible furnishings. These were accompanied by a series of large wicker lampshades, which dis-creetly fill the immense volumes of the market. The overall architecture accentuates the tradi-tional craft vocation of the shops that line its aisles in an orderly se-quence. And this, in turn, provides an open display system that gives visitors a clear view of the shops and kitchens dedicated to food preparation.

Within the limits of their own specific functional requirements, each of the preparation, service and sale areas of the shops, and the market's toilet facilities too, are de-signed to generate a co-hesive, joyful market at-mosphere. Although steeped in the spirit of the past, the site steers rigorously clear of wistful nostalgia, and as-serts itself as a contem-porary venue at the dis-posal of a city in which architecture, and the his-tory that goes with it, still plays a central role.

5

91

Advertiser's list

Abk 45

Asean Ceramics 79

Bien 67

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China Cerambath 43

Gambarelli 3

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Progress Profiles 49

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Schlüter-Systems 1

Tagina Back Cover

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Turkish Ceramic Federation 6


Cristin

Project

Living Art: the world's largest work of art

An Italian-Russian partnership has

spawned a residential complex of immense artistic and architectural value in Moscow. Aptly named “Living Art”, it is a habitable work of art built in an area which, until recently, was simply swamped with cars. Once completed, in 2016, the complex will earn it-self a place in the Guinness Book of Records as “the larg-est work of art in the world”. Two of the five towers have so far reached completion.Presented in Milan on 25 No-vember last year, this residen-tial project derives from a part-nership between Alexey Alekseevich Dobashin, the founder of KROST (currently one of the largest investment groups in the building sector in Russia), the architect Dante Oscar Benini - and the avant-garde artist and master of col-our Mario Arlati.Living Art is a unique architec-tural formula built on a site measuring 45,000 square me-tres, which will include four 160m skyscrapers, each with 45 storeys accommodating six hundred 50m2 apartments; one 33-storey skyscraper measuring 110m in height; an arts park; a sports complex; underground car parking, and every other modern, ur-ban convenience, all close to hand. The project was conceived as part of an urban regeneration

programme aimed at promot-ing sports and cultural activi-ties and providing homes for all social classes.“I wanted to give the future in-habitants of Living Art a range of places to congregate in, with an old-fashioned court-yard atmosphere, while at the same time creating an envi-ronment steeped in Italian art. I wanted Moscow to have a place like this, and thanks to Benini and Arlati that is exactly what we are achieving”. “The aim of regenerating a suburb like the one where we're build-ing Living Art”, explained Beni-ni “is to take a run-down area and give it a new identity and new distinction, without simply following the tired old conven-tions associated with afforda-ble housing. So we decided to turn these homes into full-blown works of art. You can't sell them as works of art, of course, because no-one can sell the façade of a skyscrap-er, but they do have the same unrepeatability and iconic status of an artwork, while at the same time being habita-ble.”

That's how we came up with the idea of getting Mario Arla-ti, a Milan-based artist, to dec-orate the buildings with fres-coes: harnessed 160m above the ground, and with the aid of a workforce of 1,500 people operating round the clock, the painter has managed to trans-form this residential complex


Project

into a kaleidoscope. “Behind the sky-scrapers,” explained Arlati, “against the grey skies of Moscow, you can make out the coloured roofs of Saint Basil's Cathedral. This has been a great source of inspiration for me, together with the knowledge that playing in the suburbs is really exciting, because with elegance and high-quality work, you can give an area a complete makeo-ver”. Arlati’s team painted the first two tow-ers in five different colours: blue and red (which happen to be the colours of the Russian flag), white, black and yellow. Most of the surfaces were sprayed on, but the finishing touches and final adjustments were done en-tirely by hand.

Mario Arlati

Dante Oscar Benini


Project

The result is an enormous painting involving over 45,000m2 of colour, planned and supplied by Mapei. Right from the initial design phase, Mapei worked along-side the artist, designer and client in selecting the product with the best possible perfor-mance in relation to the far from simple requirements as-sociated with a work of this type. Once the client had opted for traditional plaster, in order to reduce construction costs by using internal wall insulation instead of exterior thermal cladding, Mapei's researchers prepared numerous colour samples in order to achieve a three-dimensional effect from the paint, without overlooking its performance in terms of du-rability.

Work phases:

• First, the surfaces were un-dercoated with coloured acrylic QUARZOLITE BASE COAT*, to regulate the ab-sorption of the substrate and promote adhesion.

• Then, a white base coat of QUARZOLITE GRAFFIATO SP 1.8 mm (made for the Polish market) was applied. This is a flexible, fibre-reinforced, single-spread coating with a rustic finish for interior and exterior walls, comprising acrylic resins dispersed in water, selected fillers, quartz and light-resistant pigments.

• The project also involved


Project

95

the use of COLORITE PER-FORMANCE**, a pure acryl-ic resin-based paint dis-persed in water and formulated to protect and decorate interior and exteri-or surfaces where a smooth, semi-gloss silk finish is re-quired, together with a high level of protection against environmental aggressors and sunlight.

• COLORITE METALLIC GOLD,

meanwhile, offered the same characteristics, but was tailor-made for this site.

Colourful interior resin floors

In Living Art, colour also domi-nates the interiors, with par-ticular reference to the resin flooring in the communal are-as of Tower No. 2. These were first treated with

PRIMER SN, and then complet-ed with MAPEFLOOR I 300 SL***, a two-component epoxy formulation that's ideal for resin floors and offers an at-tractive smooth or non-slip fin-ish.The artistic chromatic effects were obtained by mixing this product with a small propor-tion of MAPECOLOR PASTE, a specific colouring system.

5

* QUARZOLITE BASE COATA coloured acrylic base coat for the prepara-tion of concrete surfaces before application of the coloured top coat, for the purpose of regula-ting the absorption of the substrate and promo-ting adhesion. QUARZOLITE BASE COAT can also be used to give the surface a uniform finish, and cover any minor imperfections. It is also essen-tial in the application of “scratch-effect” finishes, in order to prevent the substrate showing throu-gh surface finish. Contributes up to 3 points to LEED certification.

** COLORITE PERFORMANCEAn exterior and interior wall paint comprising pure, unsaponifiable acrylic resins dispersed in water. COLORITE PERFORMANCE is fully wea-ther-resistant, and resistant to sunlight, airbor-ne salt and the aggressors carried by smog. It

therefore provides a long-lasting protective coat for the substrate. After prior application of MA-LECH, it is also suitable for indoor application on all types of bare wall or over existing paint, pro-vided that the surface in question is free from flaking or crumbling. COLORITE PERFORMANCE protects surfaces and gives them an attractive, uniform, silk effect. It is available in a wide range of colours, which can be obtained with the Color-Map® automatic colouring system. It can contri-bute up to 3 points towards LEED certification.

***MAPEFLOOR I 300 SLA neutral-coloured, multi-purpose, two-compo-nent epoxy formulation for industrial flooring up to 4 mm thick. Suitable for self-levelling and/or multi-layer resin coverings and/or as a paint with an attractive smooth or non-slip finish. Mapefloor I 300 SL is safe for the environment and particu-

larly suitable for use in the food, chemi-cals and pharmaceu-tical industries. Appli-cation of Mapefloor I 300 SL gives surfaces a flat, continuous and attractive finish.

http://www.mapei.com/public/COM/products/2030_coloriteperformance_gb.pdf

http://www.mapei.com/public/COM/products/2030_coloriteperformance_gb.pdf

http://www.mapei.com/public/COM/products/2157_colorite_metallic_gold_gb.pdf

http://www.mapei.com/public/COM/products/2901_primersn_gb.pdf

http://www.mapei.com/public/COM/products/2015_mapefloori300sl_gb.pdf

http://www.mapei.com/public/COM/products/2015_mapefloori300sl_gb.pdf

http://www.mapei.com/public/COM/products/2095_mapecolorpaste_gb.pdf

INtono Comunicazione offers the services of Villa Marchetti, an eighteenth-century villa in Baggiovara (Modena) that has rooms equipped for any kind of event.www.villamarchetti.it

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