Brazil is one of the most prominent countries in the ceramics market. However, like so many other global giants, Brazil has been hit hard by the pandemic, which has at least slowed down some sectors.
The data speak for themselves: the closure of industrial plants in early 2020 generated a drop in tile production, down to 840 million sq m (-7.6 percent on 2019). Exports also registered a net decline, at -5.7 percent over 2019. However, Brazil's 2020 was, despite everything, a year with a positive sign with respect to sales: these, in fact, rose to 920 million sq m (+2.7%), thanks to the rise in demand in the domestic market in the second half of the year.
The trend continues to be positive and confirmation was recorded in the first four months of 2021. Brazilian tile exports grew 45 percent in value and 48 percent in volume compared to the first four months of 2020.
The other markets
While 2020 was a difficult year for companies, there were several cases where the damage remained "contained." In addition to Brazil, the United States also managed to "buffer" the Covid effect on tile sales, at least as far as the domestic industry is concerned.
According to numbers released by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and TCNA(we discussed them in detail here), total tile sales in the U.S. dropped 3.5 percent to 263.6 million sq. m.
At the same time, however, U.S. ceramic industry sales in the domestic market continued to grow, registering +0.9% over the previous year. Revenues from U.S. tile sales stood at around $1.30 billion (-2.8% on 2019), or 39.3% of the total value of the U.S. ceramic market (37.6% in 2019), and the average price fell from $16.66/sqm in 2019 to $16.03/sqm in 2020.
