Construction products, the recovery is gaining strength

Since 2015 the sector of building products and materials has started a path of moderate growth, ending a long period of downsizing. Indeed, this sector has been one of the worst hit by the economic crisis in the last ten years as vulnerable to the Italian and international construction cycle; its turnover suffered severe drops in the most acute stage of the recession recording an overall decrease of over 35% between 2008 and 2014. The intensity of the correction has not been uniform: basic materials – cement, concrete, bricks etc. – and ceramic products has been the most affected while the less negative performance of glass benefited from the demand by the automotive and packaging sectors. 

During 2017 the signs of recovery strengthened. In the first 11 months sector turnover grew at a rate of 2.9% (in year-on-year terms at current prices), supported in particular by domestic demand, with a moderate, positive contribution from producer prices (+0.6%). The situation was favourable for all segments of activity, albeit to a different extent. The driver of the domestic market – in a context of gradual, even if uncertain pick up of the Italian building sector – pushed the turnover of non-metallic construction materials and glass (3.4% e 3% respectively), compared to a more modest growth of ceramic (+1.6%). 

In the January-October period the good performance of sales on foreign markets continued; exports increased by 1.7% (in value terms), benefiting from a large growth of flows to the Western European markets (especially Spain and France) offsetting the weakness of exports to the United States.

The short-term indicators suggest moderate optimism and anticipate a more solid recovery during 2018; in particular, expectations on production and export order books improved while domestic order books for the next three months showed a slight decrease in the most recent observations. This scenario is consistent with the forecast of a gradual strengthening of the construction recovery, which would be mainly boosted by public works, assuming an effective implementation of the announced investment spending.