WORLD CERAMIC MACHINERY MANUFACTURERS. Economic & financial analysis. Balance sheets 2021-2023 Year 2025

In 2023, the ceramic machinery industry registered a new slowdown of sales growth together with a new phase of growth in interest rates by the banks central banks, necessary to curb the inflationary pressures that were already present before the pandemic. While, on the one hand, this latest change in the scenario effectively countered inflation and determined a partial reduction in the growth of costs and price lists, on the other hand, the increase in interest rates also determined a slowdown in the investment plans of ceramic manufacturing companies. Both effects jointly determined an initial, partial, slowdown in the values of machinery traded during the second half of 2023, at a global level, so that sector turnover actually decreased compared to the previous 2022. In this global scenario of reduction in revenues of ceramic machinery manufacturers (-3.6%) we find the performance, much better than average, of Italian companies that have shown, in contrast to the global sector average, still a small growth in sales (+0.3%) but above all a significant improvement in profitability indices, whereas the rest of the world has instead suffered a fall in turnover and stagnation/worsening of performance indices. The cluster analysis, a strength of the MECS study centre, confirms the new generalized slowdown of growth, with many companies downgraded to less profitable clusters. However, it’s also confirmed that companies gaining the features of excellence tend to be protected by cyclical/structural weakening of performance. In turn, the multidimensional Mecs ranking confirms a certain balance over the past few years: playing for the top places in the world ranking are mostly the usual names, even small and medium-sized players specialized in auxiliary activities, not in the "core" machines of the ceramic production process. Unfortunately, the time it takes to file economic and financial documents is very long compared to the speed with which the market changes, and we already know that the economic scenario of ceramic machinery manufacturers in 2023 is destined to slow down even more in 2024.