Austria's stone and ceramics industry is optimistic. In the first half of 2018, the industry generated sales growth of 3 %. This was the result of an economic survey conducted by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKO) among its more than 300 member companies.
The Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKO) recently has carried out an economic survey for the stone and ceramics sectors.
Wiebke Sanders
Compared to the same period of the previous year, sales thus rose to 1.75 billion euros. Above all, the construction industries contributed their share to this: Companies from the concrete and precast industries, ready-mixed concrete, cement, plaster and mortar, sand and gravel as well as crushed stone (+4.13 %). Industrial suppliers of fine ceramics, refractory materials and abrasives, on the other hand, recorded a decline in sales of 0.75 %. The entire industry has a total of around 14,600 employees.
Refractory Industry at the Forefront
The refractories industry in particular gained 13.3 % to 94.9 million euros, followed by the concrete and precast industry with +8.77 % (235.3 million euros). The ready-mixed concrete industry also increased by +7.91 % to 223.5 million euros.
Natural Stone Industry Weakens
The natural stone industry (18.92 % to 6.8 million euros), the fine ceramics industry (–13.50 % to 93.3 million euros) and the sand and gravel industry (-3.22 % to 58.4 million euros) recorded declines in sales. Weaker results were also suffered by the brick and tile industry (–1.02 %), the plaster and mortar industry (–0.69 %), the gravel industry (–0.04 %) and the lime industry (+0.02 %).
"We are optimistic for the year as a whole, although the momentum from the first half 2018 of the year is already slowing noticeably in the second half."
This stated Dr. Andreas Pfeiler, Managing Director of the Fachverband Steine-Keramik (trade association stone-ceramics) at WKO.
Infrastructure construction, in particular some tunnel construction projects, the need for rehabilitation in road construction in rural regions and building and residential construction are ensuring good capacity utilisation.