Resource efficiency versus market trends in the ceramic tile industry: Effect on the supply chain in Italy and Spain

Recent trends in the raw materials market unveil a growing dependence of the European ceramic tile industry on imports from sources outside the European Union. This tendency reflects significant changes in the typologies of ceramic products, which in turn result in a modified batch design and different raw materials. Such an evolution implies an increasing stress on the supply chain, which role is strategic in terms of resource efficiency and competitiveness of the ceramic industry. Despite the importance of a secure and affordable supply, a global knowledge of raw materials flows over the last years is still lacking. In this paper, the supply chain was examined by quantifying the apparent consumption of raw materials and current trends, and detecting possible criticalities. While the supply chain in Italy kept stable, the raw material flows in the Spanish industry changed noticeably due to the increase in white-firing bodies production, that implies a growing dependence on imports. Beyond the specific features of each country, the resulting supply patterns are turning similar over time, with an increasing competition for the same sources. Efforts to strengthen the supply chain reside on the diversification of raw materials sources, which entails the use of secondary raw materials, the search for new deposits and purification processes, and improvement of logistics. The choice of raw materials (and consequently the supply chain) is driven in a complex way by various factors, which are identified and discussed for the different product typologies.