Ceramic tile imports stabilise at lower level in 2022

As the world continues to adjust to disruptions caused by the pandemic, production delays, financial and supply chain uncertainty, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) import figures show a 4.9 per cent fall in ceramic tile imports in 2022, writes Peter

The import volume dropped in the March quarter then stabilised at a little over 42 million square metres throughout 2022. The earlier temporary increase in imports from September quarter 2020 to September quarter 2021 could be due to higher inventory levels being held by local importers along with an anticipated increased demand. Australia experienced a significant increase in residential building commencements during that period which peaked in June 2021 but has been declining ever since.

Ceramic tile imports totalled 42,061,533 square metres in 2022, down from 44,207,561 square metres in the previous year. While imports fell by 4.9 per cent, the total Australian customs value leapt by 10.8 per cent to AUD490,890,334. This reflected factory price increases

Halliday.

and a weaker Australian dollar despite the fall in shipping costs which returned to more normal levels in 2022. A graph showing the annualised import volumes and Australian customs values over the last 10 years can be seen in Fig.1.

A detailed breakdown of imports by country and the declared destination state is shown in Fig.2 The top five source countries for ceramic tile imports over the last five years are shown in Fig.3. Outside of the top five source countries, Vietnam is notable as the 6th largest supplier in 2022, up from 10th largest in 2021. Imports from Vietnam more than doubled in the last 12 months.

Imports from China fell by 6.2 per cent in 2022 and made up 73.9 per cent of all tile imports, down from 74.9 per cent in 2021. The average Australian customs value of tiles from China increased from AUD7.94 per square metre in 2021 to AUD9.11 in 2022.

Imports from Italy rose by 5 per cent in 2022 and made up 9.4 per cent of tile import volume and 20.6 per cent of the total customs value. The average customs value per square metre for Italian tiles rose from AUD23.45 in 2021 to AUD25.66 in 2022.

Spanish imports fell for the first time in four years. The 5.2 per cent fall was only slightly greater than the overall national fall in imports. Spanish ceramic tiles made up 5.2 per cent of total imports, with an average customs value of AUD23.94, up significantly from the year before. India was the fourth biggest source of ceramic tiles imported to Australia in 2022. Imports declined 16