Alfonso Panzani, chairman of Italy's Confindustria Ceramica trade group, told attendees on hand at Cersaie 2008 that the United States' influence in driving world demand for ceramic products is fading. "Although the United States has driven the world's economy for the past 15 years, we now need to look toward other markets," he said during his address at the Cersaie trade show in Bologna, Italy. "We should not be afraid of the future," he added.

Alfonso Panzani

Despite his dire outlook for the changing role of the U.S. market, he stressed that Tile of Italy had no plans to lessen its promotional efforts in the North American market. In fact, he said the group is planning "a strong promotional action [to be launched] after the November election." He said historically an election leads to an upswing in economic activity, at least temporarily.

Top executives from around the tile industry also spoke about the state of the ceramic sector during the meeting. They included: Confindustria Ceramica's Vittorio Borelli and Armando Cafiero, MAPEI's Giorgio Squinzi, and the Italian Trade Commission's Marco Cimini.

Winners of this year's Confindustria Ceramic Distributors Award included Nuova Comes srl from Italy, Galeries du Carrelage from France, Schmidt Rudersdorf from Germany and Neoceramica SA from Spain.

Borelli praised the success of the Italian ceramic sector through its promotional efforts. “We have based our strategy on the concept of Italian spirit, expressed through a culture of integrated sustainable development, from raw materials through to the place of consumption, and an ethical scheme in which more than a hundred Italian companies voluntarily declare the origin of sold products,” he said.

Also at the show, show organizers presented the Confindustria Ceramic Distributors Award to several European distributors. Nuova Comes srl from Italy, Galeries du Carrelage from France, Schmidt Rudersdorf from Germany and Neoceramica SA from Spain were all honored.

Cersaie runs through tomorrow.