A house plan to revitalise the brick industry

In ten years it has witnessed a gradual downsizing, which has drastically thinned the number of companies. There were two hundred, now there are about fifty. The result of mergers and business combinations. But also of a selection made by the market that has gradually marginalised the less structured companies. Today the brick sector is completely redesigned: about three thousand employees, a production of over four million tonnes per year, a turnover, entirely developed on the domestic market, of 700 million. Still strong. But also exposed to shrinking demand. "In the first half of this year we have lost about 7% of sales, a setback that is due to the remodulation of the superbonus tax benefits for the years 2024 and 2025 and the drying up of the incentives that were provided with the Pnrr," says Luigi Di Carlantonio, president of the Confindustria Ceramica brick grouping. "For this reason," Di Carlantonio continues, "it is necessary to launch a major national housing plan, lasting several years, providing fair tax incentives of up to 50-60%. Incentives without which the sector cannot plan its relaunch. This is a position that we have long shared with Ance, the builders' association. And we know that Italy needs housing, especially for the middle class. We have been talking about it for about fifteen years but still without any effect, except for many announcements'.

For the brick industrialists, a new housing plan should intersect supply and demand, identifying areas where to invest, first of all by surveying the employment rate, for targeted interventions. "With a national programme of at least five to ten years, we could also put in place the investments we need to support the strong and rapid technological development involving our sector," adds Di Carlantonio. Certainly, with the transformation that has changed it in ten years, the brick production system has found a new balance. The size class of companies has changed. With the disappearance of small companies, an industrial system has established itself where even large international groups that continuously invest in innovation are flourishing. "But we need to be supported, we need to restart," Di Carlantonio observes, also noting how the supply chain has to compete on a daily basis with the other materials on the market, from wood to steel, in an Italy that remains more or less split down the middle, "between a North that demands advanced technological solutions and a South that seems to be more focused on quantity". The problem of soil consumption remains. In the face of this problem, Di Carlantonio relaunches the idea of a 'scrapping' operation for obsolete peripheral urban areas: 'We are talking in many cases about dilapidated buildings with very high energy consumption,' he explains, 'on which we could intervene with a very advanced reconstruction, also in technological terms. In this way we could also redesign the suburbs of cities'.