Leading Italian ceramics in the USA: sales of 769 million (+8.7%)

Italia remains the leader in ceramic exports to the United States, but 'uncertainty' is the word most frequently uttered by exhibitors at Coverings 2026, the Las Vegas trade fair attended by all the world's leading tile manufacturers. Uncertainty over tariffs on the US market. Uncertainty over the international situation. Uncertainty, to a lesser extent, also for the development of the dollar. "Today," says the director of Confindustria Ceramica, Armando Cafiero, "exporters themselves are wondering what tariffs are applied in the United States. In one year it has been changed three times and we do not know what will happen in the coming months. The market has been resilient, but in these conditions it is difficult to plan investments and make strategies for what remains the largest outlet outside Europe'. The market with the greatest growth potential, but where global competition is the fiercest, across all price and product ranges.

In 2025, Trump was a wild variable, outside the usual box. Even beyond the actual implementation of the endless barrage of protectionist measures threatened. A rollercoaster never seen before, with three tariff changes, which remain provisional at 18.5% and 20% until July.

A debacle would have been the natural outcome of 2025. But if you look at the results, it is clear that Italian companies have been able to govern the uncertainty and, thanks also to the greater difficulties of their international competitors, have even gained ground. The data distributed at Coverings, confirm the supremacy in value of Italian exports to the United States: 769 million dollars of sales (+8.7%) against 684 of Spain (+14.1%), 209 of Mexico (-22.9%) and 191.6 of India (-21.1%). In terms of quantity, Spain leads the 2025 ranking with 37.1 million square metres sold (+17.5%), followed by Italia with 30.61 million (+7%), India with 28.86 million (-21.2%) and Mexico with 22.92 million (-16%).

Two leaps, in value and quantity, for Italia and Spain, while the countries most put in Trump's virtual crosshairs, India and Mexico, the producers at the lower end of the market, suffered the worst effects of the cyclone. Although the threatened tariffs were never applied (India had a 3% increase and Mexico enjoyed a suspension).

Emilio Mussini, president of the Panaria Group and vice-president of Confindustria Ceramica, explains how two factors were responsible for the positive performance of Made in Italy in America: massive purchases in the first half of the year to prevent tariffs; and the resilience in the second half of the year thanks to product positioning. "The high-end segment," says Mussini, "was the least affected by the downturn in American consumption. Demand for Italian-made products is still very strong and has held up much better than that for low-end products to both the announcement effect of tariffs and the slowdown in construction. A test of maturity passed, which bodes well for the future. "The United States," Mussini reiterates, "will remain the most important market outside Europe, a landing point even in times of uncertainty. Without America there can be no development. 'We cannot think of making volume or value in Asia, our game is played here'.