“This growth was largely because of the increase in roof tile sales at relatively constant prices,” said Nicolae Neag, commercial manager of Siceram Sighisoara.
The company makes bricks, which account for 48% of total sales, ceramic roof tiles, which generate 41% of its sales, and other types of products. Siceram expects slight growth in sales in 2014 by about 5%.
Neag estimates the entire brick market amounts to about 4 million cubic meters, while the roof tile market stands at 17 million to 18 million square meters.
“I don’t see a rebound of the market (of construction materials i.e.), but a halt of its decline in 2014 at best. Some more economically active areas like Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu will probably see some growth,” Neag says.
“In other areas and especially the small and medium-sized cities and the rural areas, whose growth was driven by the heavy inflow of capital from those working in Europe, the recession will continue.”
The only solution for a recovery of the construction materials sector, Neag says, is an increase in public sector investments, as well as granting fiscal incentives to those building or investing in construction sector.
Siceram Sighisoara has an annual production capacity of about 250,000 cubic meters of bricks and 1 million square meters of roof tiles. It plans to invest at least EUR2 million this year.
It works with about 100 wholesalers and with specialist home improvement retail chains Ambient and Arabesque. (EUR1=RON4.5173)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)