Industrial ceramics in spain

The Spanish ceramic industry has experienced a amazing growth in the last f our years. Such expansion has affected all sector, but has been particularl y noteworthy in those directly related to construction: tiles, glazes, bric ks and roof tiles. A combination of an extraordinary exporting effort, toge ther with a record figure in new housing projects (415 000 houses in 1999), are responsible for such outburst. Other sectors, such as refractories hav e undergone significant growths due to the high rate of steel production in crease, also in historical record figures (15m t in 1999). All this sectors doubled altogether the growing rate of their main European competitors. Ra w material production has had an even more effervescent trend, almost doubl ing 1995 production. Such dynamic growth has been associated to a remarkabl e quality increase and to an unparalleled technological innovation process.