CSIL estimates that the Italian market for windows amounts to roughly 7.2 million units. This is just less than 10% of the annual consumption of windows in Europe (EU 27), which is estimated at 75 million units. Fifty firms control about 28% of the Italian market and, where possible, company turnover refers only to the Italian market and only to the production of windows.
The Italian market for windows recorded a contraction in sales of around 30% in the space of five years, but an analysis of the existing housing stock, demographics and the need to save energy leads us to believe that there will be a rapid return to consumption volumes in the region of 10 million units annually.
Over the next few years a different organisation of the production and distribution chains, and significant innovation in the availability of innovative materials and technologies, will lead to a fast reshuffling of the firms’ market shares. International trade currently accounts for a minimum quota of both production and consumption, but there are significant opportunities abroad (for example in Russia) and it is also possible that we shall see more foreign firms operating in Italy (from Poland, Romania and Germany).
Italy has a population of 61 million, an increase of about 4 million over the past decade (which, in itself, gives rise to demand for a million additional homes and thus for many millions of windows) and the population will increase by a further 3.5 million over the next 20 years. To give you an idea of the size of the non-residential market, if the total of built surfaces amount to a little less than 3 billion square metres, and residential buildings account for 2.5 billion, then roughly 400 million square metres must be for non-residential buildings.