Cevisama Delayed Until Next Year

VALENCIA, Spain – The Cevisama tile event, already delayed once this year, will skip its 2022 edition entirely.

Various factors, mainly dealing with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, led organizers to cancel the Spanish tile event set for June 13.17.

The vent’s organizing committed announced on March 31 that it “has now cancelled the June date because of the critical situation currently being experienced by the mainstay of the fair, the ceramic industry, which is facing huge uncertainty and unpredictable outcomes following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” according to an official statement.

The next edition of Cevisama will now take place next year from Feb. 27-March 3.

Organizers moved 2022’s opening dates from February to June due to an increased wave of COVID-19 infections late last year. Due to the pandemic, the event didn’t occur in 2021.

“The war has exacerbated the energy crisis that ceramic manufacturers have been having to deal with since the middle of last year,” according to the event statement. “With the outbreak of war, the prices of gas have spiked sharply and unsustainably and the industry, which is gas-intensive, is already seeing stoppages in production and adjustments to the workforce in the form of furloughs (ERTE).”

Due to the conflict, Spanish tilemakers also lost access to key supplies of clay from Ukraine. The resulting EU boycott also cut business with Russia, which was the 12th largest export market for Spanish ceramic tile last year.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict hadn’t dampened attendee enthusiasm, as preregistration ran 25% higher than previous Cevisama editions. However, the organizers noted, “exhibitors had been pulling out of the commercial showcase to the point that it was no longer sufficiently attractive to warrant the fair taking place.”

In its last edition, held in 2020, Cevisama brought together more than 800 firms and brands, with 90,000 professionals attending … of which more than 21,000 came from outside Spain.