Ceramic slabs consolidate as the main growth engine within porcelain stoneware
Tile Wars · markets · · Tile Wars
The ASCER 2025 Production, Energy and CO2 Report confirms that within porcelain stoneware —already 73.2% of all Spanish ceramic output— large-format slabs keep gaining ground year after year.
The ASCER 2025 Production, Energy and CO2 Report confirms a trend that has been taking shape in the sector for years: within porcelain stoneware —which already accounts for 73.2% of all Spanish ceramic production— the slab (large-format pieces with a surface above 1 sqm and at least one side over 1,200 mm) keeps gaining ground year after year.
Slabs have become the most dynamic segment of porcelain stoneware. Their advance rests on two mutually reinforcing factors: demand for continuous surfaces, with fewer joints and a finish closer to natural stone, and the ability of large plants —which already concentrate 78.6% of the sector output— to invest in the high-tonnage presses required to manufacture these pieces.
Large formats do not only change the look of the product: they reshape the industrial structure. Producing slabs requires longer lines, dedicated handling systems, precision cutting and rectification, and far stricter flatness control. It is an investment that only pays off with volume, which explains the growing concentration of output in the biggest facilities.
The figure also connects with another data point from the report: while wall tile (21.7%) and standard stoneware (4.8%) continue to lose relative weight, porcelain stoneware —and within it, the slab— is the segment where the Spanish ceramic industry concentrates its technological investment and added value.
In market terms, slabs are also the natural route towards higher average price products: countertops, ventilated facades, furniture cladding and large floor surfaces in architectural projects. In other words, the ground where the Spanish industry competes on design and performance rather than on price.