China Ceramic Industry Overview

In 2011, the gross output value of ceramic industry was CNY 572.363 billion in China, increasing by 35.35% YOY. The output volume of ceramics in China reached 8,701,410,000 square meters in 2011 with an increase of 14.86% YOY. In 2011, the output volume of sanitary ceramics reached 200 million, increasing by 18.60% YOY. In 2011, the sales revenue of China ceramic industry reached CNY 547,747 million with an increase of 35.45% YOY.

There are Guangdong Foshan building ceramics production bases, Guangdong Chaozhou daily, art, sanitary ceramics production bases, Shandong Zibo daily ceramics production bases and Jiangxi Jingdezhen art ceramics production bases in China. The development of the whole industry is characterized with regionalization, specialization, production aggregation of the same type products.

China is a big ceramic producer with the largest output volume in the world, but it is not a powerful ceramic country. Chinese products are mainly middle and low-end ceramics whose prices are relatively low in international market. The price of the same type products is only a fraction of that of products from powerful countries such as Italy and Spain. The overcapacity and oversupply of ceramic industry lead to the price war among enterprises, resulting in rapid decline of profit level inner the industry. Lack of independent innovation ability and serious product homogeneity lead to poor international competitiveness.

The production of ceramic industry is featured by region. The expanding enterprises and enlarging product lines lead to the serious overcapacity, an unbalanced relationship between supply and demand and problems such as serious environment pollution and the exhausted raw material resources. In spite of raw material and energy advantages, the ceramic industry in Northeast China and Northwest China experiences the backward level, which is limited by the overall economic development.

The major exported ceramics are ceramic tiles of building ceramics in China. In 2011, the exported ceramic tiles reached 1,015,280,000 square meters in China with an increase of 17.07% YOY. The export value was USD 4,764.4 million, increasing by 23.72% YOY. In 2011, the export of Chinese ceramic tiles to European Union encountered the unprecedentedly largest anti-dumping final judge. During this time, many media exaggerated the influence of anti-dumping concerning the export of Chinese ceramic tiles, and they thought it heavily cracked down on the export of Chinese ceramic tiles.

Data show that the export of Chinese ceramic tiles enjoyed the inclusive growth in 2011. Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Korea remained three major export destinations of Chinese ceramic tiles with large growth. Owing to the increase of export volume, India became the fourth largest destination of Chinese ceramic tiles, and Brazil was the sixth largest destination. In terms of the export of ceramic tiles, Guangdong Province has the largest export volume of ceramic tiles accounting for 70.71% in China. Its export value accounts for 79.21% of the total one.

The international anti-dumping investigations on Chinese ceramic tiles lasted for more than 10 years. However, Chinese ceramic tile increased annually, so did it in 2011. Although China exports the largest ceramic tiles all over the world, the export of Chinese ceramic tiles accounts for less than 15% of the total domestic output volume in the whole year, which is different from China sanitary ceramic industry (its export accounts for over 30%) and daily ceramic industry (its export accounts for more than 70%) relying on export. The changes of the international economic market have no apparent influence on China ceramic industry.