Rediscover ceramics

By Mr. Wangli from MONOLISA CERAMICS 

Looking back at the thousands of years of development history of Chinese ceramics, the 40 years since Fo Tao Group introduced the first fully automatic color glazed wall and floor tile production line from Italy in 1983 is undoubtedly the climax of the ceramic industry. 

The general trend of the world, the vast soup, the rise and fall, the unpredictable. In the torrent of great changes that have not been encountered in a century, the ceramic industry is facing a huge era of fission and industrial restructuring. It is in this context and node that the 2022 Ceramics Conference, hosted by Ceramics Information, has set its theme as “Re-understanding Ceramics”. 

This is a heavy topic and one of great strategic height. After the reform and opening up, the new generation of ceramics, many people have made ceramics for a lifetime, and in 2022, they find themselves more and more unable to play ceramics and understand the industry.

At this moment, the industry is facing great pressure and challenges in transformation and upgrading. And we really need to stop, calm down, and re-understand and think about this industry—— 

“Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I going? ”

Looking back on the development of the past 40 years, the vigorous development of China’s real estate industry brought about by urbanization and China’s accession to the WTO are undoubtedly the biggest market dividends. The former has made China’s ceramics industry maintain a double-digit growth trend for decades, and the per capital ceramic tile consumption ranks first in the world, the latter makes China a world factory, while introducing a large number of international advanced technologies, it has also made China dominate the throne of the world’s ceramic tile export countries for many years. 

Zhang Ruimin said that there are no successful enterprises, only the enterprises of the times. In the past few decades, the pottery industry has been full of ups and downs. Finally, a market pattern of more than ten production areas, nearly a thousand ceramic enterprises and thousands of brands was formed. At the same time, a large number of bright production areas, excellent enterprises and well-known brands have emerged. 

If these production areas, enterprises and brands can achieve some achievements, although they are inseparable from the efforts of subjective factors, the greater reason is that these production areas, enterprises and brands just conform to the trend of the times and stand on the cusp of the market.

However, time has changed. With the rapid changes in the external environment, the ceramic industry in 2022 is facing unprecedented severe challenges—— 

From the perspective of product supply and demand, overcapacity is serious, especially in 2022, the kiln opening rate in some production areas is less than 50%, and a large number of production capacity is facing the crisis of elimination; 

From the perspective of production methods, the production of ceramic tile products is shifting from the past mechanization and automation to digitalization and intelligence, and many production areas and enterprises are unable to meet the requirements of transformation and upgrading; 

From the perspective of marketing, the industry is shifting from the past factory era and product era to the user era, and the focus of enterprise operation is not only products, technologies and brands, but to find out the pain points of the market and aim at the needs of customers; 

From the perspective of the industry cycle, the ceramic industry, which has experienced the embryonic period, growth period and mature period, is currently in the ramp of the decline period, and the road down the mountain is obviously more difficult than the road up the mountain. 

From growth to development, from increment from stock, from expansion to contraction, from profiteering to small profit, from introduction and digestion to independent innovation, from the world’s factory to China’s intelligent manufacturing, China’s ceramic industry has already entered the second half. Quietly, the external environment and underlying logic of the development of the industry have undergone a fundamental reversal. 

Under such a situation, the structure, layout and ecology of the entire industry need to be re-planned and adjusted, and the so-called brands, products, prices, channels and services of the market need to be redefined and divided, so that the ceramic industry can return to its original intention and return to its origin, so as to explore a development path for the rebirth of the industry from its own development law.

At present, the biggest crisis facing the ceramic industry is the pressure caused by shrinking market demand. Whether it is real estate or export, whether it is internal circulation or external circulation, it is difficult to have an effective response in the short term. The direct consequences of shrinking demand are overcapacity, industry involvement, kiln shutdown and production restrictions, layoffs and salary cuts… This is a kind of snowy mountain collapse crisis, involving the whole body, a large number of ceramic enterprises, brands and ceramic people, destined to be engulfed and abandoned by the industrial transformation of this era. 

Ceramics are the art of earth and fire, destined for an astonishing consumption of resources and energy. Today, when global resources are depleted and energy plunder is raging, the ceramic industry is destined to be an impossible large-scale and sustainable development industry, and it is inevitable that low-end production capacity, factories, enterprises and brands will be eliminated. At the same time, the wave of greening, digitalization and intelligence has put forward higher requirements for the ceramic industry, and enterprises and production areas that cannot cross its threshold are also facing the crisis of being out. 

In addition, with the rapid development of science and technology, ceramics, an ancient building decoration material, is facing a series of severe challenges of new materials. Although ceramic products have an innate affinity with human beings, although ceramic products are far superior to many new decorative materials in terms of use function and human attributes, such new decorative materials are gradually encroaching on the original market share of ceramic products with their scientific and technological attributes and the advantages of scale, low cost and high efficiency. In the tug-of-war between substitution and anti-substitution for many years, ceramic products have not occupied much market advantage.

Of course, we don’t have to be too pessimistic, I believe that the ceramic industry must be a source of endless Hengyang industry, after experiencing a decades-long industrial development “climax”, many past successful experiences are becoming the baggage of the current forward. At this moment, we need a thorough vigilance and deep reflection to correct our pace of progress. 

Rediscover ceramics for a better start!

From the point of view of Xiejin abrasive, we always keep improving ourselves to follow the steps of ceramic tiles developing.

And we have been developing over hundreds of formula to match the developing tiles and glaze. 

Contact Xiejin abrasive now for more information about abrasive.