Analysis on the Status Quo and Development Trend of China's Ceramic Industry in

Time: 2018-12-30 10:46:23


    Ceramics is a general term for pottery and porcelain. It is made of clay as the main raw material and various natural minerals obtained by pulverizing, kneading, molding and calcining, as well as various products. Ceramic products can be classified as follows according to the application field:


According to the firing temperature, the daily-use ceramics can be divided into low-temperature porcelain, medium-temperature porcelain and high-temperature porcelain. The medium and low temperature porcelain is mainly represented by color glaze ceramics, and the high temperature porcelain is mainly white porcelain, underglazed multicolored porcelain, reinforced porcelain and so on.

   1. History and culture of the ceramic industry

      China's ceramic industry has a long history. China invented pottery as early as 5,000 years ago, and in the middle of the Shang Dynasty appeared early porcelain, "Southern Qingbei" in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and "Tang Sancai" in the Tang Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, the five famous porcelains of "Official, Brother, Sui, Yi, Ding", the varieties, colors and techniques of ceramics were increasingly rich and perfect; in the Tang Dynasty, Chinese ceramics entered the international market with emerging commodities and exported to Japan, India, and Persia. As well as Egypt, and indirectly sold to Europe; in the Qing Dynasty, ceramic technology, color glaze more mature, blue-and-white porcelain, fighting color, multicolored, plain three color continued to develop, and innovated new colors such as enamel, pastels and underglaze Variety. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, ceramic products have been exported to all parts of the world along with Chinese culture, and have played a huge role in the spread and promotion of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation. 1 With the continuous development of the industrial revolution era, the ceramic industry in Europe and the United States gradually adopted machinery for industrial production, improved the production efficiency of ceramics, optimized the production process of ceramics, especially in the design of ceramic products, emphasizing the perfection of art and industry. Combining, paying attention to the simplification and rationalization of the model, attaching importance to practicality and beauty, which made the world ceramics appear new development at that time. During the transition of the ceramic industry from the handicraft industry to the modern ceramic industry, the center of world ceramic production was transferred to countries such as Europe and Japan. Since the reform and opening up, China's ceramic industry has gradually introduced advanced ceramic manufacturing technology and equipment from abroad, upgrading and upgrading kiln, and firing technology has been continuously introduced. The energy is gradually replaced by natural gas, which has achieved environmental protection and emission reduction. At the same time, based on the original traditional ceramic manufacturing process and ceramic culture, we have improved, innovated and improved related technology, and made great progress in product design, color glaze manufacturing and cultural creativity. The ceramic industry is ushered in. With good development opportunities, China has become the world's largest ceramic producer.

   2. Overview and development trend of global ceramic industry

      After long-term development, foreign ceramic manufacturers mostly engage in a certain link or process of the ceramic industry according to their core competence and superior resources to reflect their core competitive advantages. With the restrictions on energy and raw materials, and the rising labor costs, developed countries and regions gradually transfer technology and production capacity to developing countries, and the world ceramic production centers are gradually shifting to developing countries.

   (1) Overview of the needs of the global ceramics market

      In the global ceramics market, the demand for ceramic products is diversified and personalized. European and American countries pay more attention to the color, shape, safety and environmental protection of ceramic products; China is more focused on the color, cultural connotation and practical performance of ceramic products. Based on the differences in living standards, cultural backgrounds, and artistic aesthetics in different countries and regions, it is difficult for a single ceramic variety in the market to meet the needs of different regions. It has long been the case that different industries have different competitive advantages. The United States is the world's largest importer of ceramic products. In 2015, it imported 5.871 billion US dollars of ceramic products, an increase of 0.56%. In 2016, imported ceramic products reached 5.764 billion US dollars, down 1.82% year-on-year. Ceramic demand remained stable. In 2016, US imports of architectural ceramics reached 1.791 billion US dollars, accounting for 31.09% of all ceramic imports; sanitary ceramics imports were 1.025 billion US dollars, accounting for 17.79% of all ceramic imports; daily ceramics imports were 1.317 billion US dollars, accounting for 22.85% of all ceramic imports; The import of process ceramics was US$370 million, accounting for 6.42% of all ceramic imports; the import of other types of ceramics was US$1.26 billion, accounting for 21.85% of all ceramic imports. China is the largest source of US ceramic imports. In 2016, the United States imported 2.22 billion US dollars of ceramics from China, accounting for 38.56% of the total US ceramic imports.

      The EU is the second largest ceramic import market in the world. In 2015, the total import value was 3.832 billion US dollars, down 6.85% year-on-year. In 2016, the total import value was 3.888 billion US dollars, up 1.46% year-on-year, and demand remained stable. In 2016, the import value of ceramics for daily use in the EU was 1.132 billion US dollars, the import of architectural ceramics was 620 million US dollars, the import of sanitary ceramics was 576 million US dollars, and the import of technological ceramics was 358 million US dollars. China is the EU's largest source of ceramic imports. The EU imported 1.698 billion US dollars of ceramics from China in 2016, accounting for 43.67% of the total imports of EU ceramics. As a non-replaceable daily necessities in daily life, daily-use ceramics are safe, hygienic, easy to wash, and have good thermal stability compared to daily necessities such as plastics and metals.

   (2) Overview of the global ceramic industry

      In recent years, due to the substantial increase in the output of ceramic products in developing countries, the global ceramic industry's total output has been increasing year by year. At the same time, the international ceramic market has shown the diversified and personalized characteristics of the market. As a key market in the ceramics industry, daily-use ceramics is closely related to people's daily lives. Its market characteristics and development trends are as follows:

   1) International standards continue to increase, and the amount of lead and cadmium is strictly limited.

      In recent years, the standards and requirements for daily-use ceramic products in the world are getting higher and higher. Among them, the United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada, Australia and other countries have higher requirements for the lead and cadmium dissolution of ceramic products. The CompliancePolicyGuides issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the dissolution of cadmium and lead in household ceramics in the form of regulations, and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards also include The 10 standards for daily-use ceramics have established requirements for the precipitation of lead and cadmium, acid and alkali resistance, impact resistance and heating safety in microwave ovens; EU Directive 2005/31/EC The requirements of the “Adoption and Implementation Statement on Standards for Analysis of Ceramic Products in Contact with Food” have been revised. The EU has also established a limit on the amount of lead and cadmium dissolved in daily-use ceramics that must be strictly enforced by all member states. Standards; Canadian Standards for Canadian Products 1999 (Ceramics/Glassware) and Australia's BS4862-1972 (TEST) and AS/NZS4371:1996 (Limited) standards also limit lead and cadmium dissolution5.

   2) The market is high-grade, artistic, diversified and personalized

      In recent years, in the international market for daily-use ceramics, demand growth has slowed down due to the impact of the global economic environment, but the demand for high-end, high-quality daily-use ceramics is still growing year by year. With the intensification of competition in the daily-use ceramics industry, the daily-use ceramics producing countries are shifting their production focus to high-end ceramics with more competitive potential and high profit margins, and artistic ceramic products with cultural heritage and artistic atmosphere. Because consumers have differences in living standards, cultural backgrounds, artistic aesthetics, etc., the demand for products is not exactly the same, which makes it difficult to meet the needs of different consumers in the production and sales of a single variety in the market. In the future, the international daily-use ceramics market will undergo a series of obvious changes. Its main features are its good quality, full-featured, multi-colored and novel styles, which means that the products are developing towards diversification. At the same time, they have functions such as collection and gift. Personalized products are more and more popular and popular, and have a large market space.

   3. Overview and development trend of domestic ceramic industry

   (1) Overall overview of the domestic ceramic industry

      Since the beginning of the 21st century, China's ceramics manufacturing industry has experienced a period of stable development. The output of ceramic products and the number of enterprises in the ceramic industry have grown tremendously. China's total ceramic output ranks first in the world and has become the largest in the world. Ceramic producers and exporters, but the ceramic industry still has low overall efficiency, low technical level and lack of brand awareness. In addition, affected by the national energy conservation and environmental protection policies, the development model of the ceramic industry is also undergoing a transformation. From the past, the model of “quantity growth” has shifted to “adjusting and optimizing stocks, making excellent and strong increments” coexist. In the future, the connotation and innovative development of the ceramic industry with brand, quality, service, technology and design innovation will become the dominant. In 2016, the national ceramic ceramics, ceramic new materials, daily-use ceramics, garden furnishings and other ceramic products manufacturing and other four types of ceramic varieties (excluding architectural porcelain) above the scale of 2,216 ceramic enterprises to complete the main business income of 447.2 billion yuan, It increased by 11.3% over the previous year and realized a profit of 35.16 billion yuan, an increase of 9.72% over the previous year.

      Electric porcelain has a close relationship with the development of the national economy, especially the development of the power industry. It is greatly affected by the state's investment in the power and power grid industries; ceramic new materials are an integral part of new materials, because they have no other materials. A variety of excellent performance, a wide range of applications, has become an indispensable key material in various industrial technologies, especially cutting-edge technologies. With the rapid development of consumer electronics, automotive, biomedical and other fields, the market demand for new ceramic materials is also expanding. .

   (2) Characteristics and development trend of daily-use ceramic industry

   1) The industry continues to develop steadily

      Ceramics for daily use are ceramic products that are most close to people's daily lives, and have maintained a steady growth trend in recent years. The total output value of China's daily-use ceramics increased from 31.327 billion yuan in 2007 to 103.089 billion yuan in 2015, with a compound annual growth rate of 16.18%. In 2015, the export value was US$7.075 billion, and the export value in 2016 was US$5.441 billion7. With the recovery of the global economy and the renewal of consumption concepts, the demand potential of China's daily-use ceramics market is expected to expand further in the future.

   2) Industrial clusters are more obvious and competition is fierce

      In recent years, the daily-use ceramic production areas represented by Hunan Fuling, Guangdong Chaozhou, Guangxi Beiliu, Hebei Tangshan and Fujian Dehua have developed rapidly, and new capacity has expanded year by year, each forming a unique industrial cluster. In addition, China's daily-use ceramics industry has a large number of production enterprises, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, low industry concentration, high degree of marketization, and fierce competition. The competition is mainly characterized by competition for product prices, while the medium and high-end market mainly passes brands. Competition in design, quality and quality.

   3) Industrial technology continues to mature

      With the development of the economy, raw material costs, labor costs and transportation costs have generally increased. Some ceramic enterprises have begun to improve their production technology and equipment upgrades, adopting new and energy-saving automation equipment, and replacing new production with new technologies and technologies. The way to achieve automated processes and intelligent operational control increases productivity, improves product quality, and reduces energy consumption and costs.

   4) Accelerated industrial integration

      With the increasing demand for quality of imported ceramic products in the overseas market and the overall rising manufacturing cost of domestic manufacturing, ceramic manufacturers that did not pay attention to product quality and earn profits by low cost will face pressure. The ceramic industry is facing a reshuffle. Some enterprises will merge and reorganize other small and medium-sized enterprises through their own technological advantages, brand advantages, management advantages, capital advantages and scale advantages, and accelerate the integration speed of enterprises within the industry.

   5) There is a gap with internationally advanced daily-use ceramic manufacturers

      China is an ancient country of ceramic production, has a long history and cultural tradition, and is also a large country in the production and export of ceramics, but there is a certain gap from the strong production countries. In the international daily-use ceramics market, there are very few ceramic products that are actually sold by domestic enterprises' own brands. The gap with developed countries is mainly reflected in product design, cultural creativity and product quality. In addition, in the production process and equipment, there is still a big gap between China and foreign advanced levels, especially in the automation and intelligentization of production, and most of the molding equipment with high degree of automation mostly rely on imports. With the domestic ceramic-related industries beginning to strengthen the research on daily-use ceramic automation and mechanized equipment, the gap with foreign high-level manufacturers will gradually narrow.

   6) The trend of industrial production to intelligent and automated development

      In recent years, with the rapid development of science and technology, the production technology of the daily-use ceramic industry has also developed rapidly. Some traditional backward equipment and complicated production processes are being eliminated, and replaced by isostatic pressing and automatic repairing. Advanced equipment and processes with simple, compact equipment and production lines. The ceramic industry is a typical labor-intensive industry. With the development of the economy and the rising labor costs, the production efficiency of the daily-use ceramics industry will be improved by improving the intelligence and automation of the production process, and it will become the future development of the daily-use ceramics industry. trend.