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in the late 1990s, China has begun to produce rustic tiles. Its ceramic production areas produced diverse rustic tiles because of their different geographical environments and production edges. Now, these production areas changed many original lines to produce rustic tiles. And the reasons behind their actions were also totally different.
Fujian has always been the largest production area for exterior wall tiles. But in recent years, the market share of exterior wall tiles has been severely reduced as the government had introduced some policies that imposed the restrictions on the usage of exterior wall tiles on tower block. In this situation, many manufacturers wanted to upgrade their production lines.
The production process of exterior wall tiles have something in common with that of rustic tiles. For example, they both need moulds. In addition, the raw materials and the narrow-body kiln which used for exterior wall tiles are suitable to produce rustic tiles. So, Fujian has changed many lines of exterior wall tiles to produce rustic tiles in this year.
2Guangdong Production Area
In terms of the production capacity and the quality of rustic tiles, Guangdong ranked first in the country. And it has a group of famous ceramic companies in the filed of rustic tiles, like MARCO POLO, KITO, ROMARIO, LOLA, and etc. There are some reasons for the increase of the lines for rustic tiles. Firstly, in recent years, the tiles in modern style have seen explosive growth in overseas markets. So, modern rustic tiles started to be popular in Chinese market. Secondly, the young have become major consumers who prefer modern rustic tiles. Thirdly, utilizing high-definition technology has opened the door for manufacturers to develop almost any textures they can think of. So, manafacturers can create diversified rustic tiles to help themselves win the homogenized competition.
In Gaoan production area, the prices of full glazed tiles dropped continually due to the low-price competition. That is why many manufacturers in Gaoan decided to choose another profitable category and they chose rustic tiles. Some manufacturers said that, they changed their lines of full glazed tiles and the exterior wall tiles to produce strip wood tiles which differed with other categories.
4Shandong Production Area
The last issue has cited that Zibo production area has no new lines for rustic tiles because of government's policies. But, as Zibo has a huge group of OEMs, its rustic tiles actually made good performance. On May, Linyi production area saw a shortage of rustic tiles. Many local manufacturers regarded it as a good opportunity to battle for market share. Therefore, they changed their lines for rustic tiles.
Actually, the main reason for the trend of rustic tiles in China is that the manufacturers and distributors have to find out a new profitable product as the markets of glaze tiles and other conventional tiles have been shrunk hugely for overcapacity. For years, rustic tiles has sustained the growth in production capacity and shares. Besides, its prices and profitability have been stabilized as well. Thus, it becomes the first choice of many manufacturers.
In the early stage, the sizes of rustic tiles were small, such as 150×150(mm) and 300×300(mm). The main style is pastoral. But now, 600×600(mm) is the most common size of rustic tiles and the larger sizes are increasingly normal, like 600×1200(mm) and 900×1800(mm). Modern style are getting more and more popular. In this year, many manafacturers in Guangdong and Fujian transformed their original lines to produce large modern rustic tiles, such as Xinruncheng Ceramics and QHTC. The former has lanuched the modern rustic tiles in 900×900(mm) and 600×1200(mm). And the later has launched the one in 900×900(mm), 600×1200(mm) , 900×1800(mm).
This is the 338th issue.
Editor: Elena
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