National policy to cool the newly revived ceramic industry

With the continuous improvement of social environmental awareness at home and abroad, as a high-energy-consuming and highly-polluting industry, ceramics has become one of the key governance projects of the national environmental protection plan. According to industry analysis, the production of 1 ton of daily-use ceramic products consumes about 600 kWh of electricity or 2.5 tons of standard coal, and the demand for non-renewable resources such as kaolin is huge. In recent years, the state has successively promulgated the "Ceramic Industry Pollutant Emission Standard", "Ceramic Industry Pollution Prevention and Control Technology Policy" and "Building Sanitary Ceramic Product Unit Energy Consumption Limit", etc., to strengthen the control and management of ceramic industry sewage and exhaust emissions.

Following September 2006 and July 2007, the government successively lowered the export tax rebate rate for ceramic products twice, and the growth rate of ceramic exports in Guangdong Province once narrowed. However, this year, this situation has changed. From the Huangpu Customs on the 27th, it was learned that from January to July this year, ceramics exports were US$2.03 billion, up 16.7% from the same period of last year and 6.2% from the same period of last year.

In 2006 and 2007, through the national macro-control, the export tax rebate rate for ceramic products was reduced from the original 13% to 5%. In 2007, the export growth rate of the Guangdong ceramics industry, which has continued to grow at a high rate of over 20% for many years, dropped to 4.5%, and the ceramics industry experienced a cold winter.

Private companies make efforts to make exports "rejuvenate"

Despite the fact that policies continue to chill the ceramic industry, many private companies have relied on major export products such as building ceramics to reverse their recovery this year. Ceramic exports in Guangdong have shown signs of recovery. In the ceramic exports from January to July this year, Guangdong's private enterprises exported ceramics worth 1.28 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 32%, accounting for 62.9%, while foreign-invested enterprises and state-owned enterprises declined by 8% and 8.9% respectively.

According to relevant data, Guangdong's ceramic exports from January to July this year have increased by 16.7% over the same period of last year. Architectural ceramics is a major export variety, and it has grown rapidly. Exports of architectural ceramics reached 1.19 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 37.7%, accounting for 58.6% of exports of household ceramics, 460 million U.S. dollars, down 5.9%, accounting for 22.6%.

Experts: Change Low Price Competition to Improve Innovation

Customs pointed out that the current status of ceramics exports in Guangdong is inconsistent with the achievement of energy-saving emission reduction and sustainable development goals. The extensive application of this resource model may make it difficult for the Guangdong ceramics industry to continue in the future. Due to the disorderly development of a large number of small and medium-sized ceramic enterprises and the rough use of resources, the porcelain resources have been severely short-lived in Chaozhou and Meizhou in Guangdong Province. Some experts predict that after 30 years, the Guangdong ceramics industry, which is now enjoying great popularity, will face “severance”.

How can the ceramic industry develop healthily? Experts pointed out that the first is to formulate corresponding supporting measures to ensure that energy-saving and emission-reduction measures are implemented, to improve the access threshold for the ceramic industry, to eliminate backward production capacity, and to promote industrial upgrading. Second, to increase technological innovation and develop high-tech products with high added value. It is to establish brand awareness and change the low-price competition model.