Analysis of the current situation of ceramic industry exports situation

According to the use and nature of ceramic products, ceramic exports can be divided into three main categories: special ceramics for special equipment, scientific experiments and other purposes, building ceramics with tiles and other building materials and kitchen equipment, bathroom products and household ceramics with glass ceramic ware. This article focuses on the current state of export trade in architectural and household ceramics[1].

2020 Top 10 countries in the world exporting ceramic products

China is in a dominant position in the export market for ceramics, with the world’s largest share of ceramic exports from 1995 to the present, and has continued to grow. In 2019-2020, China’s share of ceramic exports decreases by 3.43% year-on-year, while customs export data shows that the share of exports from Hong Kong, China increases from 3.35% in 2019 to 8.86% in 2020, so the possible reason for the decrease in China’s share of ceramic exports in 2019-2020 is the impact of the regular control of the novel coronary pneumonia epidemic in China. Some ceramic goods which were previously exported from mainland ports is now to third-party re-exports from Hong Kong, China. In addition to China, Japan, a member of the RCEP, is among the top ten exporters of ceramics worldwide. Among the major countries and regions for China’s ceramic exports in 2021, there are six RCEP member countries including Japan. This shows the complex relationship between the interests of the various RCEP member countries in the export of ceramic products.

Possible impact of RCEP in ceramics industry

Among the RCEP member countries, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia have all launched anti-dumping investigations against Chinese ceramics. The second largest ceramics country in the RCEP has also experienced anti-dumping investigations from these countries. Therefore, the formation of the RCEP will be able to help solve the thorny problems faced by ceramic exporting countries, thus promoting the better development of ceramic export industry. The signing of the RCEP for export-oriented tile enterprises will, to a certain extent, reduce the pressure of international anti-dumping measures on exporting countries, increasing the chances of exporting tiles to RCEP signatory countries. At the same time, both China and Japan are facing a trend of rising labor prices. As a labor-intensive industry, more ceramic export development opportunities will move to ASEAN countries, which is conducive to the rational allocation of resources within the RCEP countries.

At the same time, RCEP will accelerate the economic reshaping within each exporting country. According to the 2021 Chinese ceramic tile exports to the top ten RCEP member countries statistics show that China’s exports to Malaysia’s ceramics fell 16.44% in 2020, exports to Cambodia’s ceramics fell 19.95% in 2020, mainly due to the impact of the global epidemic, the domestic epidemic control stable, but the exporting country epidemic has not yet been controlled. At the same time, the cost of export has increased significantly due to the sharp rise in sea freight costs in 2021.

The ceramic industry is a highly market-oriented, low entry barrier, fully competitive industry, and also a long upstream and downstream industry chain, Therefore, cultivated countless small and medium-sized enterprises. Most of the products from RCEP countries, which have low added value, are not sold at high prices in the international market. Ceramic overcapacity, supply exceeds demand, enterprises compete for the market, competing to lower prices, and the industry’s profit level continues to decline. Enterprises lack the ability to innovate independently, product homogenization is serious, and the competitiveness of the international market is not strong. With the development of technology and RCEP coming into effect to improve production quality and efficiency, low-end production enterprises will be impacted and thus eliminated in the context of regionalization of trade and people’s increased pursuit of quality.

Suggested measure

The release of the RCEP policy dividend in 2021 makes the advancement of branding more solid. RCEP essentially unifies the rules of each country in the region, making transactions in the region more efficient and investment more stable, making cross-border e-commerce enterprises enter a country in the region equal to entering all countries in the region, in this general environment, the branding of the region will also advance more quickly. Ceramic enterprises should firmly grasp the opportunity to strengthen branding.

Through the Internet marketing, especially the global social media platform marketing, on the one hand, increase the international visibility of enterprises and exposure. On the other hand, helps to understand the human environment and social habits of export regions, which promote the localization, regional differentiation of marketing strategies.

At the same time, the preferential policies and unified import and export management of the comprehensive experimental zone for cross-border e-commerce can reduce the operational and logistics costs of enterprises and help them gain further competitive advantages. The better industrial clustering effect of the comprehensive experimental zone can also promote the study of technical standards for quarantine, inspection, environmental protection and hygiene of products in exporting countries.

By Jin Kaiwei