Jiajiang, the "Porcelain Capital of the West", is one of my country's traditional large-scale ceramic production areas. At its peak, it had more than 120 ceramics companies and 310 production lines, plus the surrounding Leshan Emeishan City and Meishan Danling City that border it. County, Dongpo District, and Qingshen County (collectively referred to as the "Pan-Jiajiang Production Area"), ceramic companies are more densely distributed and the industrial scale is larger.
However, in 2017, the Jiajiang County Party Committee and County Government officially issued the "Implementation Plan for Jiajiang County Ceramic Enterprises to "Retreat from the City and Enter the Park"", requiring that ceramic enterprises outside the park "retreat from the city and enter the park" in 2017-2018. , coupled with industrial policies such as "coal to gas" and "environmental protection inspection", have kicked off the adjustment and transformation of Jiajiang's ceramics industry.
In 2020, taking advantage of the opportunity of the "Long March of the Ceramics Industry" investigation, "Ceramic Information" conducted on-site visits and observations. After three years of "transformation pains", Jiajiang Ceramics has taken on a new look - industry insiders say that the quality of Jiajiang Ceramics has improved significantly. ; Suppliers said that the reputation of Jiajiang ceramic companies is better than before; dealers said that Jiajiang's large slabs and rock slabs are of high quality and affordable prices, and are at the forefront of the industry; and according to the survey statistics of "Ceramic Information", Jiajiang is In 2020, it is one of the production areas with the most technologically improved production lines and the fastest expansion of production capacity in the country.
After switching from coal to gas, leaving the city and entering the park
25 pan-Jiajiang ceramics companies have completely withdrawn
As of November 14, 2020, Sichuan Province has established 112 architectural ceramic production enterprises, 186 architectural ceramic production lines, a daily production capacity of 2.4772 million square meters of ceramic tiles (an annual production capacity of approximately 770 million square meters), ceramic roof tiles (including accessories) with a daily production capacity of 6.668 million pieces. Among them, the Jiajiang production area has 60 ceramic construction companies and 93 production lines; the pan-Jiajiang production area (including Jiajiang, Emeishan, Danling and other adjacent production areas) has 85 ceramic construction companies and 135 production lines.
"In 2017, there were still 98 ceramic companies (including supporting facilities) in Jiajiang. Since then, they have experienced at least three pains of 'coal-to-gas', 'retreating from the city to the park', and environmental protection inspections, and now there are only 60 companies left. Ceramic factories, one of which has stopped production in 2019,” said Ning An’an, secretary-general of Jiajiang Western Porcelain Capital Ceramics Association, Jiajiang Ceramics Manager.After three years of rectification, stable development began to resume after 2019.
In 2017, Jiajiang County implemented the "coal-to-gas" project. Because it is located in a gas source area, there are sufficient gas sources to meet the production needs of ceramic enterprises and the gas price is low. The "coal-to-gas" project was completed in April of that year alone. Change Qi". After completing the "coal-to-gas" transition, Jiajiang County has implemented a tiered gas price, that is, the greater the gas consumption, the lower the gas price, which can be as low as 1.75 yuan/m³.
The natural gas pipeline network located in Jiajiang Economic Development Zone provides sufficient gas sources for Jiajiang Ceramics Enterprises.
Not only Jiajiang County, Danling County also implemented the "coal-to-gas" transition in 2017 and completed the transformation in early 2018. At this point, the above-mentioned pan-Jiajiang production areas have achieved full coverage of natural gas. However, in Sichuan as a whole, because it is located in a gas source area with stable and relatively low gas prices, the burden on enterprises to switch to natural gas is far less than that in other gas-producing areas.
Compared with "coal-to-gas", "retiring from the city and entering the park" is a "brain-breaking" challenge for the Pan-Jiajiang ceramics industry. In 2018, Jiajiang County officially promoted the "retirement from the city and into the park" work, involving 44 ceramic and other industrial enterprises in Yancheng Town, Huangtu Town, Ganlin Town, Ganjiang Town, Shunhe Township, and Mucheng Town. Ning Anping introduced that the "retreat from the city and enter the park" actually shut down 38 ceramic companies, including some supporting companies.
In addition, 5 companies in the Panjiajiang production area have closed down due to poor management, market factors and other reasons. As of the end of 2020, 3 ceramic companies have stopped production for nearly 2 years, most of which are concentrated in Danling County. Comparing the 2017 "Ceramic Industry Long March" survey data, a total of 25 ceramic companies and 31 lines have been reduced in the Pan-Jiajiang production area. Currently, there are only 85 ceramic companies (including branch factories) left in the Pan-Jiajiang production area that are operating normally.
Ceramics companies in the Jiajiang area have been shut down.
Take off the "hat" of low-end and low-quality
"Overtaking on corners" in emerging categories
As most of the ceramic production areas across the country have successively implemented industrial management measures such as "coal to gas", after "coal to gas", "withdrawal from the city"After the "Jiajiang Park Entry" crisis, although the number of companies in the Pan-Jiajiang production area has decreased, the influence of the production area has been significantly improved.
In the past three years, a number of leading companies in production areas such as Emeishan Jintao, Milano, Sofia, Huahong, and Guangle have expanded production capacity through various methods, and many ceramic factories have been leased and operated by better companies. The concentration of Pan-Jiajiang ceramics industry has been further improved. Relying on the advantage of gas source and through equipment modification, technology upgrade and quality upgrade, we successfully broke through.
“We converted to natural gas relatively early, and the pain has passed. Now all the new and renovated kilns are big kilns. Generally speaking, we adapted to the market first. As other production areas gradually converted to natural gas, Sichuan’s competitiveness gradually improved. Now our ordinary products can be sold to western Guangxi, Hunan, and Hubei, which were not available before." Li Jingen, vice president of Emeishan Jintao, believes that the first implementation of "coal-to-gas" has forced Sichuan companies to embark on the path of product innovation. Broadened the sales radius.
In recent years, a large number of modern production lines have been built or renovated in the Jiajiang area.
"Before 2017, homogeneity was very serious. Comparing prices and then comparing costs resulted in the impression that Jiajiang ceramics were low-end products in the market." I am deeply touched by the changes in the district.
In terms of product structure, the production lines of traditional products such as antique tiles, porcelain tiles, glazed tiles, and ancient blue tiles in the Jiajiang production area have shrunk significantly in the past three years. In 2017, there were still 11 production lines for polished tiles. Completely withdraw from the Pan-Jiajiang production area. Among them, the number of glazed tile production lines has shrunk from 35 in 2017 to 21, but it is still the leading product in the Pan-Jiajiang production area.
In sharp contrast, the pace of product innovation in the Pan-Jiajiang production area is accelerating, and following popular trends, the trend of rebuilding and building large/medium/thin/slate slabs has emerged. At present, 15 large plate (750×1500mm and above), thin plate and rock plate lines and 9 medium plate lines have been built in the pan-Jiajiang production area. There are still many companies under construction or planning to build large/thin/rock plate lines. 8 items. In addition, there are also specialty products such as porcelain tiles, floor paving stones, and permeable tiles, further enriching the product types in the Jiajiang production area.
Shengshi Oriental Slate Production Line.
It is understood that Emeishan Jintao, Shengshi Dongfang, Jianyou, Jianzhong and other pioneers of rock slabs/thin slabs have formed a great influence in the market.
“In the past, when we made ordinary products, we could only sell them all in the southwest and northwest markets, but now we are in the national and global markets.” Li Jingen said that the company has been producing thin plates since 2013, and by 2020, Emeishan Gold Pottery will have Comprehensively renovated 6 large slabs/rock slabs/thin slabs, and greatly improved product value and expanded market space by exploring the home furnishing market and taking into account the decoration field.
Energy and labor are advantages
Recruiting talents nationwide
Although the Pan-Jiajiang ceramic industry currently has cost advantages in energy, labor, and supporting facilities compared with most production areas across the country, it has been developing well since 2019. However, during the survey, many companies reported that the current pan-Jiajiang production area needs continuous development and improvement, and still faces many challenges and constraints.
First of all, the rise of the ceramic industry in surrounding areas such as Yunnan and Guizhou, which relied on the advantages of raw materials and coal-fired power to occupy the local market at low prices, has had a certain impact on the sales radius of Pan Jiajiang products.
In order to take advantage of local advantages and radiate into surrounding markets, pan-Jiajiang companies have successively gone out to build factories. Since 2017 alone, Guizhou Huaxing Porcelain Industry invested by Milano Group and Emeishan Jintao built two glazed tile lines in Jiang'an, Yibin. Previously, many pan-Jiajiang companies have invested in leasing or building new ceramic factories in Hubei, Xinjiang, Yunnan and other places.
Secondly, Panjiajiang lacks high-quality raw materials. It is reported that at present, the raw materials for local high-end products such as large/thin/rock slabs are almost all purchased from other places, and the production costs therefore remain high.
Furthermore, the inflow of talent is small. "Talent is the key. Only with talents can there be a future. Jiajiang now needs excellent production management talents, R&D design talents, and marketing talents." Yu Yang, general manager of Sophia Group, believes that the various types of talents currently needed in the Pan-Jiajiang region are mainly Relying on enterprise reserves and internal integration of production areas, the lack of external talent inflow is a bottleneck for Jiajiang's continued development and improvement. This requires the joint efforts of enterprises and the government, not only to retain talents, but also to find ways to introduce talents.
Conclusion:
Before 2017, the industry impression of "Jiajiang Ceramics is low-end and low-quality" and the market limitations of "Polished tiles cannot leave Sichuan"... became lingering flaws in the development of Jiajiang Ceramics, but in 2020, "Ceramics During the investigation of "Industry Long March", ceramic enterprises in Hubei, Hunan and other surrounding provinces said that the development of Jiajiang Ceramics has made great progress in the past two years, and has even had a great impact on the sales of ceramic enterprises in surrounding provinces.
In the eyes of the outside world, the main reasons for Jiajiang Ceramics’ “breakthrough development” are:
1. After using natural gas for production, product quality has been significantly improved;
2. Respond quickly to the market and trending products. The introduction of new products such as rock slabs, large slabs, medium slabs, and thick bricks is at the forefront of the industry, and "overtaking in corners" is achieved in emerging categories;
p>
3. After "retiring from the city and entering the park", a number of low-end and low-quality ceramic enterprises were eliminated, and the image of the production area took on a completely new look;
4. The "epidemic" has contributed to the development of Jiajiang Ceramics. In early 2020, Jiajiang Ceramics resumed work and production early, seizing part of the market of other ceramic production areas that resumed production late.
(The article is reproduced from Ceramic Information)
