May this year may be the busiest month for ceramic manufacturers, especially those manufacturers with production bases or production conditions. Although there have been many unfavorable factors such as peak-shifting power rationing, gas rationing, and cost increases in various places recently, these have not affected the booming business of manufacturers at all.
The owner of a slate processing factory who specializes in representing many big brands of small-sized slabs revealed that many companies that make slates in the slate circle have queues waiting for goods. Just like the ceramic tiles mentioned before, slates Board manufacturers also encountered the trouble of scheduling production first and last.
Only those with good payment terms, large shipments, and strong customer relationships can get priority rights. As for other dealers or customers, they have no choice but to wait for a while. In short, supply exceeds demand, and the production capacity of these manufacturers cannot meet customers' product ordering needs in the short term.
It is understood that many factories have order production plans that last for more than 2 months, or even longer.
A friend who is an exporter is looking for OEM factories that produce antique bricks everywhere. His products are mainly exported through export channels. The product styles are mostly black and white, gray, modern antique, cement and natural mix and match styles ( For example, the style of antique surface and glossy surface is mixed).
His requirements for product technology are that the body should be colored, the glaze should have dry particles, it can be glued or glossed, and it should be semi-polished or soft-polished, etc. His order volume is large, but apart from the price, he However, it was difficult to find a manufacturer that could meet these process requirements at the same time. This would have been unthinkable two years ago, which made him very puzzled.
There are several small but beautiful brand owners who make modern antique bricks. They are also looking for manufacturers that can meet their product positioning requirements. Similar to but different from the aesthetic orientation of export sales, they need to be able to sell goods and There must be differentiation.
Their channel foundation determines that the product cannot be a simple traffic product, otherwise it will not be able to sell at a high price and cannot support its own channel system. Most of these brands are located in first-line building materials stores and sell goods through designers or design channels. Although the products also have common processes such as glaze polishing, the designs and colors are usually strange. The important thing is that the one-time order quantity for a single product name will not be too large. They also Can't find a suitable production platform.
What the above situations have in common is that either the manufacturer's process conditions cannot meet the requirements, or the manufacturer looks down on the order at hand and is too lazy to bother with it. Therefore, out of stock seems to have become a hot word in the industry in the past two months. Ceramic tiles are out of stock, rock slabs are also out of stock, ceramic manufacturers are out of stock, terminal dealers are also out of stock, those doing retail are out of stock, those doing engineering are out of stock, those doing domestic sales are out of stock, and those doing export are also out of stock...< /p>
When everyone says it is out of stock, is it the manufacturer alone? In fact, ceramic manufacturers also have difficulties that they cannot help themselves.
Difficulty No. 1: Rising costs.
In fact, since 2020, the raw materials, gas energy, logistics and even labor related to ceramic production have continued to rise. Especially in May of this year, the price increase reached a climax in recent years, especially for the price of ceramic tiles. The factory's production costs have posed a huge challenge, and brands and manufacturers in different production areas across the country have had to respond by raising product prices, ranging from a few cents or even a few yuan.
According to industry data analysis, the reasons for the price increase are, on the one hand, the sharp rise in coal and natural gas prices, and the impact of off-peak current restrictions on electricity and gas consumption.
On the other hand, the prices of chemical raw materials continue to rise, including the skyrocketing prices of direct or indirect materials such as steel and cartons, which have become the straw that breaks the camel's back for manufacturers.
Nowadays, it is midsummer when electricity consumption peaks in the year. Social security such as air conditioning and refrigeration need to be supplied with priority, and various places have implemented the most powerful power curtailment plans.
Not only power rationing, but also related enterprises in Guangdong Province have recently been faced with pressure to use natural gas in off-peak periods, which has made matters worse for ceramic manufacturers. The carbon neutrality and carbon peak goals proposed by the country have been included in the 14th Five-Year Plan, and a clear timetable has been proposed for their achievement.
General Environment For future production-oriented enterprises, energy consumption costs, environmental protection and energy-saving production will all be severe and lasting tests that enterprises face.
Difficulty 2: Imbalance between production and marketing.
Statistics show that from January to April this year, there were 6,532 new ceramic tile-related industrial enterprises in my country, a year-on-year decrease of 42%. Except for February, the data in January, February and April all showed a year-on-year downward trend.
The data also shows that the number of registrations of ceramic tile-related companies increased year by year from 2011 to 2019, but after 2020 the number of registrations began to decline. This simple data also shows that the competition in the ceramic industry is still very fierce.
Although we have seen that supply exceeds demand for many companies, most companies are supported by strong sales scale and strong capital strength. As for the fact that there are many companies that have gone bankrupt or closed down, but since ancient times We only laugh when we hear new people, but who cries when we hear old people?
Although there are many companies that have broken through to the end of the competition, they are also faced with risk problems such as high production intensity, unbalanced production and sales, high inventory pressure, and arrears of advance funds. Big brands or large enterprises use the cost and capital advantages of the platform, especially leading enterprises or listed brands, to integrate engineering channels.Product prices (forced) to the lowest level, such as real estate, finely decorated housing projects, etc., other small businesses can only hope to catch up.
Products are kidnapped by traffic, sales are kidnapped by engineering procurement, production is kidnapped by OEM, small brands are kidnapped by big brands... Is competition like this healthy? They are all worthy of our deep thought.
Author｜Shi Rongbo
Marketing Director of Xiejin Enterprise, Senior Ceramic Product Personnel
Original title: The truth behind the shortage of ceramic tiles
(Article reproduced from Ceramic Information)
