Chinese tile exports suffer further slowdown

While remaining well ahead of other ceramic tile exporter countries, in 2015 China suffered its second consecutive downturn in terms of exports.

An initial fall of 1.1% in 2014 was followed by a further 1.7 percentage point decline in exported volumes last year to a total of 1.065 billion sq.m (a reduction of 18 million sq.m).

The breakdown of Chinese exports by geographical area shows opposing trends.

On the one hand, there was an increase in Chinese tile exports to Asia, North America and Oceania, respectively by 3.1%, 10.7% and 12.3%. Asia remained the main destination area for Chinese exports, accounting for 55% of total exports with a total volume of 590.6 million sq.m. North America climbed to third place with a total of 90.8 million sq.m.

However, this was more than offset by a fall in Chinese exports to all the remaining areas of the world.

Read the full article published on Ceramic World Review 116/2016