The Indian sanitaryware industry

With an installed capacity already in excess of 40 million pieces/year, India is the world’s second largest sanitaryware producer. 75% of production comes from Gujarat.

With an installed capacity already in excess of 40 million pieces/year, India is the world’s second largest sanitaryware producer after China.

Following the example of the ceramic tile sector, the rapid growth in sanitaryware production has been concentrated in the province of Gujarat, which in just a few years has reached a production capacity of around 30 million pieces/year, around 75% of the country’s entire production. However, India’s two largest sanitaryware producers, Parryware India and Hindustan Sanitaryware Industries Limited (HSIL), operate outside the province.

Parryware India is the Indian subsidiary of Roca, the world’s largest sanitaryware producer, which acquired complete ownership in 2011. The company has 4 production facilities with a total capacity of 6.3 million pieces/year, including 800,000 pieces at the facility in Rapinet (province of Tamil Nadu), 2.4 million pieces in Perundurai (Tamil Nadu), another 2.4 million pieces in Dewas (Madhya Pradesh) and 700,000 pieces in Alwar (Rajasthan). Hindustan Sanitaryware Industries Limited (HSIL) has a declared annual capacity of 3.8 million pieces installed in its two facilities in Bibinagar (Telengana province) and Bhahdurgarh (Haryana) and in 2018 produced 3.3 million pieces.

The UAE-based multinational RAK Ceramics has chosen the city of Samalkot in the Andhra Pradesh province for its tile and sanitaryware plants (capacities of 30,000 sq.m/day and 3,000 pieces/day, respectively).

Most of India’s other sanitaryware producers are located in Gujarat. Cera Sanitaryware, the third largest sanitaryware producer in India with an installed capacity of 3.3 million pieces of mid-range and premium products, has its manufacturing unit in Mehsana. The Jaquar’s manufacturing plant is located in Bhachau, in the Kutch district. Founded in 1960, the Jaquar Group is active in the bathroom sector with the production of fixtures, faucets and other accessories. It entered the ceramic sanitaryware sector in May 2017 by acquiring Euro Ceramics with an investment of around 15.5 million US Dollars. The yearly production capacity of the plant was increased in 2018 from 1.2 to 1.8 million pieces of medium to high-end range.

The Kohler India facility (1.5 million pieces/year) is located in Jhagadia, where in 2018 it opened a brand new Tech Centre to act as an incubator for ideas, a showcase of the latest product designs and a training centre for the sanitaryware production process.

The Indian subsidiary of German company Duravit is also located in Gujarat. Duravit India started up its first factory in 2010 in Tarapur, where it produces around 200,000 large ceramic pieces per year with a planned annual capacity that may reach 500,000 pieces.

Another sanitaryware giant that has chosen Gujarat for its Indian operations is the Japanese group Toto. Its ultra-modern manufacturing plant in Halol was started up in 2014 and was built with an investment of 6 billion yen (around 49 million euros), the largest investment made by the group in South Asia. The Toto India plant is initially designed to produce 500,000 sanitaryware units a year with the possibility of further expansion. Toto India manufactures products for both the domestic and overseas markets.