Australian Production of Ceramic Tiles - Infotile

By Peter Halliday
AUSTRALIAN
PRODUCTION
and imports
Local Manufacturing
A recent survey of major Australian tile manufacturers reveals that tile
production within Australia has declined slightly since our last complete
survey in 1999. Back then we reported that local production reached
4.73 million square metres. Latest feedback from Australian
manufacturers put local production at 4.50 million square metres in
2003. While this seems only a small change, it must be remembered
that Austral Tiles commissioned their Punchbowl terracotta plant
in 2001 which added around 1 million square metres to Australia’s
production capacity. It can therefore be assumed that some manufacturers
must have been operating well below full capacity during 2003.
A number of changes are underway in local tile manufacturing with
National Ceramic Industries Australia commencing production in 2004
with a capacity of 3.2 million square metres, and Johnson Tiles
announcing last December that they will close their remaining floor
tile plant in April and replace all of their locally manufactured floor
tiles with imported products. Johnson Tiles has been augmenting
their local production for some time with tiles imported from other
Johnson Tile plants worldwide, as well as products sourced from
other manufacturers. A glance at the import statistics in Table 2
reveals that 94% the 183,000 square metres imported from United
Kingdom are landed in Victoria. It can be assumed that a major
proportion of this represents products from Johnson Tiles’ UK parent
company. With the closure of their Bayswater floor tile plant, import
figures will presumably increase further during 2004.
When local production is added to total imports, we see that the
Australian market reached around 39,100,000 square metres in 2003.
With Australia’s population now reaching 20,000,000, a figure of 2
square metres per head of population does not seem that far away.
The local production figure reveals that market growth has until now
been entirely met by imported products. Presuming sales are roughly
in line with import figures, over 88% of tiles supplied in the Australian
market in 2003 were imported. This figure is probably higher as not
all products manufactured in Australia are sold in the local market.
A number of local manufacturers are successfully exporting a
proportion of their production. Tile Today will examine this subject
in a future article.
Imports
In the six months since we last published Australian tile import statistics
(Tile Today # 40), some significant changes have occurred. Table 1
compares import figures for the last three financial years with imports
for the full 2003 calendar year. When the annualised figures are moved
forward six months, we see that imports from Italy have dropped
by 930,000 square metres or 12.2%, while imports from China have
increased by a staggering 1,207,000 square metres or 29.3%. China
has now become Australia’s second largest tile supplying nation and
the largest supplying nation into our biggest market, New South Wales.
Other changes in the statistics are less dramatic. Indonesia lost 5.5%
of their share of imports while Spain dropped 4.1%. Malaysia and
Thailand maintained their solid positions in the Australian market. Nearly
50% of Australia’s imports now originate from Italy, China and Indonesia
and 80% comes from the top six supplying nations. United Arab
Emirates, Brazil and Turkey improved their relative share of imports,
with Brazil enjoying a similar percentage increase to China, landing an
additional 300,000 square metres in the 2003 calendar year compared
with the 2002-2003 financial year. Vietnam overtook Sri Lanka as the
11th largest supplier to Australia during 2003 and moved from 1.2%
share of imports in 2002-2003 to 1.6% in the full calendar year. The high
value of the Euro compared with other currencies and manufacturers
passing on higher production costs in the form of increased prices
has obviously hurt European exporters, these developments make
European products less competitive.
Care must be taken to avoid reading too much into import statistics.
The detailed import figures in Tables 2 & 3 reveal only the state
through which the tiles initially enter the country. Many products
may enter through a New South Wales port, only to be transported
onto other states. Some importers confirm this is the case and
believe the New South Wales market to be somewhat smaller than
the import figure would indicate, while the Queensland figures may be
underrepresented in terms of relative market size. It must be pointed
out however, that products tend to flow two ways across borders.
Despite the limitations, the import statistics by state are relatively
stable when looked at in percentage terms over the last three years.
The latest figures suggest that the New South Wales market declined
slightly in the second half of 2003, as did Victoria, while Queensland
and Western Australia continued a long trend of growth in tile imports
at levels above other states (Table 3).
TABLE 1 TOP COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN 2001 - 2003
Rank Country of Origin Imports Share % Imports Share % Imports Share % Imports Share %
12 Months to 30 June 12 Months to 30 June 12 Months to 30 June 12 Months to 31 Dec
2001 2002 2003 2003
1 Italy 33.6% 26.3% 22.0% 19.2%
2 China 2.8% 7.5% 11.9% 15.3%
3 Indonesia 12.2% 15.5% 16.0% 15.0%
4 Spain 15.7% 15.1% 14.0% 13.3%
5 Malaysia 11.9% 10.6% 10.6% 10.8%
6 Thailand 7.4% 7.3% 7.4% 7.4%
7 United Arab Emirates 2.1% 3.3% 3.8% 3.9%
8 Brazil 3.3% 3.4% 2.9% 3.8%
9 Turkey 3.9% 3.0% 3.1% 3.2%
10 Taiwan 1.3% 1.6% 1.9% 1.7%
11 Viet Nam 0.2% 0.4% 1.2% 1.6%
12 Sri Lanka 1.0% 1.1% 1.0% 1.1%
13 India 0.5% 1.0% 0.9% 0.6%
14 United Kingdom 0.4% 0.6% 0.5% 0.5%
15 France 0.2% 0.6% 0.5% 0.4%
36
ISSUE 42 tiletoday.com.au

TABLE 2 AUSTRALIAN IMPORTS JAN-DEC 2003
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA TOTAL M 2
ARGENTINA 94,127 1,440 1,535 97,102
BELIZE 1,520 1,520
BRAZIL 455,127 2,574 393,939 106,496 9,231 275,542 76,688 1,319,596
CANADA 39 10,498 10,537
CHILE 30 30
CHINA 2,372,504 3,644 1,347,298 290,911 2,206 1,076,005 230,176 5,322,743
CZECH REPUBLIC 8,201 1,840 10,041
EAST TIMOR, DEM REP OF 1,819 1,819
EGYPT 2,569 1,166 3,736
FIJI 100 100
FRANCE 64,978 49,423 6,127 1,616 17,340 11,393 150,877
GERMANY 14,737 6,413 1 16,277 1,340 38,769
GREECE 699 47,547 10 48,256
HONG KONG (SAR OF CHINA) 39,132 3 8,419 3,799 3,622 54,975
HUNGARY 660 122 8,179 8,961
INDIA 104,537 1,419 112,048 31 218,034
INDONESIA 1,699,830 92,780 1,553,394 162,988 81,297 1,000,269 620,996 5,211,553
IRAN 22,363 13,217 35,580
IRELAND 1,364 1 1,365
ISRAEL 414 5,330 5,744
ITALY 2,296,532 44,318 1,333,315 393,128 25,063 1,209,747 1,376,943 6,679,047
JAPAN 15,527 119,733 11,517 1,695 148,472
KOREA, REPUBLIC OF 37,534 2,822 3,663 2,918 46,937
LEBANON 90 90
MALAYSIA 1,121,704 40,747 1,257,376 248,239 14,046 842,305 248,979 3,773,395
MEXICO 15,484 5 2,190 17,679
MOROCCO 20 20
NEW ZEALAND 2,808 135 23 1,417 160 4,543
PAKISTAN 6 6
PHILIPPINES 63,003 3,881 1,260 11,340 79,484
PORTUGAL 57,550 8,749 1,146 42,569 15,619 125,633
SAUDI ARABIA 5,855 41 5,896
SINGAPORE 9,835 502 18,816 23 2,095 333 31,604
SOUTH AFRICA 6,905 4,700 420 2,837 12 14,874
SPAIN 2,141,185 11,211 983,577 218,734 46,892 525,187 720,444 4,647,230
SRI LANKA 85,961 105,766 36,078 144,952 372,757
TAIWAN 113,212 4,034 281,882 9,669 137,242 29,655 575,695
THAILAND 1,186,298 679,012 46,876 444,217 222,441 2,578,843
TURKEY 473,424 192,295 155,047 223,506 67,819 1,112,092
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 661,608 5,401 307,381 63,422 9,058 273,521 25,915 1,346,305
UNITED KINGDOM 7,183 23 77 173,625 2,376 183,285
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1,256 117 39 1,364 2,776
VIET NAM 69,890 293,722 45,500 102,151 32,391 543,654
GRAND TOTAL M 2 13,248,328 212,889 8,956,421 1,755,370 189,411 6,610,999 3,858,236 34,831,653
STATE SHARE 38.0% 0.6% 25.7% 5.0% 0.5% 19.0% 11.1% 100.0%
TABLE 3 STATE SHARE OF IMPORTS 2001 - 2003
Financial Year NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA Grand Total
2000-2001 11,251,294 206,112 5,588,429 1,401,704 119,307 4,858,969 2,525,215 25,951,030
2001-2002 11,563,548 189,029 6,741,828 1,456,191 155,748 5,868,667 2,984,995 28,960,005
2002-2003 13,515,022 201,080 8,367,514 1,765,137 186,127 6,708,740 3,858,832 34,602,453
2000-2001 43.4% 0.8% 21.5% 5.4% 0.5% 18.7% 9.7% 100.0%
2001-2002 39.9% 0.7% 23.3% 5.0% 0.5% 20.3% 10.3% 100.0%
2002-2003 39.1% 0.6% 24.2% 5.1% 0.5% 19.4% 11.2% 100.0%
Australian import figures were compiled from ABS data.
tiletoday.com.au ISSUE 42
37