（文/Chan Can）
"Suddenly like a spring breeze coming overnight", "slate flowers" bloomed everywhere.
On May 6, the Gubaosi slate production line was put into production;
On May 8, Mona Lisa announced that it would invest 600 million to renovate three super-large porcelain plate production lines such as 1800×3600mm;
On May 8, after acquiring Jiangxi Xinjing Ceramics, Jiangxi Huashuo announced that it would invest 200 million to build 4 slate production lines;
On May 12, Jiangxi Roosevelt Ceramics announced that it would invest 800 million yuan to build three intelligent slate production lines;
On May 15, the 2 billion yuan special high-performance ceramic plate project of Weixin Materials, a subsidiary of Weimei Group, started construction. After it is put into production, it is expected to produce 8 million square meters of special high-performance ceramic plates 3.2 meters long, 1.6 meters wide, and 6 mm thick per year;
On May 18, the second phase of the thin slate production line of the gold medal enterprise was ignited;
On May 18, the General Slate Line was put into operation to produce bricks;
On May 18, Quansheng Enterprise’s slate line was put into operation to produce bricks;
On May 18, Xinjincheng signed a strategic alliance cooperation agreement with Italy's Sacmi Group and Guangdong Dow Technology, and will invest 800 million to build an intelligent slate manufacturing base and build 6 slate production lines;
On May 24, the first production line of Jinqiang slate production base in Zhaoqing was officially put into mass production;
……
When time enters May 2020, Stone slab’s development in China seems to have a plug-in, and it is advancing rapidly and rapidly. According to incomplete statistics, the number of rock slab production lines has surged from 21 in 2019 There are currently 33 projects, and there are 42+ projects under construction or under planning.
However, slate has been in the embarrassing situation of being well received but not popular. In 2019, the sales volume was less than 1 billion yuan. The slate processing factory, which is considered to be the main channel for slate, has been criticized for taking There are many cases where the goods are not delivered and there is no work to be done. In the blink of an eye, the "bloody price war" for slate has quietly started, and slate dining tables priced at less than 500 yuan each appeared on the market.
Faced with such a situation, what should ceramic companies that have, are, or are about to enter the field of rock slabs do in the second half of the development of rock slabs? Next, the author does not overestimate his ability and issues "three soul questions" for the development of stone slabs in the ceramic industry.
Ask a question
Should rock slabs be used on the walls and floors?
This question seems a bit confusing. Although slate is defined by the industry as "rock not porcelain, slab not brick", it is derived from large ceramic slabs that can also be called large-size ceramic tiles. It can definitely be used on walls and floors, and its application effect is better than Ordinary tiles are much better.
It's just that using rock slabs as ordinary ceramic tiles would be overkill and it would be difficult to increase market capacity.
How do you say this? First of all, slate wall paving cannot give full play to its role as a newThe "sharp weapon" role of building materials in the cross-border march from decorative materials to applied materials; secondly, for ordinary consumers, the cost of slate wall and floor paving is too high, so the demand is very limited, especially when consumer education has not yet been completed. case.
In fact, in addition to paving floors and walls indoors, the wider areas of application of slate are in kitchen and bathroom spaces (cabinet countertops, bathroom countertops, wash basins, sinks, etc.), various Furniture (dining table tops, coffee table tops, wardrobe panels, conference tabletops, etc.), building facades, and even home appliance panels. It is an ideal material for high-end whole-house customization, which can organically combine ceramic tiles with the home to achieve space integration.
Essentially speaking, "paving walls and floors on slate" means using old thinking to buy new products, that is, selling slate as ceramic tiles. This is a behavior caused by the inertial thinking of ceramic companies, and it is also the reason why the current reputation of rock slabs is so good but the actual sales volume is so small.
Therefore, it is not that slate cannot be used on walls and floors, but it must break through the barriers of traditional ceramic tile operation modes.
Second question
Should slate develop dealer channels?
Judging from the current situation, the slate sales channels of ceramic companies are mainly processing plants and home customization companies. In their traditional dealer channels, there has been little progress in the sales of slate slabs. Even if there is a slight sales volume, as mentioned above, they are sold as large-sized ceramic tiles.
However, the fact that slate is currently unable to access dealer channels does not mean that it will certainly not be able to access dealer channels in the future.
There are two reasons.
One,The number of processing plants and home customization companies is limited. In the case of limited slate production capacity, processing plants and home customization companies regard ceramic companies that produce slate as their favorites. But once the slate production lines increase significantly and the production capacity increases rapidly, a price war will ensue. At that time, the output of slates will be unlimited but the incremental market will be limited. Will the ceramic companies that produce slates still be the favorites of processing factories and home customization companies? As a result, factories and home customization companies will cooperate with whose slates are cheaper. Ceramic companies that produce slates will feel that the resources of processing factories and home customization companies are far from enough.
Second, dealer channel resources are not to be missed. Liu Yongfeng, founder of Yanduoduo, believes that the top six main application groups of slate in the future are marble industry (including natural stone, artificial stone, quartz stone), cabinet industry, furniture industry, door, window and ceiling industry, sanitary ware industry, and ceramic industry. The reason why the ceramic industry is ranked last is because in his opinion, "the ceramic industry cannot walk on rock slabs, even large slabs are too difficult." But he also believes that the store channel in the ceramics industry will be the final breaking point for large slate home furnishings. However, there is a long way to go to cultivate this channel, which may take 1-2 years.
It is reported that some ceramic companies that produce slates have taken the lead. For example, Shunhui Ceramics has developed dealer channels while focusing on factories and home customization companies, and has cooperated with many powerful companies. dealers have reached a cooperation relationship with rock slabs.
Instead of competing for the resources of processing factories and home customization companies in the future, ceramic companies that produce slate slabs should lay out existing dealer channels in advance.
Three Questions
Will the rock slabs be robbed across borders?
The ceramic industry is an industry that is difficult to be influenced by the outside world. More than a year ago, if you asked whether ceramic tiles would be robbed by real estate giants or pan-home furnishing companies across borders, you might be laughed at as unfounded worries. However, as Country Garden has successively invested in Diou Home Furnishing (Oshenno) and Mona Lisa, it has become an indisputable fact that the ceramic industry is "crying wolf".
If the market scale increases, it is not impossible for real estate giants and home furnishing companies to get involved in slate production.
No one can guarantee this.
People in the industry often compare ceramic tiles to fabrics. Ceramic companies are equivalent to fabric manufacturers, while decoration workers/decoration companies/real estate companies are equivalent to clothing manufacturers. Under normal circumstances, clothing manufacturers do not and do not need to produce their own fabrics.
The world is always changing and developing. Who says that clothing manufacturers will not produce their own fabrics? Who says that real estate giants or home furnishing companies will not produce slate?
Take the clothing industry as an example. The famous clothing company Youngor itself is involved in textiles, providing fabrics for its own clothing industry, and has also teamed up with Italian Mazodo to produce fabrics for top brands.
Returning to the home furnishing field, the first 3mm ultra-thin slate production line of Meihao Group, whose main business is intelligent housing manufacturing (prefabricated construction business + traditional real estate development business), has been put into production in Hubei in 2019 This is the best proof.
Ceramic companies that produce rock slabs should be mentally prepared for this and think about response strategies in advance.
After the "Three Questions of the Soul", Yanban's development ideas in the second half gradually became clear.
Ceramic companies that produce slates can neither stick to the traditional tile operating model to sell slates, that is, they must use the innovative thinking of big home furnishings to cross borders and give full play to the new building materials of slates. We must not give up dealer channels and deploy terminal stores in advance; we must also pay attention to the product development, material transportation, distribution, application design, deep processing, paving, installation and other aspects of slate to establish and improve slate with user thinking. Service system, using altruistic thinking to build a win-win home ecological chain. Of course, the premise is to build a slate team that can fight and win.
Only in this way can ceramic companies take the initiative in the field of rock slabs, from material brands, productionProduct brands are upgraded to comprehensive brands and user brands, and from selling materials to selling finished products, thereby obtaining higher profits, avoiding becoming a "vassal" of real estate and general home furnishing companies, and driving the transformation and iteration of the ceramic industry.
