Recently there has been a lot of discussion about slate and its future development trends, including the insights of industry leaders and the personal statements of slate industry leaders. The more controversial issues include: whether it is "tile-based slate" or "tile-based slate", and how to define the product standards of slate in different application scenarios.
According to industry media statistics, the number of domestic slate production lines has exceeded 139. Based on a daily production capacity of 10,000 square meters, the annual production capacity is already 300-400 million square meters. Regarding this data, I personally think it is relatively conservative. In fact, based on the current "rock slab" production capacity and supply and demand relationship on the market, the data on production capacity and output are far greater than this statistical data.
The problem with this data lies in the definition of a slate production line. What kind of production line is a slate production line? Is it based on production equipment and raw materials? Is it based on firing time and daily output? Is it based on the color and processing performance of the green body? The current production and sales situation in the "rock slab" market has undergone essential changes. The slab we knew two years ago is no longer the slab we are talking about today.
For a new product category to eventually become popular and accepted by most consumers, it must depend on the functionality and price of the product, especially for consumable products such as rock slabs and ceramic tiles.
I agree with the opinion of the big guys that “the lower the price, the more substitutable rock slabs are.” By the same token, the lower the price, the wider the use space of rock slabs. As for the standards and performance of the rock slabs, they cannot be used as leverage by price. After all, no matter how good the product is, it must be affordable.
Take the ceramic tiles we are most familiar with as an example. Do you think how many end consumers care about the water absorption rate of your products? How many people care about the strength and wear resistance of the product? What they may care more about is the color and price of the product. As for the processing performance, it must be considered based on the actual application scenarios and specific processing standards, otherwise it will be a big deal but a big deal or making a mountain out of a molehill.
Judging from the current feedback from the use of home terminals, it is less and less meaningful to discuss the authenticity of slates in the field of decoration.
For example, in terms of processing performance, the most common ceramic tiles also have the performance of cutting and processing. If you only pursue wall and floor paving, the color and integrity of the body and the resistance to deep processing will not make much sense. No one cares whether your back lines are flat or concave. As for surface wear resistance, anti-fouling performance and other indicators, ceramic tiles also have the same requirements as rock slabs.
Consumers will be more concerned aboutThe product’s color, specification, appearance, actual application effect, etc., such as 750×1500mm, 900×1800mm, 800×2600mm, 1200×2400mm and other specifications products that are currently accepted by more and more home users. In fact, they Is it slate, slab or ceramic tile? It is also becoming increasingly difficult to speak clearly.
If we must emphasize that there are genuine and fake slates, then it must be used to distinguish its usage scenarios or fields of use, not to distinguish the product itself.
For example, the furniture field and customization channels that currently have relatively large circulation, or the decorative panel field with a large "revolutionary" space, as well as cross-border scenes in the home furnishing industry and beyond. I don’t know which sage or group first proposed the word slate. It may also be a concept directly imported from abroad. Generally speaking, it is called Sintered Stone in English, which literally means sintered stone.
Before the concept of slate became popular, porcelain full-body tiles in ceramic tiles were also called "some rock" or "slate" or "rock slab", which all meant that the texture of ceramic tiles could be comparable to stone. And performance, in fact, is the same as the current concept of rock slab hype.
It’s just that at that time, most of the porcelain full-body bricks emphasized the solid body that was as hard as a “rock” and the same overall effect on the outside and inside, but rarely emphasized the specifications, because the previous specifications were nothing more than 600×600mm, 600×1200mm or 900×900mm. and other relatively small sizes. Later, due to innovations in equipment technology and inkjet printing technology, ceramic tiles broke through the limitations of specifications, and continued to break through the concept of large and thin, and then began to have "big slabs" or "rock slabs". " is called.
As for how old it is before it can be called a board? A certain group standard in the ceramic industry says that the area should not be less than 1.62 square meters, and the general specification is more than 900×1800mm. Therefore, products with ceramic tile porcelain all-over effect and large plate specifications are theoretically Sintered Stone. But this is not feasible, because there are currently many small-sized products that are recognized as rock slabs. Their size specifications obviously do not meet the standard definition of the so-called "slab", but who would question that it is not a rock slab?
At present, the production and sales volume of 750×1500mm large plates, 600×1200mm medium plates and other specifications in Guangdong production areas and some overseas production areas have increased sharply. These productsNot only are we striving for large specifications, but we are also striving for large output and sales. It is common for a kiln to have a daily production capacity of 20,000 to 30,000 square meters. There are also many companies that make "rock slabs", so the daily production capacity mentioned at the beginning is about 10,000 square meters, how white the green body should be, and the firing time should be more than 70 minutes, etc. It is impossible, because they work hard What is important is traffic, and what we are fighting for is that the market for rock slabs is in chaos and has not yet developed. It does not matter whether others call it rock slabs or large slabs. What is important is that there are people who are willing to pay for these products.
So, although we cannot say that rock slabs are ceramic tiles, it would be unfair to those who devote themselves to experimental development in the field of rock slabs, because they are the real industry pioneers, and they are overcoming obstacles and trying to cross borders. But you can't say that ceramic tiles are not rock slabs, because for ceramic tiles that can meet the use scenarios of rock slabs, they are rock slabs, but the functions and application scenarios are different.
Author｜Shi Rongbo
Marketing Director of Xiejin Enterprise, Senior Ceramic Product Personnel
Original title: Either "rock" or slab, "big" goes its way
(The article is reproduced from Ceramic Information)
