这是进口“岩板”终结的开始吗?Is this the beginning of the end for “YanBan” imports?

Good day to all of you!

大家好!

I just finished my third major trip to the Chinese domestic market. I visited Huzhou, Beijing, Baoding, Shijiazhuang and Kaifeng. Every single trip that I make with our people becomes a unique experience not only related to our industry but also about other things like culinary issues, architectural, personal, design, hospitality and so on, obviously this last trip we saw many different very interesting things.

我刚刚结束了对中国国内市场的第三次重要走访。我去到了湖州、北京、保定、石家庄和开封。每一次我和我们同事的差旅都是一次独特的经历，不仅与我们行业有关，还与其他方面像佳肴、建筑、性格、设计、待客等等有关，很明显，在对上这一次旅行中，我们看到了许多不同的非常有趣的事情。

 

Among the most noticeable to me was Beijing, a city that never cease me to impress. Its size, people, history, architecture and of course its ceramic markets. The city looked to me cleaner, more modern, the sky and air were also much better than two years ago when I was there the last time. Every time we visit Beijing it is a must to me to go eat Peking Duck and our distributor took us to have dinner at a very nice restaurant called DaDong, the food and environment was fantastic and the Peking Duck was incredible.

其中令我感受最明显的是北京，一座永远让我印象深刻的城市。它的规模、人口、历史、建筑，当然还有陶瓷市场。在我看来，这个城市更干净、更现代，天空和空气也比两年前我上次去的时候好得多。每次来北京，我都一定去吃北京烤鸭，我们的经销商带我们去了一家非常好的餐厅，叫做“大董”，那里的食物和环境都很棒，北京烤鸭非常美味。

 

I noticed how the city has changed in just two years. I was able to tell the difference. Every time I go there it gives me the feeling of being a super powerful city full of energy. We visited only 3 markets of the several that there are there. Two Easy Homes and a Red Star. All of them looked busy and full of people. In a couple of them was extremely difficult to park. I believe that is probably good news. It is always nice to see traffic in the ceramic malls.

我注意到这座城市在短短两年内发生了怎样的变化。我能说出区别。每次去那里，都会给我一种充满活力的超级强大的城市的感觉。我们只参观了那里的三个市场，两个居然之家和一个红星美凯龙。所有人看起来都很忙，满满的人。其中几个非常难停车。我相信这可能是个好的讯息。在陶瓷卖场里看到人流总是令人愉快的。

 

The Covid-19 controls in the hotels, malls and restaurants are tight and necessary. I have no complaints whatsoever, as a matter of fact they made me feel more comfortable. And I am not referring to Beijing only because in the other cities we visited the procedures were similar but in Beijing they were slightly stricter.

在酒店、商场和餐厅里，对新冠的控制是严格和必要的。我没有任何抱怨，事实上，它们使我感到更加自在。我指的不仅是北京，因为在我们去过的其他城市，这些程序都是类似的，但在北京，它们要稍微严格一些。

 

As we moved to the other cities Baoding, Shijiazhuang and Kaifeng we saw and noticed a few things. Remember that we visited 5 different cities and more than 10 different markets in these cities. We toured the malls, saw our stores but also checked some of the competitors stores. Talked to many different people, designers, distributors, showroom people, sales people and so on.

当我们去到其他城市，保定、石家庄和开封时，我们看到并注意到了一些事情。请记住，我们访问了5个不同的城市和这些城市里的10多个不同的市场。我们参观了卖场，看了我们的专卖店，也看了一些竞争对手的店面。与许多不同的人交谈，设计师、经销商、展厅人员和销售人员等等。

 

In a very simple way this is what we saw: Competition continues to be fierce but this time the fight is at another level because the battle is not only with price but also with store and product design. I will say about 20 different brands are making very nice products and their showrooms have been updated and upgraded to a more international world class taste. These are the brands that are leading as always in design and a few more new brands that decided to move up in the pyramid that made the adjustment to make the competition more difficult at the top (Not including 100% Italian Brands Showrooms).

用很简单地方式来表达我们所看到的：竞争继续激烈，但这一次的竞争是在另一个层面上，因为这场战斗不仅在价格，也在专卖店和产品设计上。我会说大约有20个不同的品牌正在生产非常好的产品，他们的展厅已经更新升级，体现出更国际化的世界级品味。这些品牌一如既往地在设计上领先，还有少数新品牌决定往金字塔上面移动，这使得高端竞争更加困难（不包括100%意大利的品牌展厅）。

 

Second, we also saw many good products and it is a lot easier to find in almost any showroom of any brand good looking products and very well finished (Not only polished)

第二，我们也看到了很多好产品，几乎在所有品牌的展厅都更容易找到好看的产品，而且质面效果很好（不仅仅是全抛的）。

 

Third, it is easy to see more and more big size slabs “YanBan” in many different brands, not anymore only on the top brands, but what is interesting here regarding this point is that in most cases the products are already manufactured by the different brands in China. You don’t see that much anymore like 3 years ago the invasion of big slabs from India. As the Chinese Industry continues to open new lines of big slabs, the country most affected will be India. I believe that in a very short period of time of less than 2-3 years imports from India will be reduced to a very low amount if not zero.

第三，我们在许多不同的品牌很容易看到越来越多的大板“岩板”，不仅仅是顶级品牌，而有意思的是，在大多数情况下，产品已经是由不同品牌在中国生产的。你再看不到像三年前那样的印度大板入侵了。随着中国行业不断推出新的大板生产线，受影响最大的国家将是印度。我相信，在不到2—3年极短的时间内，从印度的进口将减少到非常低的数量，如果不是零。

 

Italy is another story as the “Made in Italy” has a lot of weight and is in top of mind for the Chinese consumers. Nevertheless, I believe that imported large sizes from Italy will also suffer as the Chinese Industry keeps opening new lines and making technological improvements specially the ones related to the different finishes and structures of the big slabs. This make take more time, so I believe the first Italian products that will get the most pressure would be the polished ones as China very good making this finish.

意大利则是另一个故事，因为“意大利制造”很有分量，在中国消费者脑海中是顶级的。不过，我相信，随着中国行业不断开辟新生产线和改进技术，特别是与大板的不同质面和模具效果相关的技术，从意大利进口的大板也将受到影响。这需要花费更多时间，所以我认为首个承受最大压力的意大利产品将是全抛类的，因为中国非常擅长生产这种质面。

 

There will be also a lot of pressure on the pricing as it will more than likely will be going down as China starts increasing its production making it difficult for the importing brands again first on the polished finished products and then with the matte ones.

价格上也会有很大压力，因为随着中国开始增加产量，价格很可能会下降，这给进口品牌再次带来困难，先是在全抛产品上，然后到亚光的。

 

There is no denying that the market is going to change with these things that are already happening and they will happen very fast like always happen when China decides to make a big move. This took longer than I expected but it is finally happening and this may the beginning of the end of imported products at least in large amounts. Don’t expect to see the invasion of Italian Brands to the Chinese Market anymore!

不可否认的是，市场将随着这些已经发生的事情而发生变化，而且变化会非常迅速，就像中国决定采取重大行动时总是发生的那样。这比我预期的时间要长，但它终于发生了，这可能是进口产品结束的开始，至少对大量进口。别再指望看到意大利品牌入侵中国市场了!

 

Humberto Valles

ICC General Manager

 

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