The opportunities and challenges of the Dubai ceramics market coexist

It is reported that many ceramic tile entrepreneurs who have visited the Dubai market, as well as exhibitors who participated in the "BIG5" building materials exhibition in the Middle East, and ceramic tile companies that have opened sales companies in Dubai, were asked by many people in the Dubai tile market. Shaking his head again and again, it is not optimistic about the Dubai market.

However, according to the data of Dubai's Department of Land and Resources, “Dubai’s real estate transaction volume reached 12 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, a year-on-year increase of 63%. At the end of 2013, Dubai won the right to host the 2020 Expo, which greatly benefited the real estate market.” Real estate market and tile market This is closely related to why the Dubai real estate market is hot. Chinese manufacturers are not optimistic about the Dubai tile market?

The rapid development of real estate development demands ceramics in Dubai, which is located in the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe market hub. Thanks to its special and critical geographic location and extremely open government economic policies, it has become a short- A world-renowned modern city. Since 2004, Dubai has built thousands of high-rise buildings in less than six years, and was subsequently destroyed by the sudden “financial turmoil” of 2009, becoming a truly “ghost town”.

Through the advantages of highly modernized urban infrastructure, more open investment promotion policies of the government, and promotion of specific international political environment, “Ghost Town” tens of thousands of vacant buildings were almost sold out during the “Arab Spring” that frequently broke out in the periphery. After four or five years of economic recession, the Dubai ceramic tile market finally became "Yanming Huaming Youyi Village."

In December 2013, the real estate consulting firm Knight Frank stated in its “Global Price Index” that as of the end of the third quarter of 2013, Dubai’s residential prices rose by 28.5%, surpassing 21.6% in mainland China and 16.1 in Hong Kong. The increase in % ranks first in the world.

According to the report of Citibank, the world's leading multinational bank, according to Dubai’s current population growth rate, Dubai can absorb an average of 25,000 housing units per year, which means that the market has enough space to accommodate new real estate projects.

CLUB’s Middle East economist Farouk Souza stated in his report on the Dubai real estate market: “Given the current population growth rate (about 7% per year), we think the market has enough space to accommodate more New Listing."

The real estate industry estimates that the demand for real estate in Dubai is 25,000 units per year, and commercial real estate, tourism real estate, and government agency facilities and real estate are also increasing. The real estate industry in the Middle East, led by Dubai, will experience a vibrant scene.

There is no doubt that such hot real estate construction in Dubai and the Middle East has provided the tile industry with great market opportunities. So, what is the actual situation of the tile market in Dubai and the Middle East?

Market transactions for Middle Eastern tiles are mostly concentrated in Dubai and Sharjah, where hundreds of tile shops are brought together. The construction project materials mainly come from the famous local RAK company and three local small and medium-sized factories. Others are the tile brands of Spain, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Brazil and Iran as well as some Chinese products. The recent Indian ceramic tiles entering the Dubai market also spread. The trend. Obviously, many tile brands have plans for the Dubai market to "come to the Central Plains."

Chinese brands are hard to cross the middle-to-high-end threshold When people in the country are full of confidence in the Dubai market and are ready to make a big deal, the cruel reality is surprising: Dubai can only accept low-end products, even second-class products or factories in China. ceramic tile. “The market with the lowest consumption of tile in the world is Dubai. Don’t want to put high-end products in the Dubai market!” When the author returned last year, a building materials industry claimed that billions of dollars worth of big brothers saw the Dubai tile market as such. Not only was the big brother, who had visited a ceramic tile entrepreneur in the Dubai tile market, exhibitors who had participated in the famous BIG5 building materials exhibition in the Middle East for many times, and even a Chinese tile company that included a sales company in Dubai, almost all issued the same. No polite "objective" evaluation.

However, when you walk into a high-rise building in Dubai, you see a completely different picture: the walls are medium and high-grade ceramic tiles, and there is no trace of low-end products that flood the streets.

How does this explain?

Tendering projects for high-rise buildings in Dubai not only require the products of ceramic tile brands to be of good quality and meet the various quality standards of the market, but also require tender suppliers to have certain qualifications. However, there are few Chinese ceramic companies with qualifications. Most ceramic tile companies in China still compete on the market at the lowest prices in the most original and simplest way. The activities are limited to the low-end markets in Dubai, the bottom markets in neighboring countries, and Africa. These low-end products and high-end market demands are natural. Inconsistent. Perhaps the companies have not participated in bidding for large-scale projects in Dubai. How can they sell high-end products?

In contrast, the “European Department” products represented by Spain and Italy have mature technologies and a long history, and have already formed brand value advantages in the international market. European products are positioned in the mid-to-high end, and even low-end products are produced and sold in a down-to-earth manner according to European quality standards and regulations. The non-European products belonging to the Spanish and Italian technology “immigrant” product families also maintain European technology and style, and India is no exception. According to engineers who have been engaged in design supervision for a long time, the quality grades of European products have been clearly identified. Middle and high-end engineering markets in Dubai and even the Middle East have no need to worry about their quality and have no worries.

In fact, since the introduction of European technology, the technical level of Chinese ceramic tile products has been no longer under European standards. A considerable number of Chinese ceramic tile brands have even surpassed European momentum in some respects. Although some products have been “Europeanized,” most The quality and technical style of Chinese products still has a strong “local” atmosphere and is self-contained—the “China department”.

With such a technological level, it has not formed an international tile brand. This is the fundamental reason why Chinese ceramic tile companies cannot enter the middle and high-end markets in Dubai and the Middle East. The significant increase in Chinese product technology and quality is only a matter of recent years. The impression of the international consumer market on Chinese products still remains in the low-grade and low-quality levels of more than a decade ago. It does not understand China’s recent rapid advancement of technology.

Due to language barriers, most foreigners have little knowledge of the Chinese ceramics industry brands and do not know what good Chinese brands have. In Dubai, with the exception of a handful of larger Chinese ceramic companies, small businesses in general do not qualify for construction bids, so they have few opportunities to enter the high-end market.

In addition, some Chinese ceramic companies are keen on short-term interests, shoddy, imitation products counterfeit brands, so that customers avoid. Some small stores or floor-sales transactions based on the principle of cost saving have no trustworthy guarantees. Therefore, the contractor cannot determine whether they can afford the normal supply of large projects; some Chinese distributors intentionally confuse product levels and reduce costs. Participation in competition has caused quite a number of real estate developers and design institutes to be cautious about adopting a large number of Chinese products. Rather than choosing products from countries other than Spain and Italy, if it is a last resort, European-made OEM products will be at ease. Therefore, in the Dubai market, it is common for European tile distributors or designers to accompany real estate investors to purchase directly into Chinese factories.