The Historical Origin of the Development of the World Ceramic Industry
Historically, the origin of the world ceramic industry has three regions: ① East Asia; ② West Asia, North Africa and Europe; ③ America. The ceramic industry in the United States was discovered independently and slowly before Columbus discovery of america. East Asian ceramics mainly spread from China to neighboring Genoa, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. The development of European ceramics in the Middle Ages was mainly influenced by China and West Asia. At first, Arabs introduced Islamic pottery into Italy through Spain, and developed it into a unique tin glaze decorative porcelain in Italy. Then porcelain-making technology crossed the Alps, and soft porcelain with tin glaze appeared in France. Until the17th century, Dutch tin-glazed pottery was famous for imitating China's blue and white and colorful, while medieval European porcelain was developed under the influence of Islamic pottery and China porcelain. Although pottery was produced in many parts of the world thousands of years ago, porcelain is regarded as an invention of China. Since the ceramic trade between the East and the West began in the14th century, a great deal of silver has been lost due to the huge trade deficit in Europe. In order to increase their wealth, European countries accelerated the development of ceramics in the18th century. The earliest porcelain in Europe was produced by the Meissen factory in Germany, and then the porcelain-making technology spread to Italy, Britain and France and other countries.
Japanese ceramic industry
In, Li Shenping, a Korean naturalized in Japan, discovered porcelain clay in Youtian, Japan, and successfully fired blue and white porcelain, announcing the arrival of the white porcelain era. Japanese porcelain really flourished in the 1950s of 17. In, due to the entry of the Qing army, China was plunged into war, and the export of China porcelain stagnated. Japanese porcelain seized the opportunity and became the darling of the market. Since 2000, Japan has become an important exporter of porcelain to Asian, Persian Gulf and European markets.
Today, Japan is still a world-class ceramic power. Japan's ceramic art is relatively developed, with a considerable number of professional ceramists. Japanese daily-use ceramics occupy a large market share in the high-end market in the world. In addition, Japan has been at the forefront of the world in the field of materials science, especially in high-tech ceramic materials. Generally speaking, there is little gap between Japan, Europe, America and even China in the research of ceramic materials, but Japan has an absolute leading edge in the industry of new ceramic materials.
Japanese ceramic industry has the following characteristics:
① In terms of raw materials, due to the shortage of domestic ceramic raw materials, the number of ceramic raw materials imported from abroad by Japanese ceramic enterprises has increased year by year. For example, plastic kaolin raw materials need to be imported from South Korea and New Zealand, and the import volume has reached more than 50% of the total import volume. In addition, the amount of kaolin imported from Britain and China is increasing year by year. With the import of raw materials, the cost of products increases, forcing enterprises to produce high value-added products and improve product quality. In the development and utilization of ceramic raw materials, Japan is no longer limited to the production of ordinary ceramic products in the past, but more emphasis is placed on meeting the functions and uses of daily-use ceramics, such as enhancing the antibacterial performance of ceramic tableware, and emphasizing the antifouling and water-saving effects of products for sanitary porcelain. When developing new products, they pay great attention to improving environmental protection standards and beneficial effects on human health, such as planning and controlling the pollution caused by the dissolution of lead and cadmium in glazes and pigments. For example, Japan's Todo company combines Japan's advantages in new materials and electronics with ceramics, and gives full play to the advantages of electronic technology and artificial intelligence. Its bathroom brand TOTO has become the world's top bathroom brand.
② The changes of Japanese porcelain in shape, decoration, color and function are unmatched by Britain and Germany, which are powerful countries of daily-use porcelain. According to their own advantages in material science, they developed high-plasticity artificial clay, which reduced the molding difficulty of products. In order to speed up the design and development, Japan has not only realized computerization, but also implemented design materialization, that is, adopting computer CAD/CAM language and using new manufacturing technologies such as light modeling.
③ Japanese ceramic production technology and equipment have basically completed high-tech transformation such as automation and intelligence, such as continuous automatic raw material processing, high-intensity magnetic iron removal process, isostatic pressing and hydroforming process, automatic glazing, automatic drying and even fully automatic controlled sintering technology. Except for a few processes that need to be improved, all parts that can be operated by machinery instead of manual operation are fully automated.
European ceramic industry
In Europe, there are 20 enterprises and about 20 employees in the building ceramics, daily-use ceramics and sanitary ceramics industries. Building porcelain is the most important industry, accounting for 60% of annual sales, while the rest of household porcelain and sanitary porcelain are basically average. There are also some centralized production areas for daily-use porcelain and sanitary porcelain, but unlike building porcelain and sanitary porcelain, which are concentrated in a few multinational companies, daily-use porcelain production is distributed in many independent production enterprises in Europe. The strong vitality of European traditional ceramic industry lies in the continuous innovation of production technology and products. European machinery and equipment are sold all over the world. Although almost every country can produce ceramic equipment, the quality is not as good as that of European products.
(1) British ceramics industry
British daily-use porcelain production accounts for a quarter of Europe, and bone porcelain originated in Britain. British bone China is expensive, and its famous brands royal doulton and Wedgwood sell a set of tableware for about 20 yuan in euros. The products are exquisite and beautiful, which is amazing.
British sanitary porcelain, Germany and Spain account for one-third of Europe; Britain, Spain and France account for 20% of the world daily-use and sanitary ceramic equipment market. In Britain, the pottery industry has a wide range, which can be roughly divided into three categories: household goods, building goods and industrial goods. Ceramic utensils or components are used in many basic industries, such as construction, energy production and use, transportation and entertainment. Britain adopts the policy of restricting the development of building ceramics industry, with an annual import volume of one million square meters, ranking fifth in the world.
The specific product sales of British ceramic industry are as follows. Tableware and so on. : The sales amount is 54 1 10,000, of which imports account for 229 million; Sanitary ware, etc. : Sales amounted to 65.438+99 million pounds, of which imports accounted for 67 million pounds; Ceramic floor tiles, etc. The sales volume was 654.38 billion pounds, of which imports accounted for 234 million pounds. In recent years, the British ceramic market has remained stable, the market sales have remained at around 2 billion pounds, and the import share of ceramics has been increasing. The sales of specific ceramic products are different, such as tableware, refractories, industrial supplies, etc., accounting for about 50% of the total annual sales, while the international trading volume of building materials such as bricks, tiles and pipelines is small. From the point of view of importing countries, Italian and Spanish products are the majority, and China and other eastern countries rarely enter the country, but China's art ceramics are exported to Britain in considerable quantities.
(2) German ceramic industry
German daily-use porcelain production accounts for a quarter of Europe, and the annual turnover of tableware is 557 million euros, of which 287 million euros are sold domestically and 270 million euros are exported. Sanitary porcelain and Britain and Spain account for one third of Europe.
German daily-use ceramics and sanitary ceramics industrial equipment account for 80% of the world market share, and the rest are shared by Britain, Spain and France. Germany adopts the policy of restricting the development of building ceramics industry, with an annual import volume of one million square meters, ranking third in the world. The ashes porcelain made in Germany is of good quality. Although the price is high, it is competitive in the market and sells well. Each urn coffee cup 14.80 mark (1 USD-1.73 mark), urn medium cups and saucers 23.9 mark, urn porcelain 15 tea set, embossed small cups and saucers 78 mark, soup cups and saucers 32.5 mark, and art exhibition porcelain statue15.
(3) French ceramic industry:
France produces one-fifth of sanitary porcelain in Europe, and shares another 20% of the ceramic equipment market with Britain and Spain. The output of French daily-use porcelain ranks behind Britain, Germany and Italy in Europe, and it is a world power. Its world-famous brands include Hermes, Christopher Quentin, Aldao Beto and Taro.
Selim is a French company specializing in the production of advanced ceramic equipment. The Royal British Porcelain Factory uses the ceramic equipment produced by this company. The cost of an isostatic pressing molding machine is $250,000, and it can produce 100 products per hour.
(4) Italy
Italy is a world-class ceramic power. Its daily-use porcelain production accounts for a quarter of the total in Europe, building porcelain production accounts for about 50% of the total in Europe, and sanitary porcelain production is close to one third of that in Europe. In addition, Italy's building ceramic industrial equipment is also in a leading position in the world. In addition to the complete range of ceramics, Italy's ceramic industry chain is very complete, with fine division of labor and developed links.
There are nearly 100 ceramic wall and floor tile enterprises in Italian tile industry. These companies have * * * factories and kilns with 20 employees, with an annual output of 570 million square meters and a total turnover of 5.5 billion euros, of which exports account for 70% of the total sales.
(5) Spanish Ceramic Industry The output of Spanish building porcelain accounts for about one third of the total output in Europe, and about 80% of the tiles are concentrated in the developed areas (castellon). Sanitary porcelain, Germany and Britain account for one-third of Europe, and share 20% of the world daily-use and sanitary ceramic equipment market with Britain and France.