The Historical Origin of the Development of the World Ceramic Industry
Historically, the origin of the world pottery industry has three major regions: ① East Asia; ② West Asia, North Africa and Europe; ③ America. American ceramics industry was discovered independently and slowly before Columbus discovered the American continent. East Asian ceramics mainly spread from China to neighboring Genoa, Korea (Korea), Japan and Southeast Asia. The development of European ceramics in the Middle Ages was mainly influenced by China and West Asia. At first, the Arabs introduced Islamic pottery into Italy through Spain, and developed it into a unique style of tin-glazed decorative porcelain in Italy. Then the porcelain-making technology crossed the Alps, and tin-glazed soft porcelain appeared in France. Until the17th century, the Dutch tin-glazed pottery was famous for imitating China's blue and white and colorful, and the 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 recognized as the invention of China. Since the14th century, European countries have stepped up the development of ceramics because of the huge trade deficit in Europe, which caused a lot of silver loss. In order to increase their wealth,18th 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 ceramics industry
In, Li Shenping, a Korean naturalized in Japan, discovered porcelain clay in Arita, Japan, and successfully fired blue and white porcelain, which announced the coming of the era of white porcelain. Japanese porcelain really flourished until the150s of the 7th century. In, due to the entry of the Qing army into China, the domestic war broke out, and the export of China porcelain stagnated, and Japanese porcelain seized the opportunity to become the darling of the market. Since, Japan has become a market oriented to Asia, the Persian Gulf and Europe.
Today, Japan is still a world-class ceramic power. Japan's ceramic art is relatively developed, and there are a considerable number of professional ceramists. Japanese daily-use ceramics occupy a large market share in the middle and high-end markets in the world. In addition, Japan has always been at the forefront of the world in the field of materials science, especially in high-tech ceramic materials. Generally speaking, there is little difference 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 quantity 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 the quality of products. In the development and utilization of ceramic raw materials, Japan is no longer limited to meeting the production of ordinary pottery and porcelain products in the past, but emphasizes more meeting the use 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. In developing new products, they pay great attention to improving the standards of environmental protection and the effects beneficial to 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, giving full play to the advantages of electronic technology and artificial intelligence, and its bathroom brand TOTO has become the top brand of bathroom in the world.
② The changes of Japanese porcelain in shape, decoration, color and function are incomparable to those of Britain and Germany, which are powerful countries in daily use porcelain. According to their advantages in material science, they have developed highly plastic artificial clay, which reduces 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 ceramics 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 hydro-forming process, automatic glazing, automatic drying and even fully automatic controlled sintering technology. Except for a few working procedures that need to be perfected, all parts that can be operated by machinery instead of manual operation are fully automated.
Ouzhou ceramic industry
In Europe, the building porcelain, daily-use porcelain and sanitary porcelain industries have 20 enterprises with about 20 employees. Building porcelain is the most important industry, accounting for 60% of annual sales, and the rest of household porcelain and sanitary porcelain are basically average. There are also some centralized production areas for household porcelain and sanitary porcelain, but unlike building porcelain and sanitary porcelain, which are concentrated in a few multinational companies, household 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 mechanical equipment is sold all over the world. Although almost every country can produce ceramic equipment, its 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 about 20 pieces of tableware to Euros, and the products are beautiful and beautiful, which is amazing.
British sanitary porcelain, Germany and Spain account for one-third of Europe; Britain, Spain and France share 20% of the world market for daily-use and sanitary ceramic equipment. In Britain, the pottery industry covers a wide range, which can be roughly divided into three categories: household goods, building goods and industrial goods. Ceramic appliances or parts are used in many basic industries, such as construction, energy production and use, transportation and entertainment. Britain has adopted a policy of restricting the development of building ceramics industry, with an annual import volume of million square meters, ranking fifth in the world.
The sales of specific products of British ceramics industry are as follows. Tableware, etc.: the sales volume is 5.4 1 100 million pounds, of which imports account for 229 million pounds; Sanitary ware, etc.: the sales volume is10.99 billion pounds, of which imports account for 67 million pounds; Ceramic floor tiles, etc.: the sales volume is 1 100 million pounds, of which imports account 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 and industrial supplies, which account 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, while China and other oriental countries rarely enter the country, but China's artistic ceramics are exported to Britain, accounting for a considerable amount.
(2) German ceramics 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 industrial equipment for daily-use porcelain and sanitary porcelain accounts for 80% of the world market share, while the rest is shared by Britain, Spain and France. Germany has adopted a policy of restricting the development of building ceramics industry, with an annual import volume of million square meters, ranking third in the world. The quality of ashes porcelain made in Germany is very good. Although the price is high, it is competitive in the market and sells well. Each piece of coffee cup made of bone China 14.80 mark (1 USD-1 1.73 mark), cups and saucers made of bone China 15 tea sets, embossed small cups and saucers, soup cups and saucers (spreaders) of 32.5 mark, and art furnishings.
(3) French ceramics industry:
The production of sanitary porcelain in France accounts for one-fifth of that in Europe, and it shares another 20% of the ceramic equipment market with Britain and Spain. After ranking behind Britain, Germany and Italy in Europe in terms of output, French daily-use porcelain is a powerful country in the world, and its famous world brands include Hermes, CHRISTOFLE Kunting, ARDAUD Berto, Taro and so on.
Selim, a French company, specializes in producing ceramic equipment with advanced technology. The Royal Porcelain Factory in Britain uses the ceramic equipment produced by this company. An isostatic pressing molding machine costs $250,000, and can produce 100 products per hour.
(4) Italy
Italy is a first-class ceramic power in the world today. Its daily-use porcelain production accounts for a quarter of Europe's total, building porcelain production accounts for about 50% of Europe's total, and sanitary porcelain production is close to a third of Europe's. In addition, Italy's building ceramic industrial equipment has a leading position in the world. In addition to the complete range of ceramics, Italy's ceramic industry chain is very complete, the industrial division is fine, and all links are well developed.
There are nearly 100 ceramic wall and floor tile enterprises in Italian ceramic 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 architectural 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 and Germany and Britain * * * account for one-third of Europe, and share 20% of the world market of daily-use and sanitary ceramic equipment with Britain and France.