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Viewing report
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China Building Materials Market
China Knowledge Press, June 2004, Pages: 152
China is now one of the world’s largest building materials producers with annual output of cement, plate glass, construction ceramics and sanitary ceramics ranking first in the world.
The building materials industry has been one of the pillar industries in China’s economy. It is also a significant component of the construction industry, accounting for about 15% of the construction industry’s industrial added value.
Driven by a bullish real estate market in 2003, all sectors of China’s building materials industry have recorded profits. The total industrial added value amounted to RMB 143.5 billion (USD 17.35 billion), representing an impressive annual growth rate of 26.5%, the highest in the recent 10 years. It is forecasted that such a growth pace will be maintained in 2004.
Cement manufacturing is the largest sector in China’s building materials industry. Among China’s top 100 building materials companies in 2003, 59 were cement manufacturers. This is 1.2% of the total 4, 813 cement firms nationwide.
However, the State Council ordered a tighter control of excessive investment in the steel, electrolytic aluminium and cement sectors in early 2004, so as to make production align with market demand in order to keep national economy in steady growth.
Despite the huge output of China’s building materials, the quality of these items is usually well below international standards. It is in the high-end, high-quality niche market that foreign building materials have found the most success.
Quite a number of foreign building materials companies have descended on China, namely, the Salux Group, Owens Corning, LG Chemicals and Energy, B&Q, OBI, etc. An analysis of Chinese import data shows that, the Italian and Spanish are very strong exporters of marble, stone, granite and tile products; the Japanese, Belgians and Taiwanese are top suppliers of glass products; and the Japanese and Germans are top suppliers of sealants.
With China’s accession to the WTO and liberalization of the residential housing market, driven by major projects like the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and Shanghai 2010 World Expo, and propelled by the Western Region Development and Northeast Rejuvenation, China’s building materials market is set for a further boom.
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