With the wave of prefabricated upgrades in home decoration and commercial spaces, slate has become the most representative innovative material in the building materials industry.
After more than ten years of intensive development and iteration, China’s slate industry has completely shaken off the shackles of foreign technology and completed a gorgeous transformation from niche new materials to mainstream building materials categories. With the advantages of the entire industry chain, it has firmly established itself as the core leader in the global slate industry and has written a new chapter in the innovation and upgrading of local building materials.
Looking back at the starting point of the industry, there were obvious shortcomings in the early domestic decorative materials market.
Traditional ceramic tiles have limited specifications and insufficient ductility. Natural stone is expensive and has natural defects such as radiation and color difference. High-end decoration has always lacked an all-round finishing material that takes into account appearance, performance and environmental protection.
At that time, the core production equipment, green body formula, and deep processing technology of slate were all monopolized by overseas companies such as Italy. The price of imported slate remained high and it was difficult to popularize it in the civilian market. The domestic slate industry had been in the wait-and-see and preliminary testing stage for a long time.
Relying on the domestic mature ceramic building materials industry foundation, China’s slate industry has quickly achieved overtaking in corners.
Local equipment companies have independently developed 10,000-ton intelligent presses and high-definition digital inkjet systems, completely breaking overseas technical barriers; the production side has quickly rolled out production lines, relying on the three major industrial clusters of Foshan, Gao’an, and Quanzhou to build the world’s largest and most complete slate industry chain.
From early thick slabs to 3mm ultra-thin slabs and ultra-large-sized continuous slabs, domestic slabs have completely caught up with imported products in core properties such as texture restoration, hardness, stain resistance, and temperature resistance. At the same time, they rely on the advantages of localized production to significantly reduce costs, allowing high-end slabs to enter thousands of households.
With the rapid expansion of the industry, the pain points of extensive development have gradually emerged.
In the past few years, the industry’s blind expansion of production has led to overcapacity. Some small and medium-sized manufacturers have focused on price over quality, with serious product homogeneity, incomplete deep processing supporting facilities, and difficulties in implementation and delivery. These problems once restricted the long-term development of the industry.
With the official implementation of the national standards for slate slabs, the industry bids farewell to wild growth and officially enters a new stage of standardized and quality competition. The focus of industry development has shifted from competing for production capacity to competing for craftsmanship, design, services and overall space solutions.
Based on the current situation, consumption upgrades and prefabricated decoration trends have opened up a new application track for slate.
Nowadays, slate is no longer used solely for wall and floor paving. It has fully penetrated into whole-house customization scenarios such as cabinet countertops, bathroom cabinets, dining tables and coffee tables, stair treads, and cabinet cabinets. It has become the first choice material for home furnishings and commercial workwear.
At the same time, the dual-carbon policy continues to advance, and low-carbon firing, solid waste reuse, and green intelligent manufacturing have also become the core directions for the transformation and upgrading of slate enterprises.
Looking to the future, China’s slate industry has already bid farewell to the era of scale dividends.
In the future, the industry will focus on the three core areas of design innovation, deep processing support, and brand overseas, get rid of low-price involution, shift from selling single plates to selling overall space solutions, and shift from domestic production and sales to global brand output.
Breaking through involution with innovation, rectifying the industry with standards, and seeking the long-term with greenness, China’s slate industry will continue to lead the global building materials track and help China’s building materials move from a manufacturing power to a manufacturing power.
