The 2020 "Ceramic Industry Long March" - the national ceramic tile production capacity survey activity has come to an end. Judging from the survey results, the withdrawal of ceramic companies has been serious in the past three years. The only ceramic companies in Tibet, Qinghai, and Hainan have withdrawn, and the country ( The number of provinces without ceramic factories in mainland China has reached 4.
Among these ceramic factories that have withdrawn, some have withdrawn due to environmental protection, some have withdrawn due to market reasons, some have closed down due to poor management, and some have actively "exited" because they see no hope of development... Among them, Tibet, which is located at an altitude of 3,600 meters, The only ceramic factory "Lhasa Qingda Ceramics Co., Ltd.", like the tenacious Kelsang flower, has taken root in the snowy plateau for more than ten years. After losing nearly 300 million yuan, it voluntarily quit and changed careers. The hardships and twists behind it are sad. .
“It is much more difficult to set up a factory in Tibet than in the mainland!”
We lost 60 million before we started the fire
“I lost all my youth by running a ceramics factory!”
I joined the factory in April 2007. In 2014, the factory stopped production due to huge losses. In 2017, all the ceramic tile production lines were dismantled, and the factory was rented out and converted into aerated bricks... Recalling the experience of running the factory in the past ten years, Lao Yang (pseudonym) sighed. Incessantly.
Lhasa Qingda Ceramics Co., Ltd., where Lao Yang works, is located in Yangda Industrial Park in Lhasa Duilungdeqing District, Tibet. It may be the "highest ceramics factory in the world." According to local people, "Duilung Deqing" means "Upper Valley Bliss" in Tibetan. However, this ceramics factory in the "Upper Valley Bliss" had a troubled life.
Qingda Ceramics, the highest ceramics factory in the world, is located in Yangda Industrial Park, Doulungdeqen District, Lhasa City.
In August 2020, the "Ceramic Information" "Ceramic Industry Long March" investigation team met Lao Yang at the Lhasa Qingda Ceramics Factory. Although he no longer engages in ceramics, the factory still retains the name "Lhasa Qingda Ceramics Co., Ltd." In front of the door, after being eroded by the plateau climate, several large brass characters have faded from their former glory, leaving only a few Gesang flowers next to them.
“It is much more difficult to make ceramics in Tibet than in the mainland.” Lao Yang recalled that the Qingda Ceramics FactoryFormerly known as Tibet Shenglandi Building Ceramics Co., Ltd., it was established in 2004 and mainly produces small floor tiles, filling the gap in Tibetan architectural ceramics. However, due to the constraints of raw materials, climate, labor, logistics and other factors, Shenglandi Ceramics has been in a state of serious losses until 2006, when it was transferred to a Sichuan entrepreneur and renamed "Lhasa Qingda Ceramics Co., Ltd."
In Lhasa, many outsiders invest in building factories, especially Sichuanese. "When we took over, we heard that making ceramics was very profitable, and as the only pottery factory in Tibet, we were relatively optimistic about the market. But after we took over, we discovered that was not the case at all."
After the change of ownership, Qingda Ceramics worked hard to learn from the failure of Shenglandi Ceramics, updated the equipment, repositioned the market, and planned a production line to mainly produce ceramic tiles and 600×600mm small floor tiles. .
“We completed the acquisition at the end of 2006 and invested 35 million yuan in the first phase of construction, but it was gone within a month. It was officially put into operation around March 2007, and more than 20 million yuan was invested. In just a few months, a total of It’s more than 60 million, and the factory has not yet started, and there is no money in the account. Even the boss is scared,” Lao Yang said with eyes wide open.
The nightmare of losing money continued, so a group of people who had never made ceramics began to study how to make ceramics in a mountain area on the outskirts of Lhasa. "We don't have people who don't understand technology, so we go out to learn and hire people from Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Sichuan to be responsible for production technology."
“At that time, when we bought packing tapes, we always used train pulleys, and the color materials were purchased by the ton. After getting to know each other, we realized that we only have one line, and others buy hundreds of kilograms of color materials at a time. I really didn’t know anything and spent a lot of money.” Lao Yang said that until the factory stopped production, these ink materials were not used up, so they were all thrown away, and the money was wasted.
Regrettably, no matter how hard it struggled, Qingda Ceramics Factory was still unable to sustain long-term losses and had no choice but to suspend production in 2014. Until now, looking back on the tortuous development of Qingda Ceramics Factory, Lao Yang is still a little "uneasy".
Lhasa Qingda ceramic door head. The picture above was taken in 2020, and the picture below was taken in 2014.
“I hired the people from Foshan and Jiajiang, and I was responsible for the supply of raw materials. How much effort we put into this office building is 20It was built in 2002. It used to be the most luxurious office building in Lhasa. How many people came to visit and inspect it, but now it has become like this. Sometimes I feel sad when I think about it. We dedicated our best youth to this place. A ceramic factory, but in the end it was impossible to save it. It was fate and there was no other way. ”
What remains fresh in Lao Yang's memory is that after the Qingda Ceramics Factory ceased production, an old friend from the ceramic industry in Foshan, Guangdong came to visit Lao Yang. When he left, he only left one sentence: "In this place, you After staying here for so many years, I will never come again."
After 8 years of production, the loss was nearly 300 million
Equipment worth tens of millions was sold for hundreds of thousands
In fact, the long-term losses of Qingda Ceramics Factory are closely related to the special geographical environment.
This ceramics factory located on the outskirts of Lhasa needs to purchase almost all raw materials, colors, fuels, glazes, etc. from the mainland. The high costs incurred in these links alone have made Qingda Ceramics Factory a brand in the regional market. Lost its edge in competition.
Beside the office building, there used to be the finished product warehouse of Qingda Ceramics Factory. Lao Yang said that the pile of ceramic raw materials piled next to here cost millions to purchase. Now that the factory no longer makes it, it has spent dozens more. Good luck going out.
At the same time, as the only building ceramics manufacturer in Lhasa, the product structure is too single and the output cannot be guaranteed. "We only have one production line, switching between ceramic tiles and small floor tiles. There is no way, how many times can we produce one product alone?" There is no one selling goods anymore, and it is difficult to compete with neighboring Sichuan and other production areas.”
There are no raw material standards, no production standards, and the production of Qingda Ceramics Factory is also extremely unstable. "The pass rate of our products is also good and bad. It may be related to the raw materials or the technical staff. The average pass rate is not 80%, or even strictly speaking, it cannot even reach 50%."
Lao Yang said that this may be an important reason for the "short life" of Qingda Ceramics Factory. He once calculated the accounts carefully and found that Qingda Ceramics Factory had a total loss of nearly 300 million in eight years of production.
The vast geographical area, lack of transportation and information, special climate, and scarcity of talents... have brought many uncertainties to the normal production of Qingda Ceramics Factory.
The temperature difference between day and night is large, and most technical talents imported from the mainland need an adaptation period of one or two months before they can get on the right track; the long and cold winter makes the production cycle here only eight months a year; In Lhasa, where oxygen is scarce and the air pressure is too low, the lack of combustion caused by the ceramic production process requires more fuel to be invested to make up for it...
Lao Yang said that there were ceramics manufacturers from Jiangxi who came to inspect before and wanted to cooperate. However, they saw that the investment here was large and production was difficult, so there was no further progress.
Now, all the equipment in the factory, including ball mills, kilns, glaze lines, etc., have been dismantled. The equipment purchased for tens of millions was sold for only a few hundred thousand, including the gas station that cost 5 million to build. , now it can only be dismantled and disposed of as scrap metal. Half of the factory is rented to others, and the other half produces aerated bricks by itself. Except for the traces of Qingda Ceramics Factory in front of the door, the rest have completely withdrawn from the historical stage of the ceramics industry as the equipment was dismantled.
Qingda Ceramics, like the blooming Gesang flowers in the factory, is tenaciously rooted in the 3,600-meter snow-covered plateau.
After quitting ceramics, Lao Yang relied on his accumulated customer resources such as construction sites over the years to produce aerated bricks.
“The entry barrier for making aerated bricks is low. I used to cooperate with third-party companies, but now I take the factory back and do it myself.” Lao Yang said that there are currently 7 factories making aerated bricks in Lhasa, and the market demand is basically Already saturated, there may still be a market in the next two years, but as urban construction gradually becomes saturated, it may become difficult to make aerated bricks.
“It’s really not easy for the factory to survive until now!” Although it has changed owners several times and faced many misfortunes, Lao Yang has always stuck to the land of Qingda. As for his future plans, Lao Yang thought for a while and said: "I have been here for more than ten years, and the foundation is still relatively deep. Now I am slowly recovering. For the future, I will take it one step at a time and leave it to fate."
(The article is reproduced from Ceramic Information)
