China embraces flexible manufacturing under market pressure
Tile Wars · technology · · Tile Wars
Guangdong's tile cluster is rewriting its manufacturing playbook. Double-layer kiln technology lets OEM plants accept minimum orders as small as 1,000 m² to compete on added value.
International industry analysis. The Guangdong tile cluster is rewriting its manufacturing strategy. Advances in double-layer kiln technology allow OEM (third-party manufacturing) plants to accept minimum orders as small as 1,000 square meters to compete on added value. A threat — or a market opportunity — for Tile of Spain?
Castellón.
Market hyper-segmentation and the collapse of large-volume runs are no longer a headache exclusive to European traders. In China, fierce competition and a maturing domestic market are forcing a metamorphosis in the production model of its main hubs. What was for decades the kingdom of mass production and kilometer-long single-SKU kilns is now decisively pivoting toward flexible manufacturing.
According to the latest industry reports out of Foshan, Chinese ceramic companies —particularly those focused on private-label or OEM channels— are reconfiguring their plants around multi-purpose lines. Where firing up a kiln in China once demanded huge production runs to amortize costs, plants in Guangdong are today ready to launch campaigns with as little as 1,000 square meters or minimum orders of 200 boxes.
This is a paradigm shift: the definitive move from rigid volume to batch-level customization.
The logistical challenge: mixing formats in the same firing channel
Until relatively recently, mixing product types in such a mass-market sector penalized profitability. Technical sources in the country admit that mixed firing in conventional kilns caused energy losses of up to 15%, on top of multiplying stock-management complexity and undermining material stability.
However, the large-scale rollout of new milling and glazing technologies, together with optimized changeover times for molds and formats, has softened the economic impact. The additional cost is no longer wasted energy or raw material, but only the "dead time" of transition on the line — a factor Asian producers consider "perfectly bearable and controlled" under current domestic price levels.
On top of this comes a distribution shift underway since 2025: large Asian distributors are demanding shorter catalogs with higher rotation and highly differentiated product types (such as technical finishes or specific reliefs) to complement their high-value architectural portfolios.
The technical key: the double-layer kiln boom
If there is a single technical driver behind this transformation, it is the double-layer roller kiln. This technology has unleashed a wave of tech investment and plant retrofits over the past two years across the country's top firms, including corporations the size of NewPearl Group and Tianxin Technology.
The engineering behind these units flexibly splits productive capacity without changing the plant's carbon footprint or physical footprint:
Layer specialization: Each of the two layers is dedicated to a specific product family or format, guaranteeing thermal stability and surface quality. Volume segmentation: Small, urgent orders can enter one layer without stopping or recalibrating the high-throughput production of the other.
The traction of technology supplier HLT丨DLT illustrates the trend: the firm already has more than 40 double-layer kilns operating worldwide, with over 24 installed directly in key Chinese provinces such as Guangdong, Shandong and Fujian.
A reading from the Spanish perspective
For the Spanish tile industry, firmly anchored in flexibility, design and made-to-order batches, the fact that China is mastering low-cost flexible manufacturing is a warning sign. The Asian giant is no longer competing solely on container price — it is rapidly advancing in the process optimization that used to be Castellón's stronghold. The technology race and firing energy efficiency will, without a doubt, once again be the decisive battlegrounds.