Dirty Play in Africa: How Chinese Ceramics Are Suffocating the Global Market with Institutional Complicity
Tile Wars · markets · · Sector Opinion Desk — Ceramics of Spain
Kenya's Competition Authority drops its abuse-of-dominance case against KEDA Clean Energy / Twyford. From the Spanish ceramic sector we denounce the double standard: a group controlling over 80% of East Africa is recorded as a residual 25%.
From the Spanish ceramic industry we watch with deep concern, but no surprise, the latest episode in the neocolonial landing of the Asian industry on the African continent. The recent decision by the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) to close its investigation into alleged abuse of dominant position, predatory pricing and exclusivity agreements against the Chinese ceramic giant KEDA Clean Energy / Twyford is nothing but flagrant proof of how the cards are marked in emerging markets. The 80% versus 25% paradox: blindness or complacency The formal argument used by the Kenyan authorities to shelve the case is, to say the least, grotesque. The CAK maintains in its report that KEDA holds only a 25% share of the local market and that, since the market is "contestable", the multinational lacks sufficient power to distort competition. Yet real sector data and the Chinese group's own private commitments and reports reveal an overwhelming reality: KEDA de facto controls and monopolises more than 80% of ceramic production and distribution in East Africa . How can a regulator conclude that a giant with industrial mega-plants capable of flooding the national market accounts for just a quarter of it? The answer lies in the skilful deployment of corporate engineering, cross-held subsidiaries and opacity that Chinese state and private investors execute across Africa. By formally fragmenting sales or diluting the metric with irregular low-quality imports, they mask a real monopoly behind a bureaucratic veil. Predatory pricing and unfair competition: the recipe of the Chinese landing For the Spanish industry — competing under the strict regulatory framework of the European Union, respecting high environmental, labour and traceability standards — KEDA's modus operandi in Kenya is nothing new. It is the classic strategy of private commercial colonisation: Below-cost pricing (dumping): indirectly subsidised through Chinese state credit, prices are driven down predatorily until any local producer or legitimate international competitor is wiped out. Forced exclusivity agreements: local distribution networks are pressured to block any alternative floor or wall tile from European markets or domestic competitors. Securing the monopoly: once competition is extinguished and official investigations are halted, the market is left entirely at the mercy of prices and qualities dictated from Beijing. "While the European industry invests in decarbonisation, design and regulatory compliance, Asian groups capture entire markets through restrictive practices that local institutions are unable — or unwilling — to prove." Africa at a crossroads: a warning for the global industry What has happened in Kenya is a clear wake-up call for international regulators and for Europe's ceramic industry associations. Competition institutions in emerging countries are showing a worrying technical inability — or geopolitical complacency — when it comes to auditing the complex structures of Chinese capital. This leaves local consumers entirely unprotected, as they will end up paying the price of a de facto monopoly, and pushes out of the market the Spanish and Italian companies that bet on fair trade and quality. From the Spanish ceramic sector we firmly and roundly denounce this "dirty play". Confirmed commitments of absolute dominance in private circles cannot magically become a residual 25% before regulators. We demand greater international oversight, independent audits of foreign investment in Africa, and a resolute defence of commercial fairness in global markets. Original source: Capital FM Africa