RAK Ceramics to establish plant in China

RAK Ceramics, one of the top three manufacturers of ceramic and gres porcellanato tiles in the world, is setting up a world-class gres porcelain factory in China this year.

The company, which has manufacturing facilities in Bangladesh and Slovakia, will commission the China facility by June 2003. The Chinese factory has been designed to be one of the most modern factories in the world, said Dr Khater Massaad, general manager.

"The new facility will be able to meet the requirements from the Far Eastern markets considered to be the biggest markets for ceramic and gres porcelain tiles, apart from meeting the demands from Chinese markets," said Massaad.

The new factory will produce 12,000 square metres of gres porcelain tiles per day in sizes ranging from 45x45 cm to 100x100cm. Sophisticated technologies such as twin press, easy oxide mixing, roll feed, MDR, double charge, dual charge, etc will make it one of the most advanced gres porcelain factories in the world.

The kiln will be one of the longest in the world at 140 metres.

RAK Ceramics which already has nine factories including two sanitarywares factories at Ras Al Khaimah, will commission its tenth factory by September this year.

This factory is expected to produce 30,000 square metres of ceramic wall tiles thus taking the company's total production capacity to132,000 square metres of ceramic and gres porcelain tiles per day. It also produces 5,000 pieces of vitreous china sanitaryware products per day.

During the first quarter of the current year, sales increased by 10.5 per cent. Massaad pointed out that the company's policy to concentrate on porcelanised stoneware has finally started paying off with the market's perceivable demand shift towards this segment.

During April, the company is moving to its new headquarters, which houses a 17,000 square feet exclusive showroom, where the company will display all its wide range of products.