The Hindu Business Line : Asian Granito starts tile production in Himmatnagar

Ahmedabad, Jan 16 Asian Granito (India) Ltd, which raised funds through an IPO in July 2007, began commercial production of wall tiles yesterday in its new plant at Himmatnagar, Gujarat, with a capacity of 50,000 tonne per annum. For the first time in India, the company has introduced the big wall tiles of 300 mm x 900 mm size, as production began at its Rs 48.7 crore plant, Mr Kamlesh Patel, Chairman, told a news conference here today.

Capacity

With this, the total capacity of the company has gone up to 32,300 square metres per day, including vitrified tiles (16,000 sq mt), wall tiles (9,300 sq mt) and ceramic floor tiles (7,000 sq mt). The capacity of vitrified tiles has been expanded from 1,17,500 tonne to 1,34,300 tonne per annum.

In fiscal 2007, the company introduced 20 new designs of vitrified tiles and 35 of ceramic tiles. Asian Granito is also planning to enter sanitaryware outsourcing this year. The Indian market size of ceramic tiles is worth about Rs 6,500 crore, including Rs.2,000 crore worth of vitrified tiles. Asian Granito has an 11 per cent share in this, Mr Patel said. With the company offering products at par in quality with the best from Spain and at a 10-15 per cent less price, it felt no threat from China’s dumping of tiles in India.

Market Growth

Globally, with a 20 per cent annual growth rate, vitrified tile is the fastest moving segment of the ceramic tile industry accounting for about 10 per cent of the overall production. In India, the industry is almost a century old and is growing at a 12-15 per cent rate per annum.

The company’s turnover of Rs 190 crore last year is expected to touch Rs 235 crore this year .

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