Ceramic industry booms in Pingchuan district

Pingchuan district located in Baiyin city, Gansu has expanded its industrial park, which encouraged around 15 ceramic manufacturers to make permanent bases there. Gansu ceramics have a solid reputation in northwest China's ceramics market.

With clay reserves exceeding 4 billion tons, Pingchuan district is the largest ceramics production base in Northwest China. It produces around 20 million square meters of wall and ground bricks every year and gets an approximate annual output of 500 million yuan ($80.7 million) from the ceramics industry.

Ceramics is the main industry of Pingchuan district, where more than 40,000 locals are engaged in the ceramic-related activities. It was titled the "China Ceramics Demonstration Base" by the China Ceramics Industry Association in 2011.

In order to develop ceramic industry, Pingchuan held ceramic summit in the past years, and invited experts as well as entrepreneurs from all over the country to attend. Two summits were held successfully, while the 3rd Western China Ceramic Summit kicked off on Oct 9, 2015. It concentrated on the topics such as developing ceramic by taking opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative, which refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives.

Pingchuan district falls along Silk Road Economic Belt an economic zone connecting Northwest China  (including Gansu) with western Asia and Europe.

According to Hu Jianping, the director of Pingchuan district, the local government will take measures to develop architectural and sanitary ceramics and promote red stoneware industry in the future.

Edited by Shahnawaz Aakhtar