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With the rapid growth of the Central Asian market, all five CAR member countries have shown an increasing commitment to manufacturing sanitary products locally, both for their domestic markets and export markets. All of the CAR countries have historically been sanitaryware deficit markets – they rely on imports, mainly from China and Russia. However, Turkmenistan, which has abundant natural gas and kaolin, is now leading the ceramic sanitaryware development process and emerging as export leader. Several ceramic sanitaryware plants operate in Uzbekistan’s well-developed special industrial zone (SIZ) in the free economic zone (FEZ) while in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, sanitaryware production units are under construction. Indeed, the rapid urbanisation of Central Asian markets has spurred the construction of new housing projects, which has raised the demand for ceramic sanitaryware. Jahir Ahmed provides an insider’s perspective on how Central Asian sanitaryware markets are serving both domestic and export markets.

A ceramic tile is a raw material-intensive product, and raw materials play a crucial part in its production. Different geographic regions have specific raw materials, such as clay, feldspar and quartz, that are essential for making high-quality tiles. In this edition, Yogender Singh Malik examines the various raw materials available in India and by extension throughout Asia which are used in ceramic tile manufacturing and explains how and why these materials serve as the foundation for quality tiles.

Over the past two decades, inkjet technology has revolutionised the ceramic tile and tableware printing industry. Asia has been relatively slow to realise the enormous profits it offers to investors in the ceramic industry, compared to Europe and North America; however, it is catching up swiftly. Today, Asia’s ceramic industry has almost reached parity with its western counterparts in inkjet printing and digitally printed tiles trade on a global scale and, notes Jahir Ahmed, the going can only get better.

The Ceramic Industry Club of ASEAN (CICA) has been actively involved in improving the quality standard of ceramic products in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries since its founding decades ago. Among its primary goals is to protect domestic manufacturers and consumers from cheaper inferior products imported from neighbouring Asian countries and other sources. According to a report by Jahir Ahmed, CICA’s 29th annual council meeting held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 30th November, reaffirmed its commitment to safeguard the ASEAN ceramic industry.

Material science advancements, combined with the growing demands of end-use industries, have attracted multinational heavyweights and private investors to porous ceramics. Low density, hardness, corrosion resistance, melting points, and chemical and high-temperature stability are all advantages of porous ceramics. There are a wide range of applications for porous ceramics, from long-established uses like water treatment to hi-tech ones such as heat shields for hypersonic aircraft. In the case of this material, Rohan Gunasekera believes that these are truly exciting times.

Almost 40 years have passed since the Japan Fine Ceramics Association (JFCA) was founded. In this issue’s Talking Shop, JFCA executive director Tomosaburo Yano discusses the organisation’s vision and achievements since its founding in 1986.

The end of the year is rapidly approaching, and the team at Asian Ceramics would like to extend its sincere thanks to all our readers, advertisers, contributors, and friends of the publication for their support and attention. Our success could not have been achieved without your support and contributions.

We wish you all a very prosperous and successful 2025.