What Is Behind Azeri Tiles?

In 2009 in Azerbaijan put into operation the factory of ceramic tiles of Gilan Holding. The company announced its ambitious plans to win at least 40% of the market facing (for walls and floors) ceramic tiles. How things are really, we do not know: the plant contrary to the laws does not provide any kind of information about their activities, even government agencies.

According to observers, immediately after the release of products on the market, there was introduced unwritten restriction on imports. Those importers who still tried to hold the goods through customs, get stuck there, either goods is issued at inflated prices, making it uncompetitive, or a fault is found with customs requirements documents.

The capacity of Ltd. Gilan Seramik built in the Hajigabul region is 11 thousand m2 per day. In a year, the company is capable of producing 3.6 million m2 of plates, representing 45% of the demand of Azerbaijan for this product. Construction of the plant is based on Italian technology at a cost of 40.2 million manat, of which 5 million manat was provided by the state in the form of long-term soft loan.

It is noteworthy that the production volume of the enterprise cannot be traced at the district level, as the company does not provide that. The statistical information on the corporate website (http://gilanseramik.az/about-us) states that it meets 40% of the country's needs for tiles.

In the first quarter of 2015 Azerbaijan was delivered from abroad 1 million 92 thousand m2 of ceramic tiles. Azerbaijan mainly values tiles of Turkish manufacturers. Within three months of this year, Turkey's share accounted for 34% (372 thousand m2) of the imports of ceramic tiles. The products are also Chinese (347.8 thousand m2), Russian (130.1 thousand m2), Spanish (123.4 thousand m2), and Italian (50.5 thousand m2). Ceramic plates are also available from Ukraine (35.8 thousand m2), Iran (42.3 thousand m2), Poland (16 thousand m2) and Portugal (7.5 thousand m2).

It should be emphasized that since 2014, the customs began to understate the declared price of the ceramic plate. If in 2012 this product was supplied to Azerbaijan at the price of $ 3.78 / m 2, then in 2013 it began to take shape at the customs office at the average price of $ 7.76 / m2. And last year, the average declared price dropped to $ 5.34 per 1 m2. In the first quarter of this year, imported ceramic plates were evaluated on the Azerbaijani customs to bring to VAT and customs duties at $ 5 / m2. Over the past 2 years minimum retail prices for these products rose from 10 to 15 manats per square meter. Spanish tile is realized even at the price of 150 manats, while at the customs the commodity is issued at a price of 4.9 US dollars per square meter.

In 2012, the volume of imports of ceramic tiles amounted to 6 million 726.1 thousand, in 2013 - 3 million 347.1 thousand, and in 2014 - 6 million 126.2 thousand m2. Last year, the importers declared the commodity worth $ 32.7 million, 27.4% more than in 2013. For comparison, in neighboring Georgia last year bought abroad facing ceramic plates in the amount of $ 54.2 million, which is 15.8% more than in 2013. ------ 08B