Vietnam has surpassed Indonesia to become the Southeast Asian region’s largest ceramic and granite tile producer, according to the chairman of Vietnam’s Building Ceramic Association, Dinh Quang Huy.

Vietnam currently has an annual production output of roughly 300 million square metres of ceramic and granite tiles, while Indonesia has a little over 200 million square metres.

With this great leap, Vietnam was also recognised as the world’s sixth-largest ceramic and granite tile producer, Huy said.

The country boasts major ceramic and granite tile producers such as Prime, Viglacera and Dong Tam, of which the first was ranked fifth among the world’s largest tile producers by World Ceramics magazine.

The recent inauguration of Prime’s new plant in central Quang Nam province, which is the largest ceramic tile plant in the ASEAN region, has contributed to helping the country gain its current position. The 1 trillion VND Prime plant has eight production lines with an annual output of 24 million square metres.

According to the association, the country currently has more than 45 ceramic and granite tile producers.

The industry has seen a growth rate of roughly 29 percent yearly on average for the past few years. Aside from the domestic market, Vietnam’s ceramic tiles have also been exported to many countries worldwide, including Australian and the Republic of Korea, with a yearly turnover of roughly 110 million USD./.