Local tile makers call for anti-dumping laws after easing of import restrictions

Local tile manufacturers have appealed to the government to enforce anti-dumping laws within the sector, ensuring a level playing field, according to Sagala Ratnayaka, the Chief of Staff to President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The push to be covered under the said legislation comes as the government relaxed import restrictions that were introduced in 2020, to reduce the outflow of foreign exchange from the country.

While acknowledging the need for local tiles to be covered under anti-dumping laws, Ratnayaka shared that the Industries Ministry is currently working on bringing the laws into different sectors, such as wheat flour.
“We lifted all the import restrictions except those on motor vehicles, so as a result tiles are also freely importable. That is our policy to have an open economy. But safeguarding the local industry is important to the government and that we will do,” stressed Ratnayaka. 
He made these comments addressing the Macktiles Masterpieces exhibition in Colombo yesterday.
“The tile industry in the interim has requested the government to consider the fact that Indian exporters get the tax rebates and that be reflected on the customs tariff effected on imported tiles in Sri Lanka,” said Ratnayaka.
Sri Lanka currently has a total of five local tile manufacturers and has the capacity of making available an annual tile output of 34 MnSqft. However, according to Macktiles, the demand has dropped to 18 MnSqft from 30 MnSqft in the last couple of years.

The drop in demand could be attributed to the reduced purchasing power of consumers after being hit by the pandemics and then the economic crisis. Locally manufactured tiles are priced at least 20 - 30 percent higher than imported tiles, for which consumers did not have much access to until this year due to the import restriction.
Macksons Holdings Managing Director Mizver Makeen said the government must take more effort to support the local tile manufacturing industry so that consumers become less reliant on imports, which taxes the country in terms of foreign exchange.
He called on the government to look at ways to uplift the local tile manufacturers so that they can become competitive in the international market, specially with China and India taking the lead in the global tiles market.
“The industry has shared our problems with relevant officials. We are hopeful we will get an adequate footing to compete with any multinational giant of the world,” said Makeen. (SAA)

Pix by Kithsiri De Mel