Brennen von Kacheln ist nicht so lukrativ wie das von Chips. Keramikriesen gehen kollektiv in andere Branchen über.

The traditional building ceramic industry is facing the pressure of market contraction.

Data released by the China Building Sanitary Ceramics Association shows that in 2024, the national ceramic tile output was 5.91 billion square meters, a year - on - year decline of 12.08%. There were a total of 993 enterprises above the designated size in the building ceramic industry, 29 fewer than in 2023. The number of production lines decreased to 2,193, with an exit rate of 11.75%. In terms of operation, leading and mid - tier enterprises have experienced a decline in revenue, and net profit losses have become the norm.

Just as the industry is collectively contracting, Tian'an New Materials has achieved a new growth curve in its performance and is eyeing the popular humanoid robot track.

At the end of August, Tian'an New Materials announced the completion of the acquisition of an 18% equity stake in Guangdong Ruobo Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ruobo Robot"), marking the official entry of this traditional new materials enterprise into the robot track.

Tian'an New Materials is not an isolated case. Against the backdrop of the continuous decline in the overall prosperity of the ceramic industry, more and more traditional building ceramic enterprises are regarding fields such as AI, robots, and chips as their second growth curves, setting off a cross - border layout boom.

Entering the Humanoid Robot Track

Tian'an New Materials' investment in Ruobo Robot hides an underlying line of "material genes".

According to Tianyancha, Ruobo Robot was established in 2016. It is an enterprise focusing on the R & D of core robot technologies - servo drive and control system algorithms, and has built a technology matrix covering three major fields: artificial intelligence, robots, and industrial Internet. In the past nine years, the enterprise has completed a total of three rounds of financing.

The screenshot is from Tianyancha

The reason why Tian'an New Materials is interested in Ruobo Robot is directly related to its intention to enter the humanoid robot track.

Tian'an New Materials once told the media that Ruobo Robot's technologies and products are highly synergistic with the electronic skin technology the company is developing. Ruobo's technical accumulation and product application experience in robot intelligent control will provide strong support for the company's practice verification and product implementation in the field of electronic skin, and promote the company's application breakthroughs in the electronic skin field.

It is reported that electronic skin is mainly used on robot dexterous hands, which are one of the key components of humanoid robots. Now, as the humanoid track accelerates towards the "perception era", electronic skin has become the key to the industry's evolution and is regarded as the "last mile" for humanoids to achieve productivity evolution.

Data from Ground View Research shows that in 2024, the global electronic skin market size was approximately $10.9 billion, and it is expected to increase by 21.1% year - on - year to reach $13.2 billion in 2025.

However, as an enterprise gradually transforming from a material supplier to an integrated service provider for environmentally friendly art spaces and aiming to build a closed - loop home furnishing industry ecosystem, where does Tian'an New Materials get the confidence to enter the high - tech track?

Recently, Yuanmeihui sent a letter to Tian'an New Materials regarding its performance in the first half of 2025 and the investment in Ruobo Robot. As of the time of publication, no response has been received.

"The requirements of robot skin for soft touch, bend resistance, wear resistance, and lightweight properties are highly compatible with the polymer composite decorative materials independently developed by the company, enabling the company to have the basis for homologous R & D of electronic skin." Wu Qichao, the chairman and general manager of Tian'an New Materials, replied to the question of "the relevance between the company's R & D of electronic skin and its existing business" raised by investors at the performance briefing in the first half of 2025.

Wu Qichao also revealed that although the company is actively conducting relevant technical exchanges and application discussions with many domestic scientific research institutions, leading sensor enterprises, and robot manufacturers, at present, the company is still in the stage of technical exploration and research in the field related to electronic skin, and there are no relevant products yet, which will not have an impact on the company's performance.

Although there is technical commonality in products, the stark contrast between over - capacity in traditional production areas and the order boom in the intelligent factories of leading enterprises may be the key driving force for the enterprise's transformation.

Data shows that under the pressure of the "dual - carbon" goal, traditional production areas such as Guangdong and Shandong are accelerating the elimination of backward production capacity. In 2024, more than 200 coal - fired kilns were shut down, and the proportion of digital production lines increased from 15% in 2020 to 38% in 2025.

This has also made Tian'an New Materials realize that intelligent manufacturing may be the future of the building ceramic industry.

Ceramic Enterprises' Collective Cross - border into High - tech

Now, the "integration of AI and ceramics" has become the hottest topic in the industry.

Some experts point out that there are several valuable application areas of AI in the ceramic industry chain: First, intelligent quality inspection, with a defect detection rate of >99.5% and a 70% reduction in cost compared with manual quality inspection; Second, kiln optimization, with an 8% - 15% reduction in energy consumption and an annual savings of over 2 million yuan in gas fees; Third, formula R & D, with a 50% - 70% reduction in the R & D cycle and a 60% reduction in experimental costs; Fourth, environmental protection governance, with a 30% reduction in pollutant emissions and a 90% reduction in environmental protection fines, etc.

Ceramic enterprises that have spotted the opportunities have quietly started to make arrangements. At the beginning of 2025, Mona Lisa launched the "Marketing M - AI Platform" based on the domestic large - scale model DeepSeek - R1, becoming the first enterprise in the ceramic industry to embrace the AI era.

New Pearl Group uses the "AI Visual Quality Inspection System" to optimize the production process. It can automatically identify surface defects on tiles and conduct back - tracking analysis combined with big data to fundamentally improve product quality. At the same time, Guanzhu Tiles under New Pearl Group launched the industry's first AI - concept rock plate product at the Foshan Tanzhou Exhibition in 2025.

In addition, as early as two years ago, Keda Manufacturing disclosed on the investor platform that the company had launched heavy - duty AGVs for transportation, stacker laser AGVs, seven - axis robots, and robot palletizing process control, providing packaging, warehousing intelligence and other solutions for downstream ceramic factory customers. In terms of product application, the company comprehensively applies equipment with cutting - edge technologies such as intelligent AGVs, intelligent unmanned forklifts, visual parallel robots, automatic glazing, and automatic storage, and establishes a process system connection for the automatic transportation, automatic glazing, and automatic storage of tile production lines to help customers improve production efficiency and reduce costs.

Not only are enterprises introducing AI, robots, etc. into products and production lines, but some enterprises are also directly entering relevant tracks to seek a share of the market.

In addition to Tian'an New Materials' investment in Ruobo Robot mentioned above, Diou Home Furnishing also issued an announcement on August 22, 2025, stating that it plans to use its own and self - raised funds of 500 million yuan to establish a wholly - owned subsidiary, "Shuihua Future Technology Co., Ltd." (provisional name), to expand relevant businesses in the field of generative artificial intelligence.

Picture source: Diou Home Furnishing's announcement

Mona Lisa and Dowstone Technologies are eyeing an even more upstream track - chips.

On March 7, 2025, Mona Lisa Investment, a subsidiary of Mona Lisa, jointly signed a partnership agreement with the professional investment institution Qingdao Jinyu Hunpu Private Equity Fund Management Partnership (Limited Partnership) and other limited partners. According to the agreement, Mona Lisa Investment, as a limited partner, subscribed for the fund shares of Qingdao Hunpu Zhixin Phase IX Venture Capital Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) with its own funds, with a subscribed capital contribution of 20 million yuan, accounting for 44.43% of the subscribed capital.

Previously, on December 26, 2024, Mona Lisa Investment also jointly signed a partnership agreement with Jinyu Hunpu Private Equity and other limited partners, subscribing for the fund shares of Qingdao Hunpu Huaxin Phase X Venture Capital Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) with its own funds, with a subscribed capital contribution of 10 million yuan.

Not long ago, Dowstone Technologies and Xinpeisen jointly established Guangdong Hexi Intelligent Computing Center Co., Ltd. in Nanzhuang Town, Chancheng District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, to build the world's first large - scale computing power center dedicated to atomic - level scientific computing, with a registered capital of 50 million yuan.

Behind the heavy investment in emerging fields such as robots, AI, and chips by major ceramic enterprises lies the anxiety caused by the slowdown in their performance.

Urgent Search for the Second Growth Curve

Statistics from Yuanmeihui show that in the first half of 2025, among 13 listed ceramic enterprises, more than 60% experienced a year - on - year decline in revenue, including leading enterprises such as Dongpeng Holdings and Arrow Home Furnishing. More than 50% of the enterprises reported a year - on - year decline in net profit, and three of them were in a loss state. Only four enterprises, Tian'an New Materials, Keda Manufacturing, *ST Songfa, and Huaci Co., Ltd., were able to achieve a simultaneous increase in revenue and net profit.

Tian'an New Materials, as one of the few enterprises in the industry that can achieve a simultaneous increase in revenue and net profit, has attracted external attention.

Financial report data shows that in the first half of 2025, Tian'an New Materials achieved revenue of 1.444 billion yuan and a net profit attributable to the parent company of 62 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 3.97% and 16.59% respectively.

Picture source: Tian'an New Materials' semi - annual report in 2025

Tian'an New Materials attributes its performance growth to the continuous strengthening of its two major core businesses: polymer composite decorative materials and building ceramics.

Specifically, in the polymer composite decorative materials segment, the company's revenue has increased significantly. For example, in the first half of the year, the revenue of the automotive interior decorative materials business reached 306 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 35.96%.

Although Tian'an New Materials' performance in the first half of the year remained stable, the current pressure on its traditional business highlights the urgency of transformation.

Looking at different businesses, the company's building ceramic sales volume exceeded 20.3 million square meters, a year - on - year increase of 6%. However, affected by the decline in terminal prices, the revenue of the ceramic business was only 594 million yuan, a year - on - year decline of 6%.

This situation of "increasing volume but decreasing price" is a microcosm of the common dilemma in the building ceramic industry: weak market demand and intensified price competition. Enterprises urgently need to explore new growth poles.

Against this background, Tian'an New Materials naturally wants to seek a new breakthrough path. And judging from its past cross - border experiences, it does have successful cases.

After going public in 2017, Tian'an New Materials planned to transform from a material manufacturer to an integrated service provider for environmentally friendly art spaces. In 2021, the company completed the acquisition of Yingpai Ceramics, an established ceramic enterprise in Foshan, and promoted Yingpai's transformation from a single tile manufacturer to an integrated service provider of "ceramics + home furnishings" one - stop home furnishing solutions.

After that, Tian'an New Materials established Tianhui Construction Technology to enter the prefabricated EPC public decoration field for hospitals. At the same time, by acquiring the Southern Design Institute and taking a stake in Foshan Junye, it achieved a closed - loop of the entire industrial chain from architectural design, construction, interior finishing to building materials.

This has enabled Tian'an New Materials to form two major business segments: the materials segment composed of Yingpai Group, Tian'an Polymer, Zhejiang Ruixin, and Tian'an Integration, and the EPC segment composed of the Southern Design Institute, Tianhui Construction Technology, and Foshan Junye.

Picture source: Tian'an New Materials' semi - annual report in 2025

On the surface, diversified development has driven the stable growth of Tian'an New Materials' performance. However, as mentioned above, with the decline of the building ceramic market and the severe "involution - style" competition in the industry, no one can ensure that such growth will not suddenly stop.

Tian'an New Materials' cross - border investment in the AI and robot fields, although promising, still has to face three major challenges:

1. High technical barriers. Although Tian'an New Materials has rich experience in the new materials field, robot and AI technologies involve a new technical system and talent structure, and it is difficult to make up for the shortcomings in the short term.

2. Fierce market competition. In addition to traditional enterprises, technology companies and startup teams have taken the lead in making arrangements. For example, Wuhan Huaweiike Intelligent has a market share of over 50% in the electronic skin field, forming a first - mover advantage.

3. Long investment pay - back period. The R & D and industrialization of robot technologies require continuous and large - scale investment, but it is difficult to see returns in the short term, which is a considerable test for the funds and patience of listed companies.

When ceramic enterprises start to think about the tactile needs of robots, this ancient industry seems to have grasped the pulse of the future. However, when success will be achieved still needs time to tell.

Some pictures are quoted from the Internet. Please inform us if there is any infringement, and we will delete them.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Yuanmeihui", author: Xie Chunsheng, editor: Su Huai. Republished by 36Kr with permission.