Tile company set for US production lines

Guangdong Wonderful Ceramics Co, a leading ceramic tiles producer in China, has become the first Chinese company in this sector to invest abroad, with a $172 million project under way in Tennessee in the United States.

The first of the four production lines is scheduled to go into operation in April, with the building of the rest subject to the sales from the first line, according to He Jiye, a top executive of the company based in Dongguan, Guangdong province.

The investment is made to better tap the US ceramic tiles market - the world's second-largest after China - with the Chinese market standing at 400 billion yuan ($58.08 billion) a year. About 70 percent of the US demand is met by imports, he said.