Dec. 23--Cheap ceramic tiles imported from China could face anti-dumping duties following an investigation by the Commerce Ministry, local industrialists say.

The Ceramic Industry Club of the Federation of Thai Industries alleges that the Chinese tiles are being sold in Thailand at prices cheaper than in China, threatening sales of Thai products.

The ministry is now gathering data on the Chinese products at the local producers' request. Penalty duties could be imposed by mid-2010 if dumping is proved, said Somchai Wongaroon, the club's honorary chairman.

Imports of ceramic tiles from China, particularly floor tiles, rose to 14.8 million square metres in 2006 from only 100,000 sq m in 2001, and totalled 16.2 million sq m in the first 10 months of this year.

Dr Somchai said the industry had seen instances of Chinese tiles in Thailand being sold for as little as three baht a square metre, against 100 baht in China.

"How can they do this? I wonder, if they play fairly, how they can sell [a product] like a sample -- almost for free? Local producers are suffering a lot from this," he said.

The FTI forecasts conditions will worsen next year unless the government adopts measures to protect local producers, as Chinese ceramic imports could reach 20 million sq m.

Worse still, under the China-Asean free trade pact, the import tariff for ceramic tiles was cut to 5 percent this year from 12 percent last year and will be zero next year.

If anti-dumping measures are imposed, the Ceramic Industry Club, in collaboration with the Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI), will impose a local industrial standard that imported products must meet.

"Chinese ceramic makers are not only aggressively using price dumping tactics. They also produce such low-quality goods. That is why it they have very low production costs," Dr Somchai said.

"If you test the products, you will see low water resistance and short lifespans, and a lot of the products we found in the market were defective.

"We have to do something now. If we let this [situation] linger, local makers will eventually be phased out of the business. We have already suffered from foreign producers copying our designs for many years."

Chinese ceramic product imports this year are estimated to be worth 3 billion baht or 75 percent of the value of all imported ceramics. Other tiles come from Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Spain.