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Cracks appear in Gujarat ceramic industry as tariffs hurt

The US is among the top three markets for the Indian ceramic industry and one that has helped build this area into an export hub over the past two decades.

Updated on: Sep 2, 2025, 00:31:14 IST
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Khimjibhai Kundaria, the chairman of Gujarat-based Wintel Digital Vitrified Tiles and Wintel Surfaces, has only one aim these days – reworking his export strategy. His operations in Morbi town’s Nava Jambudia area rely entirely on exports, with 50% of shipments going to the US and the other half to West Asia and Europe.

The Morbi cluster exports around  ₹1,200-1,500 crore worth of ceramics to the US annually. (HT PHOTO)
The Morbi cluster exports around ₹1,200-1,500 crore worth of ceramics to the US annually. (HT PHOTO)

American buyers have pulled back nearly all the orders since the US tariff announcements, he said. “Buyers have stopped orders, exports are down, and the bigger

 
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Maulik Pathak

He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.

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