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‘Without gas, there will be a huge problem’: In Morbi, India’s ceramic hub, fears of a shutdown within days
Sunil Manglunia, MD of Qutone Tiles, said that if the Gujarat government did not restore gas supply, all operations at his firm would shut down by the end of this week.
The Morbi ceramics industry, the largest in India, uses Propane as well as Natural Gas as fuel for kilns in their manufacturing units. (Express Photo)
Months ago, a drive from Rajkot to Morbi—more than 50 km apart—offered a glimpse into the ceramic industry’s operations on the sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. A detour led to the factory of Qutone Ceramics Private Ltd, one of the largest companies in the ceramic hub and the first in Asia to introduce the slab tile, as the large tile is known.
At the plant, operations were brisk. About 800 workers were employed in shifts around the clock, seven days a week, as the production of various kinds of tiles—many not even looking like tiles to the untrained eye—continued, with temperatures of up to 1200 degrees Celsius being applied. “Hum mitti se sona banaate hain (We turn sand to gold),” Sunil Manglunia, MD of Qutone Tiles, told The Indian Express over snacks and a steaming cup of tea.
Cut to the 10th day of the war in West Asia that has led to the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, and Manglunia is a worried man. He says that if the state government does not restore gas supply, all operations will shut down by March 14th or 15th. “The 24-hour operations are dependent on gas. The state government has cut the gas supply. If gas is unavailable, there will be a huge problem,” Manglunia told The Indian Express over the phone.
As The Indian Express has reported, one-fourth of the ceramic units in Morbi have already shut down. The fear, however, is of a complete shutdown in the absence of natural gas.
Manglunia says that the impact will extend beyond the workers—lakhs of transporters bringing raw material and taking away the product will also be impacted by the shutdown, and so will the construction sector, where the tiles are widely used, and the lakhs of workers employed there.
At Qutone’s unit, the sand for the production of tiles generally comes from Rajasthan, the machinery largely from Italy and China, and a major component of the process is the supply of gas. Temperatures of up to 1200 degrees Celsius are required to produce tiles, and the process must go on round the clock. The other option is closure of the unit, impacting the livelihoods of many.
Manglunia says that his company, set up in 2008 and now employing a total of 1200 people, exports to 65 countries, and has 10-11 showrooms in India and also one in Italy.
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A ceramic hub providing jobs to 9 lakh people
Morbi is dotted with small and big tile factories for miles on end. Trucks ply throughout the day, and dust hangs over the area, cementing Morbi’s identity as a ceramic hub.
Largely a Patidar belt, it accounts for approximately 80 to 90 per cent of India’s total ceramic exports and nearly 90 per cent of Gujarat’s ceramic production. Morbi ranks as the world’s second-largest ceramic cluster and is a key pillar of India’s ceramic economy, as per sources in the Gujarat government. The biggest ceramic cluster is in China.
Morbi district has around 1,200 ceramic units with an annual production of approximately 60 lakh tonnes, as per Gujarat government data shared with The Indian Express during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. Also, Morbi’s ceramic industry provides direct and indirect employment to about 9 lakh people.
During the last two financial years, more than Rs 115 crore was provided to over 2,200 beneficiaries in Morbi under state industrial incentive schemes. Morbi recorded ceramic exports worth approximately Rs 15,000 crore in 2024-25, exporting mainly to the United States, France, Germany, Oman, and Sri Lanka.
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