Morbi: India's Tile Capital

How Morbi in Gujarat became one of the world's largest ceramic tile clusters with hundreds of factories, exporting worldwide and competing with China.

Morbi is India’s tile capital.

Scale

Hundreds of factories make most of India’s ceramic tiles, making Morbi one of the world’s largest tile clusters.

Origins

Morbi was known for wall clocks before tiles took off.

Entrepreneurs

Local Patidar entrepreneurs built and expanded factories.

Exports

Morbi exports tiles to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the US.

Italian machines

Factories import Italian and Chinese kilns and printing machines for digital designs.

Competition

Morbi competes with China in world markets.

The digital tile

A Morbi factory prints marble patterns onto tiles using digital printers, selling them abroad at low prices.

Thinking tiles are imported into India

Morbi makes most of India's tiles and exports them.

Key takeaways

Morbi is one of the world's largest tile clusters.
It was once known for clocks.
It exports widely.
It competes with China.