Non-EU imports squeeze Polish building-material plants as tile output falls 16%
Non-EU imports of ceramic tiles into Poland rose about 40 percent over five years while domestic output fell 16 percent and plant employment dropped 22 percent, according to Newseria. Capacity utilisation at Polish tile works slid from 77.5 percent in 2020 to 65 percent in 2025, and cement and clinker imports climbed to 1.24 million tonnes.
Polish producers of building materials are losing market share to cheaper goods shipped in from outside the European Union, with the pressure concentrated in the most energy-intensive product groups, according to Newseria. Over the past five years, non-EU imports of ceramic tiles into Poland rose by about 40 percent, domestic tile output fell by 16 percent and employment at Polish plants dropped by 22 percent.
Tile output down, capacity standing idle
Figures from the Polish Ceramic Union, cited in a report by Professor Marek Bryx of the SGH Warsaw School of Economics and presented at a conference of the Employers Union of Building Material Producers, show capacity utilisation at Polish tile plants falling from 77.5 percent in 2020 to 65 percent in 2025. Output last year came to just under 85 million square metres, against installed capacity of 130 million square metres.
Total tile imports reached 28.4 million square metres, 8.4 percent above the 2020 level. Non-EU volumes grew far faster and hit 17.1 million square metres in 2025. Around 60 percent of the tiles entering Poland now come from outside the bloc, chiefly from India, Ukraine, China and Turkey.
Sanitary ceramics followed the same trajectory. Polish plants produced 85,500 tonnes in 2021 and 53,000 tonnes in 2025, a decline of roughly 38 percent. Imports have risen since 2023, from 14,700 tonnes to 19,900 tonnes in 2025, an increase of about 35 percent.
Energy and carbon costs drive the gap
Szymon Firlag, president of the Employers Union of Building Material Producers, told Newseria that import pressure falls hardest on the goods with the highest energy use and the largest environmental outlays. He listed ceramic tiles and sanitary ceramics alongside bituminous roofing membranes, cast iron pipes and glass. Products from China, India, Turkey and other non-EU countries are made far more cheaply, he said, so domestic producers cannot compete on price even at equal quality.
Bryx attributes most of the import growth to the cost burden on EU plants from environmental and CO2 rules, covering energy procurement, energy-intensive production processes and the cooling of components. Those costs do not exist outside the European Union, he said, which makes imported goods structurally cheaper. An analysis by the Polish Ceramic Union puts the cost of producing ceramic tiles in 2025 more than 40 percent above the 2021 level, mainly because of gas and electricity prices, raw materials, transport, packaging and rising wages.
Firlag warned that once importers take roughly 25 percent of the domestic market, the risk of plant closures escalates quickly and imports move into the vacated space. He cited producers of specialist glass for photovoltaic panels, who have already disappeared from the Polish market, and said ceramics makers are cutting headcount in response to rising imports. The damage, he added, is felt most acutely at local level, where a single plant carries weight for the municipality.
Cement imports rise as local economies watch
Cement and clinker imports into Poland increased from 748,200 tonnes in 2023 to 1.24 million tonnes in 2025, according to Eurostat data quoted in the report. Central Statistical Office figures put domestic cement production at 16.8 million tonnes and 17.3 million tonnes in those two years.
The Nowiny commune in Swietokrzyskie province illustrates the local stakes. The Nowiny cement works employs more than 300 people directly, and the local authority estimates that more than 2,000 people are tied to the plant and its supplier network. The plant is also a significant source of municipal tax revenue. Lukasz Gryn, head of the Nowiny commune, said reduced output would hit not only sales and financial results but also investment, since companies focused on the domestic market must modernise and cut emissions while bearing the cost of the energy transition. He added that the commune does not fear competition but wants it conducted on fair terms, and warned against dependence on imports for reasons of economic security.
Industry seeks wider CBAM coverage
Bryx argues in his analysis for extending the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to further groups of building materials, and for subjecting imported products to the same environmental, quality and carbon footprint requirements that apply to EU manufacturers. He describes the sector as strategic, because it determines how many homes are built or renovated, how many roads are laid and whether projects such as the Central Communication Port proceed.
Firlag called for action at both national and European level: a clear government strategy to support building-material producers through the transition, recognition of the sector as strategic by the ministry responsible for construction, and a stronger Polish voice in EU work on rules shielding the market from unfair competition from outside the bloc.
