82 2019 | TRENDS INTERNATIONAL TRENDS FROM TURKEY Turkish tile benefits from Chinese tariffs According to Alp Er, General Manager with Ege Seramik America (www.egeseramik.com), “With newly-instated Chinese tariffs in place, customers are looking for alter- native options. Turkey is benefitting from that. We are developing more and more highly polished tiles for resi- dential and light commercial along with small format wall tiles – mostly with a marble look.” Semih Susleyen, General Manager for Yurtbay USA, Inc., said, “Due to increasing Chinese tariffs, we are com- ing across with distributors and retailers who have been either considering giving or have already given a certain portion of their Chinese business to Turkish manufactur- ers. This will have a significant positive impact in Turkey’s U.S. exports in 2019.” He said that most of the inquiries are for polished porcelains, and Turkish factories have plenty of installed capacity and experi- ence to service US distributors. In fact, Yurtbay will focus on polished products more than previous years at Coverings this year, and will launch six new pol- ished lines that all come in 12” x 24”, 24” x 24” and 24” x 48” sizes. Susleyen noted that small-sized wall and porcelain tiles, including subway tiles, can be easily supplied by Turkish producers. Yurtbay plans to roll out new wall-floor combinations with 10” x 20” glossy wall tiles, and 13” x 13”, 20” x 20” and 12” x 24” matte finish porcelain tiles. Er sees technology taking wall tiles into new realms. “Wall tiles are not just ‘subway’ any longer,” he said. “With our state-of-the-art technology, we can print almost anything for a wall tile application.” Er observed that encaustic tiles are still popular, and the ever-popular wood look is still making an impact, but in a Ege’s Indiana porcelain tile series is available in beige and grey in 12” x 24”, 24” x 24” and 24” x 48” formats, fully polished. Ege’s Indiana porcelain tile uses a sinking ink application, which cre- ates a textural collapsed vein into the tile.