(Beijing) -- China's ceramics manufacturers are gearing up for a tussle in international trade courts with the final results of the European Union's anti-dumping investigation on Chinese ceramic tiles to be released on September 17.

The anticipated penalties are expected to take a heavy toll on China's ceramics manufactures nationwide.

Sanctions have already been imposed in the form of 73 percent temporary punitive tariffs on 1,500 Chinese ceramics companies as a result of the EU's preliminary investigation on this case.

The case involves more than US$ 300 million worth of business from China's ceramic tile makers. Seventy percent of all those affected are from Foshan, Guangdong Province.

The sanction would bring down an estimated 15 percent of all enterprises operating in the ceramics industry and displace thousands of workers, said Lan Weibing, head of the Foshan Branch of China Ceramics Industrial Association (CCIA). According to him, a number of ceramics companies relying on the European market have either collapsed or switched to another business.

"The European market consumes one tenth of all ceramics exports from Foshan," Lan said, "Of the US$ 400-million worth of Chinese ceramics exports to the Europe in 2010, roughly 80 percent, or US$ 320 million came from companies in Foshan."

This marks the sixth time in ten years the EU has imposed anti-dumping measures on China's ceramics industry. According to analysts, the strife is to blame on European countries' trade protectionism arising from deteriorating debt crisis as well as Chinese manufactures' over-reliance on pricing competition.

According to data from the CCIA, China is the largest ceramic tiles producer in the world, followed by the European Union. China provides the EU with 70 percent of its annual aggregate demand, which measures up to 1 billion square meters, while the EU exports a quarter of its total production.

In May 2010, the European Ceramic Industry Association filed a complaint with the EU committee, requesting anti-dumping measures be taken against ceramics exports from China.

In the course leading to a preliminary sanction rule, the EU committee announced that it would resume a tougher stance on trade issues to protect the interest of European companies in the coming five years.