The marble and stone sector is characterized by a development that is notably superior to that of the global economy. This was confirmed by the results of 2006, both for the long and short term: since 1990, production has increased by 7.3 percent per year, and the volume of trade has grown by 9.2 percent, while in 2006 there were variations with respect to the previous year of 8.8 and 14.7 percent. This last variation, after those of 1994 and 2003, was the most consistent in this period of five years, and confirmed the positive trend.

Overall, global production in 2006 was estimated at roughly 190 million tonnes, not inclusive of quarry waste and waste from the transformation process, with a consumption equal to over one billion equivalent square metres (at the conventional thickness of 2 cm). The use per unit reached 16.5 square metres per hundred inhabitants, compared to 15.3 of the previous year, 14.6 of 2004, and 13.5 of 2003.

 

The decisive role for the development of the stone sector on a global scale was played by trade, which exceeded 41.3 million tonnes: considering also worked and unworked materials, which were equal, respectively at 43.6 and 56.4 percent of the total, this corresponds to roughly 630 million equivalent square metres: therefore the absolute majority of global consumption, just under two thirds, refers to extracted materials often transformed in different countries to where they are installed.

 

The major producers (China, India, Italy, Iran, Turkey, Spain, and Brazil) alone account for 70.8 percent of global extraction, roughly three percentage points higher than the share in 2005 and confirming the presence of consistent concentrations, which are generally also involved in the phases of transformation, and also distribution.

 

In the major markets the prices results are rising on average starting with China, where the price of the worked product, after eight years of price drops to 2003, rose again to reflect the increases in 2004 and 2005, reaching a price of around 16.50 dollars/square metre (the Italian price is approximately four times that). This would seem to indicate a new and widespread strategy based on profitability, after a lull in the price, determined by rapid technical development but also modifications of the \\"mix\\" in favour of modern materials. On the product front, 2006 coincided with a new recovery of the calcareous products with respect to siliceous products.

 

On the subject of China, it must be said that its volume of exports, mostly of finished products, has exceeded ten million tonnes, with priority positions, almost monopolies, in South Korea and Japan, and accounts for 25 percent of global trade.

 

We should also consider the ancillary industries, and process technologies in particular (machines and capital goods). As for plant engineering, 2006 closed with a estimated global production of around 250 thousand tonnes, two thirds of which was traded, with the Italians still first despite having lost five points of the market share, which has dropped from 42 to 37 percent, with shipments for over 600 thousand hundredweight and a turnover of 500 million euro, with 245 million in consumables (abrasives, blades, diamond-tipped tools, adhesives and similar products), on the increase overall.

 

As in the past, international shipments were mainly carried by sea, but there was also a new recovery in rail traffic, both short and long distance, while the amount of produce transported by road, often complementary to the first two, increased substantially on the basis of production, and can be estimated in at least 30 million loads.

 

On the question of competitor products, led by ceramics and porcelain stoneware, their overall availability in quantitative terms (equal to roughly 7.1 billion square metres) is now over seven times that of stone, but without significant ponderal variations in relation to the previous two-year period, highlighting also in relation to this comparison, the consistent prospects for further growth for marble and stone, especially if supported by a suitable promotional policy, able to optimize the current impact, which in some ways is still fragmentary, despite some significant initiatives such as those of the quality mark, architectural prizes and technological symposiums.

 

If we examine the situation in different countries we can see that the development of the stone world is governed by some quite variable processes: in this sense, if the major increases have been in China, Brazil, India and Turkey for production and export, and in North America for consumption, the economic situation in Europe has been characterized by stationary factors, with a tendency for stasis in Italy, where the market share of the finished product has dropped to 10.8 percent, and in Greece, where imports have exceeded shipments abroad. Elsewhere, a case that repeatedly goes against the trend is that of South Africa, where the chromatic limits of production, or rather of international demand, have prevailed over quality.

 

The prices of the manufactured product are always very different from country to country, with average prices of the exported product that vary from 43.10 euro in Italy to 33.25 in Spain and 24.30 in Portugal, or 29.10 dollars in Turkey, and as mentioned above, down to a minimum of 16.50 dollars in China. On the subject of imports however, the highest values per product unit were on the American market, with an average of roughly 42 dollars per square metre, a few points under the previous figure.

 

On the question of prices, Italian plant engineering has reached a new high, with a mean value of exported machines that has risen from the 773 euro per hundredweight of the previous year to 830 in 2006, and with a growth of 7.4 percent, still lower than the major European competition, confirming the traditional competitive character.

 

Finally, the prospects for the development of production and trade must be examined. In both cases, forecasts are favourable, estimating that by 2025 the volume of fine stone extracted in the world should rise to roughly 440 million tonnes gross, equal to 4.8 million equivalent square metres, with a quantitative international trade of three billion metres. These may seem impossible figures, and yet they are on the whole lower than those that have already been reached in the ceramics sector in 2006.

 

The \\"trend\\" of growth in the sector will probably proceed as it has in the past, also because remarkable elements that could have a negative impact in general seem to be improbable, also in consideration of past experiences; nevertheless, there are more significant problems of an infrastructural nature, for bringing plants up to the latest standards, and disposing of waste, which must be dealt with on all levels, nationally and internationally, allowing for the fundamental role of investments and the need to increment the same on a corporate level through suitable incentives. This is true both for production, communication and of promotion.

 

The stone sector is characterized by a very high social content, and the possibility of creating jobs with fairly reasonable financial means, to such an extent that for decades now it’s been acknowledged as a sector that can implement processes of expansion where other sectors fail. If only for this reason and no other, it has the right to be the subject of attention, both in third countries, where it is an important chance to increase added value, and in more mature countries, where it plays a more and more significant economic and cultural role.