All statistics on international trade and products in Stone Sector 2005, the yearbook presented ay CarraraMarmotec.

 

Carrara, 2nd june 2005

 

89.5 million tons of marble and granite have been quarried all over the world in 2004, about 3 million more than in 2003. An upward trend that has been going on for years, with China as the leading producer (20 million tons) followed by India (11), Italy and Iran (10.5), and Turkey (7). But Italy is no longer the star.

 

Here’s an updated worldwide picture of the industry as drawn by Stone Sector, the yearbook produced by Internazionale Marmi e Macchine and presented today at CarraraMarmotec by Silvana Napoli, manager of the Survey Department. Deputy-president Loris Barsi and the President of Assomarmi, Cesare Bellamoli, commented its most relevant aspects.

 

In 2004, the Italian imports/exports balance recorded a trend reversal: 4.7 million tons (+8.4%) worth 1.78 million euros (+3.2%). Imports have grown instead by about 11% by both volume and value. Figures that are still regarded as unsatisfactory: the comparison with 2003 alone, i.e. with an extremely negative year, is actually misleading. Better to compare it with 2002: -8.8% by value, -1.3% by volume.

 

The positive facts of 2004 mostly concern North America and the Far East, in particular China that alone has taken up nearly half our exports of raw and semi-finished marble (+22% by volume and +15.5% by value), thus becoming our top importer of raw materials in absolute terms, for a value of 23 million euros, but Brazil, India and Turkey are also growing by volume. One of the news is a lively Vietnam.

 

In the Middle East, where global competition is strongest, the powerful downward trend is continuing (value -25%, volume –22.3%). It’s a market that has great potentials but is finding new suppliers.

 

Italy is heavily paying for the competition of those countries that do not quote in euros and are particularly competitive. The 25-country European Union remains extremely important, where exports of finished granite have had a higher increase rate than marble, while the exports of marble to the EU recorded over 344 million euros out of a total of 657. Germany is still the most important partner, while, among the most important countries, the United Kingdom has increased most, followed by France and Spain.

 

Outside the EEC, Swiss is the largest market and a still growing one for Italian exports, but Russia and Croatia too are growing and starting to play a substantial role, closely followed by Turkey. All together, they make up a positive yearly balance, especially in finished granite, with a general +11.1% by quantity and +13.8% by value.

 

Tunisia is the most important partner in North Africa, while in the Middle East the competition of other producers is deeply felt and the balance for 2004 is very bad: –25% by value and –22.35% by volume. These figures are worrying, also in the long term, as for many years the region had been a great outlet market for Italian products and now they use different suppliers to supplement their own products.

 

North America is still our second best partner: while Canada has a moderate weight, the United States remain the main market for finished granite both by quantity and value, despite the euro, with growing volumes (+16.4%) and less growing values (+13.6%), but exports of finished marble and travertine remain positive as well. On the US market, the domestic production of raw materials has never been able to fulfil the increasing demand for ‘domestic’ consumption, which is fulfilled by importing more and more products from Brazil and Turkey.

 

Quite a different matter is China, which keeps quarrying plenty of raw materials (especially granite, of which it is the greatest producer and fabricator). And it is just the Chinese exports of finished granite that have dramatically changed the big picture.

 

In the Middle East, some minor countries are also growing: Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, which are cutting out a proactive role for themselves with the greatest local consumers (Saudi Arabia and the Emirates). The development of Egyptian producers stands out in North Africa. In addition, a noteworthy country is Vietnam, which is equipped with good resources and has Taiwan as its most important partner.

 

“For Italy, 2003 was a troublesome year”, said Silvana Napoli, “but the domestic market has held on, and a strong role has been played by raw and semi-finished stone”.

 

Italy is a landmark for the stone industry. But it is just such a full-fledged model that has been suffering lately, and 2004 seems to have just about curbed this negative escalation. The domestic market keeps giving out signs of life, especially in the building industry, which has been expanding for 12 years by now. But this development too seems to have reached the end of the line.

 

The companies of the Tuscan district, Carrara and Lucca, as well as Verona and Vicenza, have directly worked with foreign operators, covering a total of three quarters of the domestic exports.

 

Negative facts for our market come from the Asian continent (Middle and Far East): exports are decreasing and just a few top-of-the-range products remain in the hands of the Italian industry. The machinery industry is also expanding, in particular machine tools. Basically, this is the continuation of the positive trend of the last few years, with + 12% in 2004 (by volume) and +20.7% (by value).

 

Even if the Italian machinery industry is no longer number one, the signs are positive. Machine tools have fared better than cutting, processing and finishing machinery. The drop is due to the increased independence of such areas as the Far East, which by now manufactures almost all machines by itself. In the EU scenario (the most important market for Italian exports), Spain remains a good customer, just like the United Kingdom (machine tools), along with France (machine tools and cutting machines) and Germany (cutting machines). In the EEC, Turkey is going through a veritable boom of machine tools, while, in the Middle East, Iran is once again the top buyer of machine tools.