CONSOLIDATING STONE INDUSTRY

Author: STC
Article Date: 05.12.2014

With the growing consumption of stone across the globe, world stone industry is steadly growing year after year. In the year 2013 quarried and processed volumes were up by 5 per cent, while China, India, Turkey, Brazil and Italy together covered more than 65 per cent of production. According to World Stone Report by Carlo Montain 2013 was another year of consolidation for the world stone industry, both in the international as well as domestic market. Overall, production in 2013 came to 265 million tonnes (1,420 billion equivalent square meters referred to the conventional 2 cm thickness of a slab). Per capita use also grew to 226 sq m per thousand units, against 215 sq m in 2012. Expansion in production and consumption of marble and stone was better than the world economy and suffered less from the international crisis in comparison to other sectors. Over the past decade, net stone production increased by 7 per cent every year and global trade grew on average by more than 10 per cent in total. The use of marble and stones grew to a greater extent than ceramics from 12 per cent in 2000 to 15 per cent in 2013. The global trade of unhewn and processed stone material reached to more than 770 million equivalent square meters. One interesting thing in the natural stone sector was quite significant. The absolute majority of world consumption involves materials quarried and often processed in countries other than those of installation. In 2013 price factor, on the main markets in the stone sector, were generally stable and in some cases achieved higher growth such as China. Where average price of finished products achieved a steady recovery from 2003 onwards except in 2009 following world economic crisis. 2013 saw a marginal recovery for granite, without affecting the preference for limestone in building and street furnishings. In relation to China, the export volume largely based on finished products, fell to 12.1 million tonnes. The downturn was 500 thousand tonnes. Brazil also recorded a positive trend in stone industry, particularly in granite exported to American markets and shipments of unhewn limestone to China.