The good uptake in the German building sector has benefited stone products too. According to data furnished by the German building sector association, Deutscher Naturwerkstein Verband (DNV), purchases of finished and semi-finished stone products in 2014 grew by 11.7% in volume (for a total of 2,202,626 tons compared to 197,671 in 2013) and by 5.8% in worth from the previous year rising from 592.8 to 627.5 million euros. 

 

This growth was also to the advantage of Italian producers of stone and stone-working technologies. Italy's export of marbles, granites and other natural stones to the German market in fact rose by 4.5% in 2014, for revenue of 148 million euros. 

 

Also doing nicely were machinery and equipment exports to Germany, again the top European market and sixth buyer in absolute with purchase of Italian stone-working technologies worth 47.9 million euros.

The Brazilian natural stone extraction and processing industry accounts for 8% of the country's GDP; the ten thousand companies comprising it - some 400 of which are exporting companies - employ 120,000 people directly and 360,000 indirectly. This is what was shown by an ICE Sao Paolo survey of the Brazilian stone sector and underscores how the South American country is currently the third largest exporter of state (after Spain and China) and the second - ranking exporter of granite blocks (after India). The top five destination countries for Brazilian natural stone are US (especially for granite), China, Italy, Canada and Mexico.

 

In 2014 Brazil's export of finished and polished slabs (in a 2cm thickness) reached something like 21.5 million square meters. Since there was internal demand for 58.8 million square meters it can be deduced that total slab working in 2014 produced 80 million square meters. It is estimated that domestic purchases together with exports generated revenue of more than US $ 5 billion in 2014.

 

Where data for the first quarter of 2015 is concerned, according to statistics recently released by the Brazilion stone association, abirochas overall exports of Brazilian ornamental stones both raw and finished products reached worth of US $ 614.78 million (for a total of 1.138 thousand tons) with a 2.08% downturn in value and 12.63% less in volume compared to the same period in 2014, mainly done to decrease sale in China. In detail exports of finished products rose by 13.18% in value (US $ 509.6 million) and by 7.75% in volume (681,000 tons) from the first quarter of 2014.

 

In regard to trade with Italy, in 2014 Brazils import of Italian stone-working machinery and equipment were worth 70.9 million euros, giving the country third place (after US and Turkey) in market ranking for these Italian goods. There were excellent signs for the first quarter of 2015, too with Italian stone technology exports to Brazil reaching worth 21.4 million euros, growth of 88.2% from the first three months of 2014.