From a global viewpoint the natural stone industry is still running at top speed. Since the beginning of the 1990’s, production has risen annually by an average 7.3 % and international trade has even increased by an average 8.7 %. According to the latest industry report »Stone 2004«, 2003 with plus 11.2 % and 16.5 % respectively was even an above-average year for growth.

Worldwide natural stone extraction is meanwhile estimated at 150 million t gross per year. Annual production after deduction of waste and cutting losses amounts to about 820 million m² – referred to a slab thickness of 2 cm. The total production value is estimated at 40 milliard US $.

With the exception of Spain, however, the strong global growth took place mainly outside Europe. China now extracts around twice as much natural stone from its many quarries as the previous market leader Italy. India also overtook Italy last year for the first time.

The weightings have therefore changed appreciably within only a few years. Besides China and India, the »top ten« members Iran, Turkey, Brazil and the USA are among the winners of the last five years, whereas Portugal and Greece had to accept setbacks.

The development in Turkey has been particularly rapid. Production and export there have trebled within five years. Last year, Turkey exported finished natural stone goods worth 429 million US $.

The world’s most important customer for finished goods is the USA. Stone products worth 1.72 milliard US $ were imported in 2003, 18.3 % more than a year before. The most important supplier was Italy, which increased its US exports by a total of 7.2 % to 535 million US $ within two years.

However, other countries expanded even more strongly in the same period, in both percentage and absolute figures. For example, Brazilian deliveries of finished goods to the USA rose by 101 % in value to 210 million US $. Turkey even increased its exports by 120 % to 183 million US $, India by 63 % to 152 million and China by 85 % to 140 million US $. Germany also managed to increase its exports – at a low level – by 23 % to 12.25 million US $, but the French (-10 %) and Canadians (-13 %) suffered losses.