Industry Statistics

The export statistics for natural stone to USA during 2014 reveal a disturbing trend when analysed in some detail. During the 2014 the US economy had already more or less recovered from the severe financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 and, for many businessmen in the industry it was almost back to normal. Anecdotal evidence suggests most of the wholesalers were seeing growth in their business, on average, to the extent of 20%, though the figure quoted offhand  obviously varied from person to person and company to company.

 EXPORTS

IMPORTS

Exports

In the year 2014 the Brazilian exports of ornamental stone and cladding reached 1.276 billion US$, corresponding to physical volume of almost 2.5 million tons. Processed stone consisted of almost 80% of sales and more than half of the total physical volume exported. Rough stone, on its part, represented 20.69% of sales and 48.84% of total physical volume exported.

Source: IMIB - MarbleTrend Magazine

Natural Stone imports by countries (in thousand Euro)

The US Market for natural stone is the biggest source of demand for many stone processing factories all over the world, and the recent recovery of that market has proved to be a blessing for the companies that have good knowledge of the market. Stone imports in 2013 reached a figure of almost US$ 2.8 billion, according to the data provided by the US International Trade Commission.

Source: IMIB - Marble Trend Magazine (Turkey)

Cid Chiodi Filho, ABIROCHAS cdchiodi@terra.com.br