Markets and Industry

With all the daily talk of economic crisis all over the world, the high level of indebtedness, unemployment, slow economic growth, it is easy to forget there are markets which are actually doing quite well in the natural stone industry. We do not refer to a relatively small emerging market which has been growing impressively for about 5 years and which is catching the eye of the world. We refer here to no less than Germany, a country of 80 million people and with as solid an economy as is possible in these current times.

 1. The housing market in general is quite strong and except for a part of the very high segment (explained below) for now there seems to be no signs of a bubble or an imminent slowdown. A lot of building of condominiums and apartments is going on, as well as single family homes and sales of used homes.

 Richard Watzke info@richardwatzke.de

At the beginning of the year experts predicted new housing starts as high as 1.5 million, giving support to the builder´s confidence levels.

Ornamental stones are usually associated with only a few well known countries, even though there are surely many other countries where commercially viable natural stone is found.  This article highlights the current state of the development of the stone industry in Togo.

After the crisis? Is there a mistake in the title, is this magazine out of touch with reality? But is not Spain still in the middle of the worst economic crisis in 80 years? And are not Spanish companies of all kinds still closing down on a daily basis, after 5 years, leaving huge unpaid bills?

Dmitry Medyantsev, President of Russian STONE CENTER Association

Question.- How many factories and quarries are there in Russia?