Official sector statistics for the first 8 months of 2024 processed by the CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE Studies Center confirmed the growth trend in exports of Italian stone materials already seen in the first part of the year. Total foreign sales of marbles, granites and other natural stones extracted and/or processed in Italy from January to August – both raw and finished materials – amounted to worth of 1,443.6 million euros, with a 6% increase in value from the same period in 2023.
In a market context characterized by well-known uncertainties on the economic and geopolitical levels, for the Italian stone sector this increase is an encouraging sign of a rebound after a slight (-3.8%) drop in 2023, which had interrupted a sustained post-pandemic growth trend (+20.8% in 2021 and +13.1% in 2022).
Driving exports were, as always, sales of finished and semi-finished products – the ones with the highest added value, which account for about 79% of the sector’s foreign revenue – which, thanks to a 5.1% increase, reached worth of 1,139.6 million euros. However, the biggest increase, 9.3%, was in exports of raw stone, which rose to 304 million. It should also be noted that the average price for Italian stone materials exported in the first eight months of 2024 surpassed the threshold of 1,000 euro/ton (1001.8 – a new peak if maintained by year’s end), which rose to the record sum of 1,587.5 euro/ton for finished products.
As for destination markets, further consolidated for blocks was the leadership of China, which with 150.1 million in imports (+20.2%) from January to August 2024 bought a nearly 50% share of the raw stone extracted in Italy, followed by India with 30.6 million (a backslide of -18.2%).
The ranking of buyers of slabs and finished products was again led by the United States, with purchases worth 352.7 million euros, a 12.8% increase after the slight decline in 2023. Germany was in second place with 83.3 million in imports – down 3.5% but in any case recouping from the heavy downturn in the first part of the year – and France in third, with 79.7 million (+16%). Sales to Switzerland held fairly steady (64.8 million, -3.7%) while rising to fifth place among buyers of Italian stone products was Saudi Arabia (with 59.8 million, +61.3%), which surpassed the United Arab Emirates (45.6 million, +9.4%) and the United Kingdom (43.5 million, +11.4%). Completing the top ten were Australia (28.1 million, +12.6%), Austria (27.7 million, -5.2%) and Canada (20.2 million, +6.4%).
Comments are closed.