Marble Blocks and Slabs Exports January – October 2019: the cases of Turkey, Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal

2019 was rather tough for global natural stone trade, as the US-China trade war left its mark among others in this sector, too. The countries mostly depended on China to absorb their domestic production were the ones hit mostly. Given the fact that China imports mostly marble blocks and slabs, we will shed light on the progress of the top marble blocks and slabs exporters in the world during 2019, from January to October, as data of the last two months of 2019 are due to be released soon.

According to the International Trade Center and the Observatory of Economic Complexity, the top marble blocks and slabs exporters, based on value of exports, in 2019 are Turkey, Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal. In 2018, the five countries represented almost 80% of the global marble blocks and slabs exports. Main destination of their exports still in 2019 are China and India.

It is important to note that Iran is also among the top exporters of marble blocks and slabs globally, however there is no recent and up-to-date data flow about the country’s trade in general and more specifically about natural stones trade.

Stonenews.eu, after collecting and studying the statistical results* of Eurostat and Turkstat (Turkish Statistical Institute), is presenting the comparison of the above countries’ marble blocks and slabs exports, to the variables of value and quantity of exports. The data were extracted in 5/1/2020 and are temporary. Turkey’s data reflect 93% of the country’s marble blocks and slabs export activity. Also, Eurostat’ s last data update was in 17/12/2019.

The diagram above shows the comparison between the five countries on marble blocks and slabs value of exports, from January to October 2019. Turkey, after a rather slow and moderate first semester and despite fluctuations, is still by far the leader exporter of marble blocks and slabs in the ten months of 2019, a fact that is not expected to change after the release of data about the rest of 2019. Italy comes second in export value, followed by Greece. Exports value of both of the countries remained subdued in the first months of 2019 but managed to recover. Spain’s and Portugal’s marble blocks and slabs export value in the ten months of 2019 were low but stable.

As for quantity of exports, the diagram above presents why Turkey is the leader exporter of marble blocks and slabs globally. Turkey exported by far the most marble blocks and slabs from January to October 2019 and in some cases almost 5 times more than the second Italy. Greece, Spain and Portugal were limited under 100.000 tons through all of the time of ten months, holding a rather stable course.