U.S. Helps Spark 1Q 2015 Italian Natural Stone

VERONA, Italy – The Italian marble industry has resumed growth on international markets in 2015, according to a recent analysis of trade data from Marmomacc Observatory and Confindustria Marmomacc.

Click photo to enlargeFollowing the consolidation of results in 2014, 2015’s first quarter showed an upturn for Italy’s stone industry, driven by an 18.6% year-to-year leap in international sales for stone quarrying and processing technologies, improving revenues up to €260 million.

Exports of marble, granite and natural stone also grew for Italy in January-March; between unhewn and processed products, stone posted an increase of 3.2% from 1Q 2014, thanks to €416.6 million of international orders.

These results emerge from the first statistical survey for 2015 into the Italian stone industry, based on Italian National Institute of Statistics (I.stat) data, carried out by the Marmomacc Observatory, and Centro Studi Confindustria Marmomacchine, the national association for the stone sector and related technologies.

STONE FROM ITALY

Much of the revenue in stone came from the added value of processed products made in Italy, which totalled €332 million (+3.9%). The remaining exports of €84.5 million came from unhewn blocks and stones (-2.6%). This is a reassuring signal for the sector, which closed 2014 effectively on a par with 2013 values (+0.2% increase on an annual basis after three years of sustained growth).

North America is still the best outlet market outside Europe, with the United States in the lead (€88.4 million / +2.8%), for the first three months of the year, followed by Canada (€9.1 million / -7.7%).

Exports to Europe held steady (€133.9 million / -0.2%), led by Germany (€31.8 million / +7.8%), Switzerland (€19.5 million / -8.7%) and the United Kingdom (€17.2 million /+14.2%).  In contrast, exports to Eastern Europe fell back (€28.1 million / -10.1%), although Russia went against the trend to confirm its status as the leading buyer in this area (€9.6 million / +3.9%).

Results were slightly down in the Middle East (€47.3 million / -3.4%), with Saudi Arabia (€16.2 million) and the United Arab Emirates (€12.4 million) sustaining demand.

India and China, in the first quarter of 2015, are once again the main buyers of unhewn stone materials, respectively with €22.6 million (+31.2%) and €20.2 million ( -13.9%).

In the first three months of the year, total Italian imports also grew by 9.1% to €99.5 million: €72.9 million for raw materials (+5.7%) and €26.6 million for processed materials (+19.7%).

“Positive results in this quarter,” said Ettore Riello, president of Veronafiere, Ettore Riello, “are the best preview in the run-up to the 50th anniversary edition of Marmomacc scheduled at Veronafiere on Sept. 20-Oct. 3. As can be seen from these figures, exports are vital for the development of a sector in which Marmomacc is the most important b2b and training platform for all operators.

“Thanks to incoming buyers from more than 140 countries, initiatives set in motion thanks to the Special Made in Italy Promotion Plan implemented by the Ministry of Economic Development and partnership with Confindustria Marmomacchine, we are sure that the 2015 edition of the event will help Italian companies consolidate these fine results posted at the beginning of the year as well as further enhance the internationality of their business.”

TECHNOLOGY AND MACHINERY

As regards the technology sector, which closed 2014 with a small increase (+1.7%), the first quarter of 2015 saw Italian machinery builders export goods worth €268 million, for an increase of 18.6% from the same period in 2014.

The recovery in this important segment of Made in Italy was spearheaded by non-EU markets. The United States ranked first again as the outlet market for exports in this sector, with orders coming to €34 million (+86.0%). Second place is taken by Turkey (€23 million /+1.8%) and third by Brazil (€21.3 million / +88.2%). The first European market is once again Germany, ranking fourth in overall terms with €18.2 million in imports (+29.3%).

“Overall, the entire Italian natural stone materials and machinery chain is still one of Italy’s landmark industrial sectors,” said Flavio Marabelli, honorary president of Confindustria Marmomacchine. “This is thanks to a value of exports that in 2014 came close to a total €2.9 billion, equal to almost 75% of production, for an annual trade balance surplus of nearly €2.5 billion.

“The trends emerging in the opening months of 2015, especially as regards the good performance by some of the most important markets for the export sector, provide useful indications about the stability of Italy’s natural stone and related technology industry, which in recent years has managed to maintain and, in terms of technology, even improve on the export levels achieved prior to the 2008 crash.”

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