Vitória Stone Fair Set for Next Week
VITÓRIA, Brazil – Marmomacc Latin America 2015 will opens its doors next Tuesday for this year’s edition of Brazil’s largest stone-centric event.
Click image for gallery
More than 25,000 attendees are expected at Parque de Exposições Floriano Varejão for the Feb. 3-6 show featuring 420 exhibiting companies (including 120 from outside Brazil).
The event attracts visitors from Brazil and Latin America, such as stone importers and exporters, contractors, decorators, architects and professionals from the sector; companies dedicated to extraction, processing and commercialization of ornamental stones; suppliers of abrasives, consumables, machines, equipment, tools and services.
The exhibition will be held in the the capital of Espírito Santo, a state with one of the biggest marble and granite reserves in the country. The host state of Vitória Stone Fair has been significantly contributing to the Brazilian trade balance. (Last year, Marmomacc Latin America itself closed more than $200 million in business.)
The stone production in the state represents about 5 million tons a year. . The state of Espírito Santo responds for 50% of the national production of ornamental stones and for more than 70% of the Brazilian export operations.
Brazil is the third-largest granite exporter of the world. Today, the country is the main supplier of stones to the North-American market, responsible for 30% of the volume imported by the United States. In 2014, the stone exports to the North American market totaled $790 million.
From 12th place in the consumption ranking in 2001, Brazil now occupies fourth place (source XXIV Report Marble and Stone in the World) and is already being seen as one of the largest players in the ornamental stone and finishing sector in the world, only after China, India, and the United States. The position was conquered in just a decade by offering a big range of extremely differentiated natural stones and investments made in the industrial parks with acquisitions of more modern machines for the stone extraction and processing operations.
Vitória Stone Fair / Marmomacc Latin America 2015 is promoted by the Trade Union of the Industry of Ornamental Stones, Lime and Limestone in Espírito Santo (SINDIROCHAS) and the Technological Marble and Granite Center (CETEMAG). It is organized by Milanez & Milaneze, in cooperation with the Veronafiere Group and counts on the support of the Brazilian Center of Ornamental Stones Exporters (CENTROROCHAS); the Brazilian Association of the Ornamental Stone Industry (ABIROCHAS); and, in the United States, the Marble Institute of America (MIA).
For more information, go here.
Get the news of the industry with The EDGE, the monthly e-newsletter from Stone Update. Sign up for your free copy here.
For the latest industry info, check Slab & Sheet every Thursday, plus our Facebook page.
