The balance is still negative, but some signs of recovery emerge, to be made the most of

The trade balance of the stone industry is still (slightly) on the decrease, but signs of recovery emerge in the internationals scenario that the Italian companies can make the most of. These are the findings of Internazionale Marmi e Macchine (IMM), as stated in its yearly survey, announced during the international marble fair CarraraMarmotec.
Compared with 2004, in 2005 Italy exported over 4.7 million tons (+1.1) of marble, granite and stones worth 1.77 billion euros (-0.5%) and imported 3 million tons (+1.3%) worth 552 million euros (+ 4.08%).

The national export trends is however very varied, with 3.1 million tons for the most important entries alone: marble + 6.7%, granite, blocks and slabs, +1.1%. But this increase in quantity is matched by a decrease in value (1.69 billion euros in the exports of the most valuable items): -2.8% for marble, -14.2% for granite. A decrease, which is just slightly offset by finished granite (+3.3 %).
“These results are less than expected”, comment Giancarlo Tonini and Paris Mazzanti, president and CEO of IMM, “The fall-off concerns all entries, nor is it set off by the new East European and north African markets. Despite this, some interesting signs of recovery can be seen: the consumption of stone products is actually expanding across the world, an opportunity to be made the most of, since our competitive chances are still strong in many important areas”.

As to the stone-processing machines, the Italian leadership is sound, but competition is getting fiercer in the lower market ranges, a trend which in future could affect the volume of Italian exports, even if perhaps not its values.
Market trends will be illustrated, one by one, during CarraraMarmotec with the presentation of Stone Sector 2006, the new statistic yearbook about world trade flows. North Africa and the Middle East in the meantime confirm their expansion and buy finished marble and granite. North Africa buys in particular marble blocks and slabs.

“A lot”, add Tonini and Mazzanti, “will depend on the euro: if the euro/dollar exchange rate remains like this, it will help the whole European economy.”
As to the Apuan and Versilian district (which remains a fundamental landmark), it seems to have overcome its crisis, even if the results of the Eighties and even those of 2000 remain a distant reality. The second part of 2005 gave back some confidence to the companies, and the order portfolios are “getting longer” in the Tuscan and Ligurian area, more than in the rest of Italy. Exports involve North Africa, the USA and the Middle East, with some encouraging figures in the Far East as well (see enclosed table), where the tons of exports are decreasing (-11.7%), but values are increasing (+2.7%). The USA take up 44% of our local productions, followed by 15% of the European Union (17% in 2004) and 14% of the Middle East (12% in 2004).

An essentially stable picture, which looks very promising despite the competitors’ turbulence and aggressiveness, and which seems to foreshadow a real general recovery of the economies of the importer countries.
For the Ligurian-Tuscan district, the internal market remains very important for the role played by white marble, even if 2005 showed a slight decrease in the amount of quarried materials. The key figure which remains stable is the high quality of the Apuan products, with the quarrying operations moving at the same pace as the processing operations, thus completing the picture of a ‘multi-tasking’ district, still firmly oriented to the internal and external markets. However, some important changes are under way in the district, at the end of which some factors will be powerfully affected by “globalisation”; despite this, it remains a place of excellence in production and processing and above all a place which offers a preview of all trends, which then impact on the rest of the country.

Some general comments on the domestic export trends of 2005 are in order, to say that the year has not been up to the expectations promised by the first six months of the year. The trend of the euro, which has slowly changed position on the dollar, has made it easier to retain the Italian position and market share in some important countries, but this was not enough, at least on some markets such as the North American one, to make up for what had been lost beforehand to those competitors that even in the future will be able to benefit from advantages that are by now uncontrollable. Such producers as Brazil for granite and Turkey for marble have become in some fields better partners than us for the United States, even if the total amount of our market shares remains the highest ever.

As part of an international trend which sees a relentless expansion in the use of natural stone, many Italian companies have now decided, to enter the north American market more easily, to take part in the development of the competing industries, through different forms of presence, to make the most of their competitive edge, for instance: closeness to the destination markets, lower production and running costs. The domestic industry is left with the specialty market, which is directed to all markets and in particular the domestic and the EU markets, which are close and very demanding.

In such an uncertain scenario, some signs of recovery emerge for the Italian exports to such areas as the Middle East, which in 2005 grew by quantity and value because of the high quality of its orders, while the decrease of the European Union is worrying (it is the priority market for the stone industry), with its fall-off affecting all exports, but especially the finished products. These fall-offs are not offset by the increase in the non-EU markets or the steady growth in North Africa, which is also interested in high tech and equipment, while the overall exports balance for 2005 remains negative, compared to 2004, although very slightly so. And so the climate of uncertainty is bound to linger on, even if the current trend looks very promising for the future.