Stone-Ideas.com 
A study was presented before Marmomac that even ranks the parts of the US as target regions
Italy’ natural stone exporters will focus even more on the US market in the near future than before. This can be concluded from a study that examined the country’s position on the world markets and produced a detailed analysis of the individual states for the USA. It was prepared on behalf of Marmomac by the market research institute Nomisma and presented a few days before the fair in Milan.
At the beginning of this year, news from Brazil had already pointed to this focus of the Italians: The natural stone fair in Vitória, which is owned by Veronafiere, will in future be called “Marmomac Brasil“ (February 18 – 20, 2025) and will explicitly help to give the Italian stone sector better access to the markets in the USA and Canada.
In this respect, political prominence was in order also at the opening of Marmomac: the Minister for Economic Affairs and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, traveled from Rome, and the presidents of the regions of Verona and Veneto and representatives of various organizations also appeared.
Once again, the highest political authorities made it clear how important the stone sector is for Italy’s economy.
The figures show this: in 2023, the sector exported goods with a total value of €3.1 billion.
The lion’s share of this total was made up of stone end products (€1.7 billion). They are used largely on façades, walls, or floors in exclusive private or commercial projects.
The producers of technology exported goods worth €755 million in machinery and equipment – this figure sounds smaller than it actually is, because Italy is the world market leader in this area.
Let’s move on to the USA. Almost a quarter (23%) of the €3.1 billion in total exports went to North America. “The USA is the most important export market for Italian stone exports, with an increase of +56% in the last decade,“ it says in the introduction to this part of the study.
The overview first looks at the regions of the USA and Italy’s stone deliveries: “The most important states were Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, and New York.“
The study shows the fields of action: “In California and New York, Italy is the leader, but in Texas it is only fourth after Brazil, China and Turkey.“
Overall, the figures show the “enormous development potential“ that exists in North America for Italian companies, says Emanuele Di Faustino, head of the study at Nomisma.
And further: “In the field of technology and machinery, the most important states are Georgia and North Carolina, where there are important granite and marble quarries. In this field, Italy is the leader or at least among the top three in most of the large American states.“
Nomisma points to the hotel and hospitality sectors as particularly interesting fields for stone products made in Italy. It is “expected that the number of hotels in the USA will increase from 59,600 units in 2023 to around 62,000 in 2026… Already in the first half of 2024, 250 new facilities were opened (in 6 out of 10 cases in the upper and mid-price segment), in addition to more than 6,000 projects under development. The most dynamic cities here include Dallas (Texas), Atlanta (Georgia), Nashville (Tennessee), Phoenix (Arizona), and the metropolitan area in California.“
The study also takes a look at target regions for Italy’s stone sector outside the USA: In 2023, almost a third of deliveries (31%) went to Europe. “The importance of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, which together account for around 20% of the total value, should not be neglected.“
According to Nomisma’s analysis, Italy’s stone exports account for 13% of the world market, putting the country in second place after China (31%). However, calculations from other countries put Turkey and India ahead of Italy. The Nomisma figures presumably include stones and technology together.