Jun 23
2026

Since more than ten years, Xiamen Stone Fair has been pushing the creative use of stone with its initiative “Habitat Interior Design Exhibition (XHDLF) “. The photo from 2024 shows the presentation titled “Knitting“ designed by Kinney Chan (Kinney Chan & Associates) for the company Stonelink. Another initiative was the „Stone Infinite Product Design“ show.Since more than ten years, Xiamen Stone Fair has been pushing the creative use of stone with its initiative “Habitat Interior Design Exhibition (XHDLF) “. The photo from 2024 shows the presentation titled “Knitting“ designed by Kinney Chan (Kinney Chan & Associates) for the company Stonelink. Another initiative was the „Stone Infinite Product Design“ show.

The China Stone Material Association (CSMA) has investigated market prospects for natural stone in the country’s major cities. We publish the results without editing:

“Following our joint industry research across Nantong, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Xi’an, and other major Chinese cities, we have sorted out three high-value reporting angles focusing on China’s domestic stone market vitality, high-end industrial strengths, and technological innovation.
Below are detailed introductions of each reporting direction:

1. Market Potential & Future Development Trends

China’s stone consumption structure is undergoing obvious positive transformation, bringing huge long-term market potential worthy of global industry attention.

Demand for natural stone is rebounding steadily in urban renewal projects, cultural tourism complexes, high-end hotels, luxury residential buildings and villas. A large number of benchmark stone application projects have been completed in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Xi’an and other core cities, presenting mature and replicable large-scale stone construction cases for global reference.

Besides traditional exterior wall decoration, artistic and household stone applications are gaining growing popularity.

Driven by global social media platforms, ordinary consumers have built deeper recognition of natural stone’s texture and performance, which will continuously boost stone adoption in domestic home decoration markets. This robust domestic demand lays a solid foundation for China’s stone industry to develop mature products, craftsmanship and complete industrial chains before expanding overseas markets.

2. High-End Market & Leading Competitive Enterprises

The Yangtze River Delta region stands as China’s core high-end stone consumption hub, featuring top-tier indoor and outdoor stone decoration standards and a fully integrated upstream-downstream industrial chain.

A cluster of outstanding local enterprises have formed full-cycle service capabilities, covering material selection, deepening design, precision customized processing, on-site installation and after-sales maintenance as a one-stop solution.

Different from stone suppliers that only sell cut-to-size products, these enterprises are capable of cooperating with global high-end architectural projects, making them ideal partners for overseas designers, engineering contractors and developers.

3. Craftsmanship Innovation & Technical Upgrades

Chinese stone manufacturers and construction groups have achieved remarkable breakthroughs in production and construction technology, which aligns with global green, low-carbon and sustainable building trends.

On processing side: Enterprises keep upgrading core technologies including ultra-thin cutting, seamless jointing and special-shaped curved surface fabrication, alongside higher automated and intelligent production equipment to improve product precision and output efficiency.

On construction side: Prefabricated production, detachable architectural structures and unitized curtain wall systems are widely promoted. Factory prefabrication drastically cuts on-site construction work, improves project efficiency, and greatly reduces construction energy consumption and construction waste, matching the global low-carbon construction agenda.

During our field research, we held in-depth exchanges with architectural designers and construction contractors to solve common technical difficulties in stone engineering applications. Moving forward, our association will carry out fundamental technical research to provide solid data and technical support for safe, high-standard stone construction.

We will also leverage the HUABIAO Award, China’s top prize for stone architectural and interior decoration projects, to build a regular communication platform connecting leading stone enterprises, designers and construction firms. More high-quality stone application cases will be shared with global architectural designers, and we will jointly promote the cultural and ecological value of natural stone to reshape public cognition of this sustainable building material.“

China Stone Material Association, CSMA (Chinese)