Local production of marble slabs was up slightly but down significantly for granite slabs

On the fringe of the Xiamen Stone Fair CSMIA, the China Stone Material Association divulged current statistics of the country’s stone branch for 2017:
National production:
* Production for marble slabs amounted to 269 million m². The figure includes sales of companies clearing 20 million RMB (~3.2 million US-$) per year.
* This represented growth of (+)12.2% relative to the year before.
* Granite slabs amounted to a production of 476 million m² (by companies of the above-mentioned turnover).
* This represents negative growth of (-)31.6%.

Import/Export:
Chinese imports in 2017
* 14,6 million t natural stone valuing 2.8 billion US-$.
* That was an increase in tonnage of (+)23.1%, and increase by value of (+)27%.

Chinese exports in 2017
* 11.7 million t of natural stone valuing some 6.8 billion US-$.
* This represents a negative growth rate of (-)2.6% by tonnage and (-)8.4% by value.

The discrepancy between export by value and tonnage shows once more that China imports almost raw blocks almost exclusively and sells value-added products. The price for imported blocks declined sharply.

Engineered stone and quartz composites:
* Some 45,000-t valued at 48.3 million US-$ were imported
* That was a decrease in tonnage of (-)37.6%, and (-)18.5% by value.
* some 650,000-t valued at 1.1 billion US-$ were exported.
* That represents an increase in tonnage of (+)46.0%, and even of (+)81.7% by value.

China Stone Material Association (CSMIA), Chinese

(08.04.2018, USA: 04.08.2018)