Natural stone trade in China has been hit twice, starting with the US – China tariff war and followed by the coronavirus outbreak and spread all over the world, which froze business in sectors related to stones, such as construction, leading to low or even no demand. Just a few days ago, US and China trade officials agreed to reinforce their trade deal with mutual give and take in order to de-escalate tension between the two countries and recover as soon as possible from the economic wreckage of COVID-19.
Stonenews.eu, after collecting, studying and editing the statistical data provided by the General Customs Administration of China, is presenting the country’s marble blocks and slabs imports growth in the 1st quarter of 2020, compared with last year’s same quarter as well as exactly the previous quarter in 2019.
China’s marble blocks and slabs import value during the first three months of 2020 showed a light increase of 4.65% when compared with the exact same period of 2019, though the quantity of imports declined by -20.43%, leading to a 31.52% rise in unit value. However, marble blocks and slabs imports of China decreased both in value and quantity since the last quarter of 2019, although the unit value recorded a light rise of 4.88%.
Turkey still remains by far China’s greatest supplier of marble blocks and slabs, followed by Italy, which sells in higher prices. Iran, Egypt and Greece complete the top 5 marble blocks and slabs suppliers list.
*Due to consistent data flow, statistics may alter during the year
