China is the main importer of Greek marble, absorbing almost 60% of the Greek marble exports, both in block and slabs as well as finished marble products. 2008 was the peak year of Greek marble exports to China. Since then, there is a gradual decline in China’s imports from Greece. 2019 was a difficult year as China’s global trade was affected by the US-China trade war, ending with the outbreak of the coronavirus. 2020 was not expected to be better but on the contrary the worst scenarios were confirmed. The spread of COVID-19 all over the world damaged global trade and marble could not be the exception.
Stonenews.eu, after collecting, studying and editing the statistical data provided by the General Customs Administration of China, is presenting the country’s marble products import growth from Greece, both for blocks and slabs as well as finished marble products, examining the value and quantity of imports. The data given by the Chinese are of two-month period January – February 2020 in total for the first time this year, so the comparison was made with the previous period of November – December 2019 as well as the same months of 2019.
As seen at the table above, marble blocks and slabs suffered the greatest losses during the two first months of the year compared to the last two of the previous year, both in value and quantity of imports. Finished marble products, on the other hand, reported an enormous rise in quantity of imports.
As for the results of the comparison between January-February 2020 and January-February 2019, there is an overall decrease both for marble blocks and slabs and for finished marble products imports. More specifically, marble block and slabs had a large decline in quantity of imports, which is not mirrored to value, meaning that Greece managed to export marble blocks and slabs in higher prices. Finished marble products though suffered a rather severe damage, both in value and quantity of imports.
It is important to note that the Chinese tariff system has some minor differences from the european one, and this may cause some deviations when comparing mirroring data. Due to our commitment to reliable information, a second report of Greece’s marble exports to China for the same period of time will follow, resulting of the data given by Eurostat.
*Due to consistent data flow, statistics may alter during the year
