Natural stone consumption, either raw in block and slabs or finished stone products, depends in a great level of the economy and the construction sector, which is the largest consumer of natural stone products. Between 2015 and 2019 construction showed a healthy growth in most of Eastern Europe countries and some of them experienced considerable growth in residential construction, both in new houses and in renovation. This growth led to a corresponding growth in natural stone consumption and consequently in marble products imports during this period.
At the graphs below, Stonenews.eu, after collecting, studying and editing the statistical data provided by Eurostat, is presenting Eastern Europe countries marble products import value between 2015 and 2019, both for marble blocks and slabs and finished marble products. The countries studied were Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Among these countries, Slovakia is the one with the greatest growth in marble blocks and slabs import value between 2015 and 2019, and also the one with the largest import value in total of the five years. On the contrary, Croatia was the smaller consumer of marble blocks and slabs in the period given, resulting also to a negative final growth. Bulgaria comes second in marble blocks and slabs total import value, followed by Czech Republic.
Things change when it comes for finished marble products imports. Romania holds the lead in total import value during the period 2015-2019, followed by Poland and Slovenia. However, this does not reflect on import value growth, as Hungary comes first, followed by Romania and Bulgaria.
