There has been a major decrease in marble imports in UK during the last years while Brexit is going to hurt imports mostly from EU member countries.
Stonenews.eu, following their research on the statistic reports of the International Trade Centre and the National Statistical Institutes, is presenting the variation in UK’s marble imports between 2016 and 2017 as well as the shares in value and quantity during 2017.
Marble Blocks & Slabs*
Since 2007, when they reached a record high of more than 38.7 million dollars, UK Marble Blocks & Slabs imports have been titled to the downside, closing at 15.1 million dollars in 2017.
Statistic reports show that, between 2016 and 2017, UK imported Marble Blocks & Slabs at a lower price per ton by 39.06%, which was the outcome of a great increase in the number of imports by 51,68% and a reduction in value by 7.56%.
A key factor in the reduction of price per ton was the large amount of Marble Blocks & Slabs imported from Norway in a particularly low price. Note that, from 2001 till 2017, UK rarely imported Marble Blocks & Slabs of low value, quantity and price per ton from Norway.
The table below shows the leading ten countries importing Marble Blocks and Slabs into the UK, according to the import value shares of 2017.
As shown in the table above, in 2017 UK imported Marble Blocks & Slabs from France at higher price per ton compared to 2016 by the impressive +2,473%, from Turkey by +81,87%, from Italy by +42,78%, from China by +30,78%, from Portugal by +21,42%, from Egypt by +5,55%, from India by 4,83% and from Spain by 1,64%. On the contrary, UK imported at lower price per ton only from Greece by -7,52%. As far as Norway is concerned, UK did not import any Marble Blocks & Slabs coming from Norway in 2016.
It is worth saying that UK imported about 50% of the Marble Blocks & Slabs value from EU member countries with Italy standing out.
In 2017, UK imported Marble Blocks & Slabs from 26 countries. 45,3% of the import value refers to HS Code 251512*, 38,6% to 251520* and the rest 16,1% to 251511*.
Finished Marble Products*
UK’s Finished Marble Products imports have been constantly decreasing during the last years. Apparently, from 2008 till 2017 the value and the amount of imports were reduced almost by half. However, the price per ton was stable at particularly high levels. Between 2016 and 2017 UK imported Finished Marble Products at higher price per ton by 5,4% although the value of imports decreased by 11,68% while the quantity by 16,2%.
The price per ton rise is mainly due to Turkey, which is the leading supplier of Finished Marble Products for the UK and affects significantly the overall picture of imports.
The table below shows in detail the leading ten countries importing Finished Marble Products into the UK according to the import value shares in 2017.
As shown in the table, in 2017 UK imported Finished Marble from Germany at higher price per ton compared to 2016 by the impressive +725,42%, from Belgium by +78,64%, from Italy by +67,92%, from India by 59,78%, from Spain by +12,9, from Portugal by +9,97%and from Turkey by +5,89%. On the contrary, UK imported at lower price per ton from Greece by -11,2%, from Egypt by -10,18% and from China by -2,72%.
Note that UK imported 78,8% of Finished Marble Products value from countries outside the EU with Turkey standing out.
In 2017, UK imported Finished Marble Products from 36 countries. 57,3% of the total amount of imports refers to HS Code 680291* and the rest 42,7% to 680221*.
* Statistic reports on Marble Blocks and Slabs and Finished Marble Products result from the HS Codes below ( Harmonized System Codes):
251511: Marble and travertine, crude or roughly trimmed
251512: Marble and travertine, merely cut, by sawing or otherwise, into blocks or slabs of a square or rectangular shape
251520: Ecaussine and other calcareous monumental or building stone of an apparent specific gravity of >= 2,5, and alabaster, whether or not roughly trimmed or merely cut, by sawing or otherwise, into blocks or slabs of a square or rectangular shape (excluding in the form of granules, chippings or powder, and marble and travertine)
680221: Marble, travertine and alabaster articles thereof, simply cut or sawn, with a flat or even surface (excluding with a completely or partly planed, sand-dressed, coarsely or finely ground or polished surface, tiles, cubes and similar articles of subheading 6802,10, setts, curbstones and flagstones)
680291: Marble, travertine and alabaster, in any form (excluding tiles, cubes and similar articles of subheading 6802.10, imitation jewellery, clocks, lamps and lighting fittings and parts thereof, buttons, original sculptures and statuary, setts, curbstones and flagstones)
