Italy faces an ever-increasing economic damage by the coronavirus outbreak. The third largest economy in Eurozone has been set for recession as the whole country has been put under lockdown. Every sector has been hit severely and it remains to be seen when everything will return to their previous state.
Natural stone industry is one of the sectors suffering really great losses since the start of the year in Italy. 2019 was also a difficult year globally for stone sector mainly due to the US- China trade war and the extended commercial transactions most of the countries had with China. What was Italy’s growth course in 2019 compared to 2018 in marble exports?
Following our previous reports on Italy’s marble export growth during 2019, Stonenews.eu is presenting the country’s marble export growth per month during the year compared with 2018, both for blocks and slabs and finished marble products, in value and quantity of exports.
The table above includes Italy’s marble block and slabs export growth both in value and quantity of exports. It is obvious that the export value had many fluctuations, as Italy is not exclusively dependent on China’s imports of their marble blocks and slabs. The months suffering the greatest fall were February and December, reporting decrease of -19.05% and -15% in value, respectively. The quantity of marble blocks and slabs exports, however, was mostly in a downward trend. February once again held the lead in decrease, recording -26.07% less tons of marble blocks and slabs than February 2018. 1.19 million tons of marble blocks and slabs were exported from Italy through 2019 valued 376.3 million euros.
The picture is different when it comes for Italy’s finished marble products export growth. There was an overall decline for both value and quantity of exports through the year compared to 2018. It is worth mentioning that despite the general fall in finished marble products exports, Italy managed to export 0.5 million tons of finished marble products of 803.85 million euros worth
*Due to consistent data flow, statistics may alter during the year
**The statistics are derived by the HS Codes below (Harmonized System Codes):
25151100, 25151200 and 68022100, 68029100
