Portugal is among the 10 largest marble exporters in the world, with significant sales of both marble blocks and slabs and finished marble products. At the same time, Portugal is one of the countries that provide the US with finished marble products. In 2018, the US imported from Portugal finished marble products worth $17.71 million only under only one HS tariff code.
The first half of 2019 was difficult for the global natural stones market, mainly due due to the trade war between China and the US. Most of the top natural stone producing countries of marble, for instance, experienced large fluctuations or, even worse, serious damages to their marble export trade. How has Portugal’s growth changed during the first half of 2019 comparing to the corresponding 2018 first half both in marble blocks and slabs and finished marble products exports?
Portugal, unlike Italy and Greece, had positive growth in marble blocks and slabs export trade during the first half of 2019 compared to the corresponding 2018 period. Both export value and quantity showed significant increase. More specifically, March showed the highest rise in export value with 64.61%, followed by February with 57.10% and April with 49.66%. As for quantity of exports, Portugal exported significantly more marble blocks and slabs during the first half of 2019, showing even a two-fold increase in February. Even June which was the month with the lowest increase in quantity of exports, had a considerable positive growth of 30.21%.
Things become different for finished marble products exports of Portugal during the first half of 2019, as the country had negative growth in export value in the majority of months, except May which closed with a plus sign. As for quantity of exports, the half is divided into quarters: during the first quarter the quantity of exports decreased while during the second quarter it rose up again.
It is worth mentioning that during the first half of 2019, Portugal managed to export marble blocks and slabs of 21.26 million euros worth as well as finished marble products of 37.12 million euros.
*Due to consistent data flow, statistics may alter during the year
