Natural stone exports reached 2 billion Dollars!

In 2017, natural stone sector in Turkey achieved its 2 billion dollars targeted limit by reaching 13.43% increase in export.

Natural stone sector in Turkey, which has been experiencing hard times in exports in recent years, has finished 2017 with an increase of 13.43%. Countries which are making huge amount of export such as China, the USA, India, Israel, United Arab Emirates, France and Australia became hope for the sector which has started 2018 with a great motivation.

China barrels toward 1 billion dollars

The leading block supplier China imported more than 29.63% in 2017. In 2016, China’s export was 729 million 560 thousand 283 dollars. In 2017, this number was increased to 945 million 747 thousand 288 dollars. There has been an increase in quantity basis as well as value-based exports in China. By purchasing stone 29.69% more, China imported 4.694.18.34 kg stone from Turkey in 2017.

54.03% increase in India

In 2017, India which has 43 million cubic meters of granite reserve bought natural stone from Turkey for 84 million 899 thousand 617 dollars. Last year, this figure was 55 million 210 thousand 635 dollars. Moreover, there is an increase of 98.81% in the quantity of natural stone export in India. While in 2016, 216.667.757 kg stones were exported to India; in 2017 84.899.617 kg stones were sold.

Good news from the USA

January-February 2016/2017 illustrations of the Natural Stone Country Performance in show also positive changes in export to the USA. In 2017, the USA, which was remaining stable on import in recent years, bought more than 2.5% stones compared to 2016. While in 2016, Turkey’s natural stone sector exported natural stone to the USA for 288 million 185 thousand 578 dollars, in 2017 the number was increased to 294 million 390 thousand 304 dollars. When we look at the country groups, there is an increase in the export to North American countries by 1.87% and to Central & South American countries by 29.89%. In the Central and South American countries, Panama, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Grenada received attention with increase of 67.30%, 174.49%, 127.28% and 1,217.78% respectively.

EU countries: 172 million 132 thousand 954 dollars

The increase happened in the Far East and the USA was seen in the European Union countries, too. While last year export to European Union countries for 163 million 426 thousand 533 dollars was occurred, in 2017 with an increase of 5.33%, natural stones worth of 172 million 132 thousand 954 dollars were exported. In the European Union, following countries drew attention in accordance with their increase rate in the export: 14.74% in France, 12.25% in Italy, 30.67% in Spain, 35.91% in Portugal, 49.94% in Hungary, 36.54% in Malta, 137.77% in Croatia, 104.21% in Finland and 301.83% in Luxembourg.

According to the Turkish Exporters Assembly’s export figures for December, this year, Turkey’s export is worth 157.1 billion and the second highest export level in the Republican history was reached.

We provide added value to the economy

Aydın Dinçer, President of the Association of Istanbul Mineral Exporters, pointed out that in 2017 export of minerals and natural stones was 4.69 billion dollars with an increase of 24% and 2 billion dollars of this figure were composed of export of natural stones. Dinçer highlighted the sector’s far greater size as it provides raw material to the other sectors and stated “By using only domestic resources without any imported goods and contributing almost 40 billion dollars to the economy, 4.69 billion dollar export has provided much greater added value.”