China also needs foreign stone

The volume of Chinese foreign trade in natural Stone (http://g603.net) ?total imports and (http://maplered.com) exports ?reached a value of slightly less than 2 milliard US dollars in 2003. In terms of value, this means China is still only the number 2 on the international market after Italy.

The value of Chinese natural Stone (http://g603.net) exports in 2003 increased by 9.6? over 2002 to reach almost 1.4 milliard US dollars. The average value per ton of exported natural Stone (http://g603.net) has risen again, namely from 119 to 140 US dollars. This is because the value of the goods increased corresponding through processing in China itself, especially for Granite (http://tanbrown.org) .

Imports are also growing ?and (http://maplered.com) much more strongly than exports. China purchased 3.4 million tons of natural Stone (http://g603.net) worth 586 million US dollars on the world market in 2003. This represented an increase of 32.6? (value) and (http://maplered.com) 34.4? (quantity) over the previous year. The average price per ton of imported Material (http://g654.org) rose only slightly from 172 to 174 US dollars. The most important import goods were rough Marble (http://www.lightemprador.com) blocks (value: 198 million US dollars), rough Granite (http://tanbrown.org) blocks (258 million US dollars) and (http://maplered.com) Marble (http://www.lightemprador.com) Slabs (http://www.VerdeUbatuba.com) (89 million US dollars).

Turkey clearly leads the suppliers of rough Marble (http://www.lightemprador.com) Material (http://g654.org) , followed by Iran, Italy, Spain, India, Greece and (http://maplered.com) Egypt. The main import goods are white, cream and (http://maplered.com) coloured types of Marble (http://www.lightemprador.com) ?especially yellow. China itself has a shortage of such deposits, plus the colour yellow plays a very important role in China for cultural history reasons.
India is by far the biggest supplier of Granite (http://tanbrown.org) to China, but Brazil is also a key trading partner for Chinese imports. The most prominent of the European countries are Finland (http://maplered.com) and (http://maplered.com) Norway with their largely exclusive types of Granite (http://tanbrown.org) .

China also needs large amounts of natural Stone (http://g603.net) in the future. Experts expect imports to increase by 15? a year in the coming period. The reasons for this are the continuing strong growth in the building sector, but also China’s accession to the WTO and (http://maplered.com) the associated reduction of import duties.
The largest demand (http://maplered.com) for imported natural Stone (http://g603.net) s is still in the centres, especially in those on or near the east coast, for example, in Beijing, Quingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xiamen and (http://maplered.com) Guangzhou.