As already reported in previous news in Stoneroc, the world's main stone consumer, the USA, is showing a clear downward trend in stone imports.

 

The figures from Statistic Canada for the period of January -July 2007 indicate an increase of only 3% when compared with the same period of 2006. Although this is still a positive figure, a slowdown in imports can be reported, as during the first quarter of 2007 the increase was 7%.

 

A further analysis of the general performance of the different products indicates a dramatic fall in the purchases of raw slate and granite; this is somewhat lower in regard to manufactured slate, while the best results were achieved by paving stones and raw marble.

 

Regarding manufactured products (which account for 94% of all the stone imports), the results are more disparate. Thus, the worst results are recorded in the manufactured granite categories, while manufactured marbles show better performance.

 

In regard to the main suppliers, Italy has lost its leadership to Brazil and Spain has been beaten by Mexico, which now ranks 7th as a supplier. China, Turkey and India hold the 3rd to 5th rankings respectively.

 

Each of these countries shows different performance: the sales from Italy and India have decreased (5.2% and 4.4% respectively), while sales dropped 11.2% for Spain and 4.9% for Mexico, and the rest have grown at different rates (4.1% Brazil, 17.7% China and 6.7% Turkey).