International Exhibition of Stone, Design and Technology
This is the most recent snapshot available and was developed by "Laboratorio delle Imprese", an initiative set up by Banco Popolare to analyse the Italian stone industry. No pre-conceived ideas, no prior assumptions: simply an analysis of the reality covering the three-year period 2006-2008. A complex task that took a great deal of time, which is why 2009 data are not included. The Italian stone industry is experiencing a difficult period that is probably not only the outcome of the world economic crisis still underway. Nevertheless, in the three-year period the number of companies (the research covers the entire field from quarrying to processing and commerce in stone) actually grew by 1.5% albeit with an alternating trend: -0.89% in the two-year period 2006-2007, + 2.42 % in the period 2007-2008. Overall, there are about 14,000 companies. Overall turnover in the sector, including quarrying and processing, in 2008 came to more than 4 billion euros, 70% of which from processing slabs and finished articles and the remaining 30% form quarrying. Processing takes a very large portion of material quarried in Italy, joined by significant imports of unhewn blocks. Most exports, on the other hand, involve finished or semi-finished products, although a significant amount of unfinished stone is shipped to China and India. Quarrying involves ten Italian regions, with Sicily in the forefront with 1.4 million tonnes of material, while processing is focused in two districts: Apua-Versilia with about 1100 companies and Verona with about 550 companies, generating turnover of about 1.3 billion euros with a strong export vocation covering about 80% of turnover. Marble represents about 60% of turnover by Italian industry and is without doubt the most highly prized stone. Granite follows with a quota of 20%, while the remaining 20% is shared between other stones such as travertine, pumice and slate, as well as granulates and powders.
