DECIDED UPTAKE IN 2021 IN STONE/TECHNO-STONE EXPORTS TO THE USA

DECIDED UPTAKE IN 2021 IN STONE/TECHNO-STONE EXPORTS TO THE USA

23 June 2022 from Marmomacchine International Magazine

Final 2021 data processed by the Confindustria Marmomacchine Studies Center confirm the excellent growth in sales to the United States, the top destination market for both finished stone products and complementary stone technologies Made in Italy.

Italy’s exports of marbles, travertines, granites and other natural stones in general to the States last year in fact reached worth of 407 million euros, with growth of 30.6% from 2020 and actually 10% more than the pre-pandemic figure of 2019. Data from the US Department of Commerce show that this upward trend continued in the first two months of this year, with a 13.5% increase on an annual basis in imports of finished stone products from Italy.

There was a smaller increase (+4.9% from 2020 and +6% from 2019) – also due to growth of 1.2% in 2020 – in sales to the US of Italian machines, installations, equipment and consumables for extracting and processing natural stones, which in 2021 amounted to worth of 146,3 million euros. A figure that confirms Italy’s undisputed market leadership, with around a 30% share of the United States’ total imports of stone-working technologies.

On the level of macroeconomic forecasts, although the Fed has downsized its estimates of economic growth in America for 2022 (from +4% to 2.8%), the year began with good performance in industrial output (+0.9% in March, after the January-February increase of 2% from the final quarter of 2021). March also saw an increase in SME manufacturing indexes (to 58.8 from 57.3) and in those for purchase managers (62.9 from 56.3).