Finland: Stone quarrying booming

Finland extracted one third more natural stone in 2004 than in the previous year to reach some 830,000 t, which puts Finland at the top of the league of Scandinavian countries. According to the Finnish Natural Stone Association, four fifths of the material extracted is granite and the rest is mainly steatite. The main export country is Germany (??#118alue in 2004: almost 16 million ?), followed by China (13 million ?), Italy (approx. 9 million ?) and Sweden (approx. 8 million ?).

The majority of exports are raw material. The quantity of exports has risen slightly in the last years, but the share of total world trade volume has shrunk from 2.0 % to 1.2 % since 1994. In terms of the overall less important natural stone imports, although these have tended to rise in the last years (total ??#118alue: 10.5 million ?), the countries of origin are China (??#118alue: 4.2 million ?) with a considerable lead, followed by Italy (3 million ?) and Norway (0.8 million ?). Some 85 % of imports are finished products. Finland has the lowest natural stone imports of any country in the European Union