Figures for the German building industry

Still the leader in Europe

6,524 ? a second were spent on building in Germany in 2004, which equates to total building work of some 205 billion ?.
According to the Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie, the old German states accounted for 170 billion ? of this. Almost one fifth of the total building work, namely 36 billion ?, was carried out in the new German states. In the whole of Germany, 9.5 % of the Gross Domestic Product was spent on building.

As everyone knows, the situation in the German building industry has been very critical for years due to weak economic growth and excessive public debt. Statistics from the Zentralverband des Deutschen Baugewerbes show that investments dropped in all categories last year, namely to 119.2 billion ? (-1.6 %) for housing construction, to 58.6 billion ? (-3.7 %) for industrial building and to 26.8 billion ? (-4.8 %) for public building. Building investment declined by 1.8 % in the old German states and 6.1 % in the new German states. Building permits were granted for a total of 268,123 homes (-9.7 %) in Germany in 2004, including 229,426 in the old states (-9.0 %) and 38,697 in the new states (-13.3 %).

In contrast to the trend for building permits, the volume of homes completed in 2004 increased overall by 1.2 % to 67 billion ?. Here the positive trend of +5.4 % to 41.4 billion ? for finished homes compares with a negative trend of -4.9 % to 25.6 billion ? for non-residential buildings. The growth of new homes is based on the revival of interest in building one- and two-family homes. The 177,213 homes in this sector represent a 7.3 % increase in the volume of finished homes.
The economic situation of the building contractors also remained extremely difficult in 2004. Legal changes contributed to this, as well as the low price levels, rising building material costs and the customers?? paying habits. The number of insolvencies in the building trade dropped by 1.2 % to 8,595 cases, including a 0.9 % drop to 4,214 cases in the main building trade.
Germany with a share of over one sixth of the total continental building market is still the leader in Europe.

Figures from Germany

Good prices can still be achieved for high-quality natural stones

The Deutsche Naturwerkstein-Verband DNV states in its business report that although German domestic production dropped by four per cent in 2004, the decline was less than in 2003, when minus 10.5 per cent was registered.

However, the ??#118alue of the natural stones dropped by altogether 11.3 per cent in view of the persistent price pressure. In terms of the ??#118alue of domestic consumption, local production remained firm with a share of 59 per cent, although the share was still 62 per cent in 2003. In terms of quantity, the share dropped to 41 per cent in 2004, five per cent less than in 2003.

The domestic consumption rose by 7.1 per cent in quantity, but the total ??#118alue decreased. German exports of natural stone registered growth as before in 2003. The growth of eight per cent in 2004 was much higher than 2003 with 2.7 per cent. The ??#118alue even rose by 14.8 per cent, whereas the ??#118alue in 2003 was -4.5 per cent. DNV sees this as a sign that good prices can still be achieved for high-quality natural stones.

The export quota is still relatively low ?C here DNV sees a great potential for German natural stones. In view of the growing appreciation of natural stone among architects and developers, which is expected to continue in the future, there are justified prospects of increasing the market share for natural stone. As the share of key market segments like floor coverings or facade claddings is only two and five per cent respectively, even a small growth in the market share could cause many times more growth in the industry.

Sweden: Rising exports

Sweden has extracted between 300,000 and 400,000 t of natural stone a year in the past ten years ?C with a slightly rising tendency (Germany by comparison: 650,000 to 700,000 t). A large part of this stone is exported in the form of rough blocks and rough slabs.

A record amount of 277,000 t of raw material was exported in 2003, compared with imports of only 24,000 t of raw material. In the same year, 57,000 t of natural stone finished products were produced in the Swedish works themselves, distinctly less than in all years since 1994. This figure was previously an average of some 100,000 t. Swedish domestic consumption of natural stone reached its highest level of 170,000 t in 2000. According to these statistics, it has continuously declined since then; consumption in 2003 was still 112,000 t.

Compared with the nineties, the imports of finished goods to Sweden have more or less doubled in the first years of the new century. 68,000 t of natural stone finished products were imported in 2003, but only 13,000 t exported.

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

Norway: China a growing market

The extraction of natural stone (mainly Labrador) in Norway reached new records in 2002 and 2003 with 550,000 t each year. The production of rough stone has risen continuously since the start of the nineties. As in Sweden and Finland, the largest part of the production is exported in the form of raw materials. These exports were 326,000 t and 348,000 t respectively in 2002 and 2003, which are also new records.

The key customers are Italy and ?C to a heavily increasing extent ?C China. These figures contrast with exports of finished goods from Norwegian production, which have declined recently. Exports of finished goods were 14,000 t in 2003, compared with 26,000 t in each of the two previous years. On the other hand, imports of natural stone finished goods have more than doubled within a decade. According to the Italian industry report »Stone 2004«, 74,000 t of finished goods were imported in each of the years 2002 and 2003.

Natural stone consumption in Norway itself has also more than doubled within a decade and reached a volume of 195,000 t in 2003. The natural stone market has grown more strongly in Norway than in any other Scandinavian country.

Brazil: From block supplier to slab producer

One could almost be envious: Whereas Europe is hoping for an upturn, Brazilian natural stone industry is in full swing. The producers and processors in the world??s fifth largest country have every reason for optimism. A new quarry is opened every week and there are already well over 1,000 different materials. Brazil already holds fifth place in the world as block supplier and eight place for rough slabs and finished products. The total turnover of the Brazilian stone industry is estimated at 2.8 billion US dollars.

According to Brazilian statistics, altogether 6.4 million tons of marble, granite, slate and quartzite are extracted per year, of which 36 per cent are exported. The ??#118alue of exports in the first half of 2005 was 347000000 US dollars.

The USA with 49 per cent is Brazil??s most important customer. The colourful granites are very popular among American end consumers. More and more American natural stone processors therefore purchase polished slabs and make them into kitchen worktops in the USA. Europe is the second most important customer with 36 per cent, followed by Asia with 6 and the Latin American market with 5 per cent.

World stone products

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