The innovation in the ceramic industry and their ability to produce perfect copies of natural stone throw spanner in the works…
We should accept without alleging China’s new economic program as pretext that export has tended to decrease for 2 years… The most grim news about these figures is the fact that the amount of stone sold by Turkey increases still! In other words, we unfortunately sell our stones for cheaper and cheaper prices everyday.
Because there’s a strange demand and supply gap in Turkey. If you talk to the companies, they’ll complain about not being able to take permits from the government and say that they cannot open quarries and start production, despite the fact that dozens of new products are launched to the market every year.
That’s where the main problem lies.
As there’s no demand for this oversupply, the prices suffer!
Two years ago, Flavio Marabelli, the President of Italian Marble Machinery Manufacturers’ Association, said during an interview, “The fact that Turkey exports with low profit margins worries us. If they earn little, they’ll invest little and they’ll buy less machinery from Italy. If it continues that way, marble production might stop because of not being able to meet the expenses they make.”
The domestic market is not reliable. It’s enough to take a look at the public buildings built in the last 15 years, airports, and the presidency palace to see why. As a matter of fact, we should examine how much natural stone is exported by Turkey which is one of the biggest natural stone producer and exporter countries of the world.
What I say is that we’re going through hard times.
We have to find new markets and develop strategies with shared wisdom…
My biggest fear is that Marabelli turns out to be right, otherwise.
