On behalf of the natural stone sector, the US market has almost closed its doors, and the Chinese market is not smiling. Recently, India and the Gulf market seem to be the two addresses that give morale to the sector. But is it really so? We analyzed the figures of the last 10 years in the Gulf market and listened to the language of figures. First of all, let’s go to 2014. Turkey’s total revenue from natural stone exports to 8 Gulf countries was 195.1 million dollars. Saudi Arabia alone accounted for 110.7 of this 195 million dollars.
Let’s come to 2022… According to the year-end statistics for 2022, revenue from the 8 Gulf countries has increased to 214.6 million dollars. In other words, there is a 9 percent increase in revenue compared to 2014. This means an increase of approximately 19 million dollars. In a market that we are geographically very close to, a growth of 19 million dollars in 9 years does not point to a positive picture. So why is the Gulf market standing still?
In fact, the Saudi Arabia factor should be underlined here. In 2020, a record income of 139.2 million dollars was achieved in this market, but the problems actually started in the last quarter of the same year. As a result of the tension between the governments of the two countries and the embargo imposed by the Saudi government on products labeled “Made in Turkey” as of September 2020, 2021 turned into a nightmare. In 2021, the lifeblood of the Gulf market dried up for Turkey, which sold only 400 thousand dollars to Saudi Arabia!
The lifting of the embargo in 2022 has undoubtedly re-energized the Saudi market. However, we observe that 2022 closed with a revenue of 81 million dollars in Saudi Arabia, and this figure climbed to 84.4 million dollars in the first 9 months of 2023. In other words, by the end of 2023, the Saudi market will still be below 2014 levels. As we explained above, there is a political reason for this decline. What is the situation in other countries?
Among the Gulf countries, Kuwait has shown the greatest development since 2014, reaching $21.8 million by the end of 2022, up from $7.7 million… Apart from Kuwait, where we have shown a growth of 64.6 percent, we see that the Qatar market has also reached 25.2% from $101 million. The revenue in the United Arab Emirates, which increased from 47.5 million dollars to 64.4 million dollars, is one of the most positive pictures. However, the first 9 months of 2023 indicate that we will remain far away from the 2022 statistics in countries other than Saudi Arabia.
