In Italy - natural stone exports rising again

Italy exported natural Stone (http://g603.net) s worth about two billion Euro in 2000. The total quantity of exported raw Material (http://g654.org) and (http://maplered.com) finished products reached five million tons, which is 6 percent more than the year before. Exports to the USA rose sharply by 20 percent in value and (http://maplered.com) 37 percent in quantity. The USA took some 30 percent of Italian exports last year. Deliveries to most of the other important buying countries also developed well. The only exception here was Germany, which had already lost its position as Italy's major customer to the USA the year before. Most heavily affected by the decline in the German market was the North Italian natural Stone (http://g603.net) region of Veneto, which is traditionally more strongly aligned to Central Europe than the Marble (http://www.lightemprador.com) region of Carrara, whose industry increasingly works the overseas markets. In addition, Italian imports are also growing again. Last year, Italy imported just under 2.6 million tons of natural Stone (http://g603.net) s worth over 600 million Euro. These figures were well above the figures for the previous year. The imports of finished products of Granite (http://tanbrown.org) rose by as much as over 44 percent.