2018 will be a better year for the natural stone industry

The marble industry in Turkey grew 10 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year and export total reached to USD 2 billion 48 million. We anticipate that 2018 will be a better year for export and local sales. Following the trade show in India, we participated in the trade show in Xiamen, China. Despite the slowness in global markets, the interest in Turkish marble and natural stones has been increasing. There has been no improvement in European markets such as Spain, Greece, Germany and France. Even Middle Eastern markets have slowed down. Especially projects in Saudi Arabia have slowed down and even stopped. Markets such as China, USA and Canada maintained the levels in previous years. Economic problems in Spain and Greece in Europe affected our industry. On the other hand, the interest for Muğla white marble in the American market has increased. We anticipate that this increase will continue. Our marble block sales have increased in the Chinese market. In 2017, the export numbers for China for marble has reached to USD 1 billion. The demand in China remains the same but their production is higher. And because of unsold products, prices go down both in the local and international markets.

We see a significant increase in the use of Muğla marble in construction projects in the local market especially in big cities such as Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Although the tile industry continues to develop new products, the beauty of natural stones is still in high demand. We are hopeful about this year. It is going to be a good year for marble and natural stone industries. We, as Muğla Marble Manufacturers Associations organized a workshop in January together with Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Muğla Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Muğla Metropolitan Municipality. We will focus on environmental investments. We want a dedicated Organized Industrial Zone (OSB) for marble but we cannot find a solution. Most lands in Muğla province are forest lands and protected areas (SİT). There are no large areas to build an OSB. And this leads to unplanned industrial areas and unplanned, disorganized investments. The biggest problem of the industry in Muğla province is disposal and storage of marble waste. We plan to work on this.

The industry has many chronic problems. We are an industry which has 100 percent local production with high added values and high employment figures. However slow bureaucratic procedures overwhelm us and cause the companies to downsize. Because of these slow legal and bureaucratic procedures we are increasingly late in the global markets. There is a fashion concept in the marble industry. We are late for the fashion products. We have problems in introducing new products in the market. We have expressed our problems about permits and permit fees for forest lands. 50 percent reduction in permit fees for a period of 10 years was included in the latest omnibus bill but has not yet started to be applied. The industry needs more attention because our products are 100 percent locally produced and we deserve this.