The pandemic’s photograph in Italy

The Covid-19 impact is of course not limited to being a threat to global health. The world’s trade is also going through this tunnel of horror. Maybe we could exclude the food and informatics sectors from this category since they are considered the “winners” of the pandemic period. Apart from these two, all people from the other sectors are trying to find ways to overcome these tough times. And it is no different for the natural stone sector. In Italy, which is a strong player in the natural stone sector just like Turkey, the statistics reveal similar results.

1 EXPORTS DECREASE BY 24.5%

According to the statistics announced by Confindustria Marmomacchine, the exports of Italian natural stone companies fell by 24.5% in the first half of the month. Having earned €1.4 billion in the first half of 2019 from exports, Italian companies’ income in 2020 fell down to €1.05 billion. The Italians had concluded the year 2019 with an export income of €2.9 billion which corresponded to 5% of Italy’s total export earnings.

2 MACHINERY EXPORT DECREASES BY 26%

The natural stone export is not the only problem for Italians since the exports in the machinery and supplementary products, which are some of the country’s most valuable markets, decreased by 26%. Having earned €533 million in the first half of the last year, Italian machinery exporters made €394.4 million in 2020. Considering that there are more than 3200 companies and 34.000 employees in the Italian natural stone and technology sectors, the magnitude of the crisis is revealed.