Natural stone has lost none of its fascination over the past years. On the contrary, the consumption of natural stone is growing throughout the world.



The European economic region and especially the German natural stone market is still very important and of great interest for all suppliers of natural stone. This will be shown again at this year’s Stone+tec 2009 in Nürnberg, one of the world’s most important natural stone exhibitions.



German production of natural stone in 2008 dropped by a total of 3.4 %

(2007: -5.8 %) in quantity and 7.8 % (2007: -2.4 %) in value.



German production by kinds of stone



Kind of stone: Processed marble, Travertine, limestones

2007

t: 198.601

1000 EUR: 118.025

2008

t: 194.750

1000 EUR: 106.982

Change 2008/07

t: -1,9 %

1000 EUR: -9,4 %



Kind of stone: Processed granite

2007

t: 104.692

1000 EUR: 131.439

2008

t: 101.215

1000 EUR: 124.627

Change 2008/07

t: -3,3 %

1000 EUR: -5,2 %



Other processed stones

2007

t: 94.439

1000 EUR: 83.207

2008

t: 88.212

1000 EUR: 75.002

Change 2008/07

t: -6,6 %

1000 EUR: -9,9 %



Total processed stones

2007

t: 397.732

1000 EUR: 332.671

2008

t: 384.177

1000 EUR: 306.611

Change 2008/07

t: -3,4 %

1000 EUR: -7,8 %



Source: Information issued by Federal Statistics Office; own calculations



German consumption of natural stone has dropped over the previous year by 4.8 % (2007: +2.7 %) in quantity and by a total of 9.5 % (2007: +0.8 %) in value.



German production maintained its share of domestic consumption with 58 % in value terms (2007: 56 %) and 38 % in quantity (2007: 37 %).



Exports rose slightly again by 2.0 % (2007: 20.4 %) in quantity and 4.1 %

(2007: 13.9 %) in value.



Imports, exports and German consumption of natural stone



Finished products of natural stone



German Production

2007

t: 397.732

1000 EUR: 332.671

2008

t: 384.177

1000 EUR: 306.611

Change 2008/08

t: -3,4 %

1000 EUR: -7,8 %



+ Imports

2007

t: 788.931

1000 EUR: 345.672

2008

t: 753.351

1000 EUR: 319.405

Change 2008/07

t: -4,5 %

1000 EUR: -7,6 %



- Exports

2007

t: -117.740

1000 EUR: -88.901

2008

t: -120.041

1000 EUR: -92.539

Change 2008/07

t: 2,0

1000 EUR: 4,1



= German Consumption

2007

t: 1.068.924

1000 EUR: 589.442

2008

t: 1.017.487

1000 EUR: 533.477

Change 2008/07

t: -4,8 %

1000 EUR: -9,5 %



Source: Information issued by Federal Statistics Office; own calculations



The German natural stone industry has good prospects in the medium and long term because it has the best building know-how in the world and a still very considerable spectrum of natural stones from its own deposits to meet the key requirements – especially among young architects and building planners – of local stones, without transporting them all over the world, building to suit the countryside and preservation of our wealth of historic buildings. The finishing of buildings and thus all natural stone work, whether inside or on the facade, continues to remain a very risky and problematic phase of short duration before completion of the building. Physical proximity is a real benefit for close cooperation between installation and delivery of the workpieces. Fortunately, more modern architecture is also very interested in the use of solid, profiled workpieces and solid assembled details. This tends to imply production here in Germany, alone due to the weight and the necessary precision during assembly.



The long-term trend is that the appreciation of natural stone among developers and architects will continue to grow, so there are justified prospects of increasing natural stone’s market share. Even small amounts of growth in the market share can cause many times more growth in the industry, if it is considered that the market share is only between 2 and 5 % in key market segments like floor coverings and exterior wall claddings.



Current special applications are:

Prestigious building and design

Building facades

Garden and landscaping design

Exterior coverings in public areas

'Furnishing' of inner-city traffic and rest areas

Transport buildings (airports, railway stations)

Interior design (bathrooms, kitchen worktops)



Renovation and redevelopment



Interior renovation for improving residential value

Improving the prestige level of existing public interior spaces

Facade cleaning and restoration



Natural stone as an ecological and economic building material is an important part of our architectural culture. This is shown again by the presentation of the German Natural Stone Award 2009 at Stone+tec 2009.



The German Natural Stone Award is now presented for the 14th time and can look back on a quarter of a century of architectural history. The 2009 award is presented for innovative, high-quality and user-orientated natural stone projects. The competition focuses on natural stone as a building material that contributes to the design of public spaces and individual properties and is exemplary in terms of consideration of environmental problems, sustainability and energy efficiency. A prerequisite for this is a partnership between the creativity of the architects and the skills of the natural stone contractor, who offers the knowledge and technical equipment to professionally implement the many possible applications of natural stone.



In addition to the two German Natural Stone Awards in 2009, each worth 7,500 €, three works have been awarded special merits (5,000 € prize money each) and 6 highly commended.



DNV again shows a survey of German natural stones at Stone+tec 2009 in Nürnberg and presents 220 samples of natural stones with different finishes on stand 203 in hall 1 from 20-23.5.2009 . The entries for the German Natural Stone Award 2009 are also on display. The German Natural Stone Award itself is presented in the EventArea next to the DNV stand in hall 1 at 10 a.m. on Friday, 22.5.2009.



In a special show for the German Natural Stone Award, the companies Bamberger Natursteinwerk Graser, HEMM STONE, Hofmann Natursteinwerke, Lauster Steinbau, Quirrenbach, Sächsische Sandsteinwerke, Schön + Hippelein, TRACO and Zeidler & Wimmel present natural stones from German production with various finishes on stand 307 in hall 1 next to the EventArea. These are also presented in a special issue of S_Visions.