Italian stone exports: value up, volumes down

MONDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2026

Average price at 1,234.6 dollars per tonne, an all-time high. China buys over half the raw blocks, the United States leads on processed goods.

Italian stone exports grew 5.5% in the first half of the year, but the tonnes shipped fell. It is a textbook case in how to read an export figure, and it applies to any sector, not only to marble.

Italian stone exports: the first-half figures

The data come from the research centre of Confindustria Marmomacchine, released ahead of Marmomac, scheduled in Verona from 22 to 25 September.

• Stone sector exports in the first half of 2026: 1,690 million dollars, up 5.5%
• Natural stone: 1,231 million dollars, up 8.2%
• Extraction and processing technologies: 459.2 million dollars, down 0.9%
• Volumes of stone exported: down 3.3%, around 997 thousand tonnes
• Average export price: 1,234.6 dollars per tonne, an all-time high

On the other side imports fell 5.1%, to 245 million dollars, and the sector's trade surplus rose 7.6%, to 1,445 million.

Value rises, tonnes fall

Here is the reading that matters. Sales of natural stone grow 8.2% in value while volumes fall 3.3%: the growth does not come from more goods sold, it comes from a higher average price and a mix shifted towards products worth more.

The figure that confirms it is the average price, which reached 1,234.6 dollars per tonne, with processed products above 2,000 dollars per tonne for the first time. Within the aggregate, processed and semi-processed goods grow 7.5% and raw blocks 10.6%.

It is worth saying why the distinction is not academic. Growth driven by volumes signals rising demand and, sooner or later, pressure on production capacity. Growth driven by price signals better positioning, or simply costs passed downstream, and says nothing about how full the plants are. These are two situations calling for different decisions on stock, investment and negotiation.

A note on the volume figure: the correct number is in the hundreds of thousands of tonnes, not millions. It follows from dividing the exported value by the stated average price, and it is a check worth making whenever a release reports value, volume and unit price together.

Who buys what

The breakdown by market describes two very different flows, and is more instructive than the headline figure.

On raw blocks the leading buyer is China, with 144.6 million dollars and a share above half the total, up 19.5%; India follows with 30.1 million, up 17%. On processed products the ranking changes completely: the United States first with 323.5 million, up 7.5%, then Germany at 66.3 million, Switzerland at 62.4 with a 27.7% rise, France at 58.1 down 1.7% and the United Arab Emirates at 41.2 million, up 24.9%.

In short, Italy sells the raw material mainly in Asia and the finished product mainly in North America and Europe. It is a snapshot, not a judgement: it describes where the processing sits, not whether it is best placed there.

Machinery moves the other way

Extraction and processing technologies are the only segment falling, by 0.9%. According to the association this reflects the stagnation of world stone trade, lower appetite for investment in markets such as North America and the Middle East, and international competition, Chinese in particular.

On that last point it is worth being precise: Italy and China each hold a share close to 30% of the world market for these machines. That Chinese competition weighs is the association's explanation, not an isolated measurement; the figures say Italian machinery exports are flat, not how much of that flatness is due to whom.

What to take away, even if you do not trade marble

The first point is checking the sign. When you receive an export figure showing growth, ask for or look up the corresponding volume: if it is not growing, you are looking at a price effect, and the operational consequences differ from those of rising demand.

The second is the internal consistency of press releases. Value, volume and average price must add up: when they do not, one of the three is wrong, and working out which takes thirty seconds of arithmetic.

The third concerns your own markets. If you sell or buy abroad, this sector's split between raw and processed shows how differently two markets for the same product can behave: the aggregate average hides both.

With La Merce, reading Italian stone exports means always putting volume next to value before drawing conclusions, because in the first half of 2026 those two numbers moved in opposite directions.

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