Imports are also growing - and much more strongly than exports.

China purchased 3.4 million tons of natural stone worth 586 million US dollars on the world market in 2003. This represented an increase of 32.6 % (value) and 34.4 % (quantity) over the previous year. The average price per ton of imported material rose only slightly from 172 to 174 US dollars. The most important import goods were rough marble blocks (value: 198 million US dollars), rough granite blocks (258 million US dollars) and marble slabs (89 million US dollars).

Turkey clearly leads the suppliers of rough marble material, followed by Iran, Italy, Spain, India, Greece and Egypt. The main import goods are white, cream and colored types of marble - especially yellow. China itself has a shortage of such deposits, plus the color yellow plays a very important role in China for cultural history reasons.

India is by far the biggest supplier of granite to China, but Brazil is also a key trading partner for Chinese imports. The most prominent of the European countries are Finland and Norway with their largely exclusive types of granite.

China also needs large amounts of natural stone in the future. Experts expect imports to increase by 15 % a year in the coming period. The reasons for this are the continuing strong growth in the building sector, but also China's accession to the WTO and the associated reduction of import duties.The largest demand for imported natural stones is still in the centers, especially in those on or near the east coast, for example, in Beijing, Quingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xiamen and Guangzhou. (July 2004, Stone Report. World's Largest Stone Consuming Country China, March 2004)