Turkey has meanwhile reached seventh place in the global ranking for natural stone production quantities and occupies eighth position for exports. Around 2.8 million tons of natural stone were produced here in 2001 and a new record was created in 2002: production rose to an impressive 3.6 million tons, a rise of about 30 per cent. Imports remained low, but also increased: to 59,000 tons compared with 46,000 tons the year before.

Some 3.7 million tons of raw material were therefore up for sale, of which 763,000 tons were intended for export as slabs and blocks. In percentage terms, this is an impressive growth of around 50 per cent over the previous year.

There is also a definite increase to show in the production of finished products. After some 1.3 million tons in 2001, the Turks achieved about 1.6 million tons a year later.

In contrast to the European countries, for which China has become a strong competitor due to its price policy, Turkey profits from the economic strength of the People's Republic: China was the top buyer of raw material exports from Turkey.(Stone Report, March 2004)