Worldwide, marble has a trade of $45 billion. Despite having one of the biggest marble reserves in Asia, Pakistan has a share of one percent in the world market. Pakistan earns about $20 to 30 million from marble, onyx and granite and their products export to the United States, China, Europe, Middle East Italy, UK and Germany. The government has set marble and granite export target to $500 million by 2013, after establishment of model quarries and Marble Cities initiated by Pakistan Stone Development Company (PASDEC).
Marble is an export oriented item. During 2007-08, the country earned around $35 million from the marble and its products export, while in 2006-07, it was $22 million.
Middle East is now sharing a larger portion of Pakistani marble export, because of competitively low prices. Export to this region is advantageous due to less cost of transportation and other charges. Marble Manufacturers and Exporters Association has planned to establish warehouses to meet the increasing demand.
In Pakistan, marble is included in the list of largest minerals extracted among coal, Chromite, rock salt, lime stone, china clay, dolomite, fire clay, gypsum, silica sand etc. Since 1990 mining and quarrying is contributing 0.5 percent to the GDP. Production of marble and granite has grown about 18 percent in the last twenty five years. It has also been accompanied with high quarry wastage, some times ranging up to 70 percent, in addition to poor quality mainly due to uncontrolled blasting.
The marble industry is directly linked with housing and construction sectors. There are over 1,000 marble units of which 250 are big units. The industry is providing employment to about 40,000 to 50,000 people. The small scale marble sector is generating around one billion rupee products for domestic consumption.
The processing industry for dimensional stones in Pakistan developed in the late sixties. In mid seventies plants were imported from Italy. Although the machines were of second generation but were good enough to cut slabs and tiles, therefore, they speeded up growth of the industry.
At the end of 1970s cottage level marble products industry had shown its potential not only for domestic but for export market too. A specific area in Karachi developed with a whole range of activities linked to this industry.
The extraction of mines is still carried out in outdated method of blasting that resulted in huge wastage. While international standard is only 30 to 35 percent. Processing industry is using wide collection of technological options for basic as well as finishing stage. Presently, the processing industry relies upon local manufactured machinery and equipment with a very few calibrated and high efficiency machines from reputable local and international suppliers.
However, marble processing of stones technology in Pakistan has changed from simple blades, wires and cutting tools to very high efficiency cutting segments and abrasive materials, during the last 40 years.
The first of its kind of project has been initiated in Khuzdar, Balochistan, namely Model Quarry Khuzdar, which was to be fully operational within 6 months. The government would be able to extract 50 to 60 thousand ton of material through these machineries.
Presently, the government is extracting only 5,000 ton per annum, through blasting and other methods. After completion of the Khuzdar project, the country would be able to generate $7 million per annum from the export of raw marble and granite alone. If the marble and granite further processed, the amount would reach $13 million from its exports.
Its actual revival in a big way came up with the formal inauguration of the Marble City in Gadani, Balochistan, two years ago by the then President, General Pervez Musharraf. He described the marble industry as the nation's asset, asserting that it would now be promoted from an objectively conceived thrust.
Three big marble processing units, established at a cost of Rs20 million in Gadani, had started production and their products are not only available inside the country, but would be exported too. The other 27 units are under construction and likely to be completed with expected investment of over Rs100 million.
The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda), is taking keen interest in the development of this industry. In addition, Smeda has planned to set up a modern technical training institution to provide assistance in establishment of marble industry and trained its workers. This would not only ensure availability of skilled local labour for the industry in required numbers, but also help it to compete with the marble products in international market.
Worldwide natural stone extraction is estimated at 1150 million ton per year. Annual production after deduction of waste and cutting losses amounted to about 820 million, referred to a slab thickness of 2 cm. The total production value was estimated at $40 billion.
The global growth took place outside Europe. China now extracts around twice as much natural stone as the previous market leader Italy. India also overtook Italy last year for the first time.
The most important world importer of finished goods is the USA. Stone products worth $1.72 billion were imported in 2003, 18.3 percent more than a year ago. The most important supplier was Italy, which increased its US exports by 7.2 percent to $535 million within two years.
India's contribution to the world stone market was 10 percent and it produces 27 percent of the world's stone. The annual growth was about 15 percent and it is now the third largest natural stone producer in the world, after Italy and China, and plays an important role in world trade of natural stones. China has become the important player of world markets in marble and granite tiles especially in gray, pink and other light colors. Its fast increasing presence has sharply accelerated the trend of lower prices. China exported natural stones and its products for more than a billion dollar last year. The natural stone exports increased by almost 20 percent from 924 million dollars to over 1.1 billion dollars in 2003.
Italian natural stone exports have increased by 5.6 percent in quantity and 2.7 percent in value terms in the first half of 2004. The total export quantity of marble, granite and other processed solid stones reached 1.53 million ton in the first six months of 2004, compared with 1.45 million ton in the first half of 2003. The export value rose from 792 million euros to 813.1 million euros. The growth was attributed mainly to more exports of granite and granite products.
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