Turkey: A New Leader?

June 4, 2004

While the country’s marble and travertine didn’t exactly appear from nowhere in the past few years, the steady increase in export tonnage makes Turkey a leading supplier of the two stones for U.S. customers.
Part of the growth can be attributed to prices, with Turkish stone offering value as well as quality. Another reason for the growth is in the country’s concentrated efforts to make U.S. stone suppliers and fabricators aware of Turkey’s products.

STONE SUPPLY
Turkey’s history in dimensional stone stretches back some four millennia, with the country providing material for statues and monuments for empires such as the Greek and Roman through the Ottoman era. And, while stone has been one of the country’s main products for thousands of years, there’s still plenty to be found.
The main products are marble and travertine, with more than 250 different types found in the country (and more than 100 different varieties are exported). Data provided by the Istanbul Mineral and Metals Exporters’ Association (IMMEA) shows that Turkey’s proven, probable and potential reserves of marble and travertine total 13.9 billion tons as of this year; all but approximately five percent of that is marble.
“More than 30 percent of the world’s reserves of marble are in Turkey,” says M. Mutlu Öktem, the secretary general from the Turkish government overseeing foreign trades in the mineral market.
Turkey’s production comes from close to 5,000 quarries now operating within its borders. The stone is worked in approximately 1,750 workshops and factories, although more tonnage is exported as rough block than as processed stone.
However, that continues to change as more investment occurs in Turkey in the stone industry. The growth rate of the natural-stone industry in Turkey – in terms of investment, production and exports – has reached up to 13.6-percent during the past 15 years.
Most of Turkey’s marble and travertine comes from the area west of the 31st Parallel and south of Istanbul. The biggest reserves of a single variety marble – more than 680-million metric tons of Gölpazari Beige – are found approximately 100 miles south-southeast of Istanbul, while more than 190-million metric tons of Mustafa Kemalpa?a White Marble is located approximately 100 miles south-southwest of Istanbul.
The largest known deposits of travertine varieties – Bucak White and Denizli – are found in southwestern Turkey, comprising more than 650-million metric tons of reserves. Quarries for both stones are in the Maramara islands and in the provinces of Afyon, Mugla, Eskisehir, Bilecik, Izmir, Bursa, Kirsehir, Balikesir, Burdur, Amasya and Tokat.
While marble and travertine are the best-known Turkish products, others stones are available as well. The country’s granite reserves, at approximately 360 million metric tons, are nowhere near the capacities of leaders such as India, China and Brazil, but interest in the stone is growing, especially in Russia. Other exported stones include limestone and onyx.
The export market takes up the largest share of stone quarried in Turkey – $430.7 million in shipments to more than 130 countries – but domestic use is growing as well. Natural-stone consumption within Turkey is, by some estimates, one-quarter of all materials quarried, and is estimated to grow to more than 30 percent by next year.

THE U.S. FACTOR
For the U.S. market, the main exports are marble and travertine. And, the consumption of Turkish stone is no accident; it’s been due, in part, to a concerted effort to promote the material here.
For example, at the Coverings 2004 event in Orlando this March, the IMMEA coordinated a pavilion with 27 different Turkish companies mainly promoting marble and travertine. The exhibit garnered plenty of interest – and an exhibit award from Coverings – as part of IMMEA’s efforts to make Turkish stone even more-visible in the U.S. market.
Öktem, interviewed at the Coverings pavilion this year, noted that the United States is one of the most-important markets for Turkish marble and travertine, receiving 30 percent of the total export value of the stone. The U.S. market remains important, and the IMMEA is continuing its efforts to expand consumption here of Turkish stone.
“We are bringing together companies,” Öktem says, “and working to attract more people.”
The efforts appear to be paying off for Turkey, as the country became one of the fastest-growing sources for natural stone for U.S. customers. In doing so, it faces the long shadow of Italy’s dominance of the market … but Turkey seems to be finding its place in the sun quickly.
Five years ago, marble imports from Turkey added up to (in U.S. customs value) only $8.5 million, placing it well behind Italy’s $102.5 million. In fact, Turkey placed seventh overall in 1999 U.S. marble imports, according to customs data, getting only a 4.1-percent import-market share.
Last year, Italy led once again in U.S. marble imports, with a U.S. customs value of $135.1 million. Turkey, however, moved up to third at $31.9 million – and less than $5 million behind second-place Spain – getting a 10.4-percent market share in marble imports. (Turkey also came close to doubling its $16.7 million in U.S. marble imports in 2002.)
With travertine, Turkey’s export story is even brighter. In 1999, the country ranked third in U.S. import value, with the $25.6 million (U.S. customs value) in travertine lagging far behind Italy’s $58.8 million and Mexico’s $35.3 million.
And now? Turkey’s travertine imports last year totaled $142.1 million, easily outdistancing Mexico’s $63.2 million and Italy’s $51.7 million. In fact – with the total travertine imports for 2003 from all countries at $278 million – Turkey now enjoys a 51.1-percent market share in U.S. import values.
Turkey’s advantage in the U.S. travertine market grows larger when considering actual volume. The 298,702 metric tons exported to the United States in 2003 represents 61.3 percent of all travertine brought into this country.
Turkey’s marble and travertine exports to the United States grew even stronger in the first quarter of this year. The $7.7 million in marble and $37.2 million in travertine (both in U.S. customs values) sent to this country in the first three months of 2004 represent increases of 40 percent and 36.7 percent, respectively.

AROUND THE GLOBE
In the world market, the export of all Turkish natural stone totaled 2.2 million tons with the previously mentioned value of $430.7 million – an increase of 40.2 percent in volume and 42.3 percent in value in 2003 from the previous year.
Processed marble and travertine exports make up 70.3 percent of all Turkish natural-stone international shipments. The 757,700 metric tons, valued at $302.7 million, exported last year represents an increase of 28.6 percent in volume and 38.7 percent in value. The United States, not surprisingly, was the largest customer, followed by the Aegean Free Zone (a customs-excluded trade park near Izmir, Turkey), Spain, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Block marble, onyx and travertine exports from Turkey came to 1.2 million metric tons with a value of $97.4 million in 2003, with volume and value growth of more than 60 percent from 2002. China ranked highest in material destination, with Syria and Greece also ranking as important markets.
Turkish processed granite exports, at 14,900 metric tons valued at $9.2 million, showed some decrease last year from the levels of 2002, although a softer market in Russia – the largest customer for the material – caused most of the change. Turkmenistan, the United States, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Bulgaria also make up a large part of the market.
Turkey exported 121,000 tons of block granite last year, with a value of $6.3 million. Germany remains the major market for the material (its share totaled $3.5 million last year), followed by Italy, Greece, France, Switzerland and Austria.