While the highest figure has been reached in natural stone exports since 2014, export of natural stone products, which have been in decline since 2017, started to rise again. The sector seems to leaving behind the negative conditions of the pandemic and the difficulties experienced in the supply of containers. When we examine the export figures according to the data of last 10 years, the natural stone sector, which has experienced the third best year of the last 10 years in terms of export figures, took the second place after the Metallic Ore group among the mineral product groups. Turkey's natural stone exports reached $ 2 billion 92 million 330 thousand 869 with 20.54 percent increase compared to 2020. This figure was the highest in the last 7 years. China has been the leading purchaser. China's imports increased by 13.9% compared to the previous year and reached $ 625 million. The USA, which is the largest buyer of processed Turkish natural stone products, made $ 462 million of imports with an increase of 42.2 % and took the second place.
France, which made a purchase of $ 98.4 million, ranked 3rd in the table with an increase of 45.9 %. Iraq, which imported $ 98 million with an increase of 56.5 %, ranked 4th, and India, which purchased $ 95 million of natural stone with an increase of 55.5%, ranked 5th. Saudi Arabia, which was among the top 10 countries in the table last year, was excluded from the list due to the embargo imposed to Turkey.
This year made us experience all kinds of challenge
Some of the challenges experienced in the sector apart from the pandemic, can be counted as the difficulties experienced in the supply of containers, the great slowdown in production due to the energy crisis in China, the Saudi Arabian Market that stopped its purchases from Turkey and the lack of promotion due to the absence of physical exhibitions. Shortly, there were many reasons that could damage the natural stone exports. The reward of closing a year that could have been a trouble with an increase, and the best export figure of the last 5 years, is a real success story. It is10 out of 10!
Whoever contributed to the increase in exports deserves a lot of applause!
Expression of increase in numbers!
Compared to the previous year, the increase was realized in terms of both value and quantity. Moreover, despite the embargo imposed by Saudi Arabia to Turkish natural stone products, there was a higher increase in the export of processed marble compared to block marble. This is what makes this growth even more meaningful.
Block export figures
While the export income for 3,469,250 tons of marble was $663,053,821 in 2020, this figure increased to 4,231,113 tons on amount basis and $ 787,240,626 on value basis in 2021. The percentage expression of the increase in block exports compared to the previous year, while the increase in quantity was 21.96 %, the increase in value was 18.73 %.
Processed natural stone figures
The figures was as follows in the processed natural stone exports: In 2020, a revenue of $ 724,865,449 dollars was obtained in exchange for 1,875,566 ton of marble, while in 2021 $ 832,311,013 dollars of export revenue was obtained in return for 2,075,276 tons of processed natural stone. This increase was 10.65 % based on amount basis and14.82 % on the basis of value.
Top five countries in block exports
Due to the energy problem experienced this year in China, the leading block exporter, and the quarantine period applied by the Chinese government seriously affected exports in terms of quantity. Despite all the challenges, China took the first place in block exports, while India took the second, Egypt third, Italy fourth and Taiwan fifth.
Top five countries in processed natural stone export
In processed Marble, America increased its performance significantly and achieved an increase of 28.03 % on quantity basis and 39 % on value basis compared to the previous year. Iraq ranked second, Israel third, the United Arab Emirates fourth and Australia fifth. Because of the import embargo imposed on Turkey, Saudi Arabia, one of the top three countries in processed marble exports in recent years, ranked 80th with a decrease of 99 % in terms of quantity and value this year.
Mineral export figures for 2021 were announced with a ceremony attended by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Dönmez in Ankara.
The Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Fatih Dönmez announced export figures for the year 2021 in the mining sector.
The Istanbul Mineral Exporters’ Association (İMİB), Aegean Mineral Exporters’ Association (EMİB) and the Western Mediterranean Exporters’ Association (BAİB) organized the 2021 Mineral Export Evaluation Meeting at the Ankara Sheraton Hotel. Together with the Minister Fatih Dönmez, Deputy Minister Şeref Kalaycı, Head of Department of Natural Resources Leman Çetiner, General Manager of Mining and Petroleum Affairs (MAPEG) Cevat Genç, General Manager of Mineral Research and Exploration (MTA) Yasin Erdoğan, General Manager of Turkish Coal Enterprises (TKİ) Hasan Hüseyin Erdoğan, President of İMİB Aydın Dinçer, President of EMİB Mevlüt Kaya, TÜMMER President İbrahim Alimoğlu, Turkish Miners Association (TMD) President Ali Emiroğlu and executives of mining non-governmental organizations attended the meeting. Providing information about the export of the mining sector at the meeting, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Dönmez said, “We broke the record in the history of the Republic by exporting $ 5 billion 930 million of minerals in 2021. Each new record imposes a new responsibility on us. In 2000, our mineral exports were $ 565 million. We have achieved an increase of more than 10 times in 20 years.”
Dönmez: We paved the way for the private sector by encouraging investments
Emphasizing that internal subcontractors carry some of the foreign-sourced works in the mining sector out, Dönmez continued as follows: “There is no politics in this business. It cannot be used for political or personal interests. These resources belong to 84 million. These are not in possession of those who live today, but also the future generations. Just as our energy, independence is of vital importance for us in the use of these resources; our mineral independence has the same vital importance. For this, we have implemented the necessary projects and legal regulations in order to encourage investments. With the decisions we made, we paved the way for the private sector. From now on, we will continue to support them with the same determination. We always strive to keep the synergy of the public and private sectors at the highest level in order to enliven our economy.”
Dönmez stated that last year, China, USA, Spain, Bulgaria, Belgium, Italy, India, Sweden, Germany and France were among the top 10 mineral importer countries and this year Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, Albania and Serbia were added to the list.
License assurance emphasis from Dinçer
After the speech of Minister Dönmez, Mining Sector Board and IMIB Chairman Aydın Dinçer made a presentation on the problems of the mining sector and underlined 4 issues that slowed down the sector. Pointing out that they closed the year with a great success despite all the negativities in 2021, Dinçer continued his words as follows: “In 2021, we reached the highest point in the history of the Republic in terms of mineral exports. We exported $ 5 billion 930 million of mineral and $ 2 billion 092 million of natural stone. However, the mining sector is not only responsible for its own exports. We take great responsibility in order to increase the ability of other sectors to export with domestic resources, thus increasing their current impact. We offer job opportunities to 2 million people."
Emphasizing that the export potential of the sector is even higher, but some solutions are needed, Dinçer conveyed the problems and demands under 4 main headings.
1-Providing license assurance.
2- Reducing high prices to reasonable levels in forest permit processes
3- Simplifying and accelerating all permit processes
4- Tax regulation due to energy costs
License Assurance increases investment and exports
Expressing that the number of mining exploration licenses, which was 36 thousand in 2008, decreased to 5 thousand in 2021, Dinçer said, “We would like to mention the importance of license assurance here. License assurance increases investment and thus exports, ensures that the sector is predictable, and plays an important role in obtaining financing from national and international sources in line with UMREK. Dear Minister; the public and some lobbies are putting heavy pressure on our sector on the grounds that we are polluting the environment and giving damage to nature. Because of this, the permission processes are delayed. Thus, it is not possible to talk about license assurance. We need to reconsider the high forest prices, which is another important problem of the sector. While the price paid for 1 hectare in Turkey is 8750 dollars, we see that the highest figure is 1500 dollars in other countries. This affects our competitiveness. Our association has been trying to eliminate the unfair discourses of various lobbies against our sector by informing the public with the programs made on TV channels related to sustainable mining in the recent period. In this regard, we would like to see you among us at the 'Our Life is Mineral Workshop' that we will organize in Istanbul on January 15."
