4.24.3.1 Availability and Consumption

The consumption of granite is closely related to the development of the building industry. With further reform and opening-up, the building industry is developing vigorously. People prefer to use granite in the building or redecoration, especially outside decoration, of hotels, restaurants, banks, markets, recreational places and sports installations. It is often seen that the whole building and squares and road surface in front of the building are entirely decorated with granite.

From relevant data, it is estimated that in a relatively long period in the future, China's architectural decoration industry will still develop at a relatively high speed. The total output values of the decoration engineering of tourism installations and public buildings will increase more than 20% each year, and over 10% of buildings for commercial and service uses will be modified or redecorated. With the improvement of people's housing level, granite has begun to enter residential decoration. The development of the architectural decoration industry will be bound to promote the expansion of the market's demand for granite.

Table 4.24.2 Index of main large and medium-sized granite-producing enterprises in China

China's granite quarrying and processing enterprises have been ripe steadily. Quarries and processing plants with a relatively large economic scale have been constructed in various large granite producing areas; thus the supply of granite can increase steadily. The annual supply of granite quarrystone is more than 4 million m³ and that of granite planks is about 160 million m². China's granite can not only satisfy the demand of the domestic market but also can be exported in large amount to earn foreign exchange.

The granite supply in China has the following characteristics: the ordinary light-colored series granite occurring in coastal provinces is large in dimension and stable in quality and can be supplied in large amount. Because of the good mining conditions and low transport cost, the granite sells at a low price and thus is highly competitive. Quality high-grade granite mainly occurs in the interior of the mainland of China and some of it in outlying mountainous areas. Most of the granite deposits are small in size and difficult to quarry; the quarrystone is of small dimension and the quarrystone of the same pattern is produced in small batches; the transport cost is high and so is the granite price. So it is difficult to meet the demand of the market.

In 1997, the amount of exports of granite quarrystone and various kinds of processed products in China attained 3.806 million tons, an increase of 9.5% over the previous year, and the volume of exports was US $ 639.558 million, an increase of 5.5% over the previous year; the amount of imports of granite quarrystone and various processed products reached 400,000 tons, increasing by 96% over the previous year, and the volume of imports was US $ 95.727 million, an increase of 40.7% over the previous year. The imported granite was mainly world-famous brand granite quarrystone or processed products.

For the sources of supply of granite in China, the granite of ordinary light-colored series mainly comes from Fujian, Guangdong and Shandong, which contribute about 76% of the national total supply; the red series granite from Sichuan, Guangxi and Shandong; the black series granite from Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Hebei and Shandong; the rare-varicolored series granite from Sichuan, Xinjiang and Hebei. The imported granite mainly comes from Italy (accounting for 54% of the total import amount), India (17%), China's Taiwan Province (8%) and Spain (7%) and some from South Africa, Brazil and Canada.

For the consumption of granite, most of granite is used in outside decoration. The categories of application and their percentages are as follows: outside pavement 29%; interior flooring 7.5%; exterior wall facing 19.5%; interior wall facing 5%; staircases 5.5%; architectural elements 8%; gravestones 15%; special engineering works 6.8%; others 3.7%.

4.24.3.2 Trends

As far as China's granite production and exports are concerned, China has ranked among the world's large producers and exporters of building stones, but from the structure, grades and quality of the products, scale of the enterprises, overall technical level and economic returns, there still exists a big gap between China and countries with the developed stone industry in the world. We need to attach importance to the study of solving problems in the granite industry.

First, attention should be paid to optimization of the structure of enterprises. The small enterprises that waste resources should be closed down, annexed, transformed, reorganized or upgraded; thus granite enterprises in various areas can form a rational economic scale.

Second, we should popularize advanced techniques and equipment and strive to raise the quarrystone ratio of mines, the quarrystone quality and the quality and grades of processed products.

Third, efforts should be made to improve the structure of exported products, change the situation of exporting quarrystone mainly and improve processing. Importance should be attached to intensively processed products with high added value, such as granite planks, stone sculpture and various kinds of shaped products.

Fourth, we should open up divertified markets and gradually change the situation that the exports of granite are too concentrated in a few countries and regions such as Japan. While consolidating and expanding the Asian markets, we should open up the European and American markets as well as the Australian market.

Fifth, we should develop granite resources in a protective way, strengthen management, put an end to abusive or wasteful quarrying, use the means of controlled blasting and implement the policy of sustainable development, i.e. coordinated development of economic returns on the one hand and rational use of resources, multi-purpose use of resources and environmental protection on the other.

Sixth, we should effectively use valuable mineral resources and develop market-oriented products, so that China's granite industry can turn from the present production and speed type to quality and performance type and then rank among the world's large producers of granite.