4 Prominent Trends Being Witnessed in the Marble & Stone Market in India

Rajasthan is the dominant state, granite the dominant mineral, and marble is the leading raw material export in the India marble & stone market

As of 2017, India is one of the fastest growing large economies in the world with ambitions to be a global economic leader. India’s GDP is ranked as the sixth largest in nominal terms and the third largest in terms of PPP (Purchasing Power Parity). Large youth population and corresponding low dependency ratio, healthy savings and investment rates and increasing integration into the global economy have all combined to provide India with an extremely favourable long-term growth prospective. The Indian economy has the potential to become the world's third largest economy by the next decade, and one of the two largest economies by mid-century.

Among the various high performing sectors in the Indian economy, the mining industry, of which the India marble & stone market is an important part, is one such high performing sector. The Mining industry in India is a major economic agent and contributes significantly to the economy of India. The GDP contribution of the mining industry is in the 2.2% to 2.5% range but keeping in mind the various end user industries that it supplies in the Indian industrial sector, the GDP of the total industrial sector contributes around 10% to 11%. Mining done on small scale contributes around 6% to the entire cost of mineral production. As per the Indian Labour Ministry, the Indian mining industry provides job opportunities to around 700,000 individuals.

However, for an economy this size, India still relies heavily on a consumption based model, with net exports being severely in the negative i.e. imports outstripping exports. India marble & stone market, in this regard gains importance, as one of the few industries where India is not only a global leader, but a huge net exporter. In this light, it becomes essential to examine the India marble & stone market to try and glean what trends have led to the rise of the industry and what is set it guide it in the future. Experts at TechSci Research have debated the various contours of the India marble & stone market and come up with the four major trends that make the industry tick.

1)    India: A Premier Exporter

India ranks third in terms of global production of natural stones, and accounts for an 11% share of the global market. Marble, Granite, Limestone, Slate and Sandstone are the chief materials that India exports. Stone exports have gone up from around INR 300 crore to nearly 430 crore in the four years between 2013-2016. And the trend looks set to continue in the future as well, making the India marble & stone market one of the bright spots in an economy that is already looking to grow as aggressively as is possible. In addition to exports, India natural marble production stood at some INR 2,925 crore in 2016, implying that India marble & stone market may just provide the impetus to an economy which wishes to emulate China’s export based growth model. The INR 2,925 crore figure in 2016 also comes on the back of some stupendous growth in the sector, given that the market was less than half of this not 6 years back, languishing at INR 1395 crore in 2011.

Perhaps one of the major issues faced by this sector of the Indian economy is the lack of consolidation. Experts at TechSci Research suggest that the bulk of marble production and distribution activities are being carried out by small-scale operators who may escape governmental oversight due to their small size vis a vis the sector. Therefore, many of the positive governmental regulations, changes made to the labour laws etc. may not necessarily trickle down to the people employed in the India marble & stone market.

2)    Rajasthan: Biggest Marble Producing State in India

In 2016, Rajasthan accounted for more than 80% production of marble in India. The capacity for marble slab production in Rajasthan is around 1,000 million sq. ft. per annum. Gujarat, which is at second place, is not even close, with only about 10% share in the total India engineered marble production. Makrana, in the Nagaur district in Rajasthan, for example, is famous as a hub for marble production. In fact, some of the most famous monuments in India have been built using Makrana marble, including Taj Mahal, Victoria Memorial of Kolkata, Birla Temple of Jaipur, Haji Ali Dargah of Mumbai, the Jain Temple of Mysore, the Ambedkar Park of Lucknow and Jain Temple of Dilwara. Makrana has various mines in the Aravalli range, including among others, Doongri, Devi, Ulodi, Saabwali, Gulabi, Kumari, Neharkhan, Matabhar, Matabhar Kumari, Chuck Doongri, Chosira and Pahar Kua. Makrana is believed to provide a source of employment for more than 70,000 people in the region.

However, there has been some pushback by people working in the India marble & stone market, post the government’s decision to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate of 28% on marble. The earlier incidence of tax, marble industry leaders claim, was around 5%. Strikes are continuing to this day, which has seriously impacted the marble trade in India. The issue remains unresolved as of now though the government has been in serious negotiations with industry leaders to try and assuage fears.

3)    Italy: Biggest Natural Marble Exporter to India

Between 2012 and 2016, India imported around INR 1,400 crore per annum worth of natural marble, 2015 being the significant exception when nearly INR 2,000 crore worth of natural marble was imported. Italy has been responsible for just over half of the total imports of natural marble per annum in the India marble & stone market. For example, in 2012, India imported over INR 736 crore worth of marble from Italy and over INR 1,300 crore overall. In 2015, around INR 1,000 crore worth of marble was imported from Italy and around INR 1,900 crore overall. Suffice to say that Italy is one of the most stable and exporter of natural marble to India in the India marble & stone market. Carrara marble, for example, mined in Italy has been used in many famous Indian monuments including the Prem Mandir in Vrindavan and Akshardham temple complex in Delhi.

Italy is also the world leader in marble export, cornering a 20% share in the natural marble production market. China comes second with around 16%, India third with around 11% followed by Spain with around 6%, and Portugal with around 5%. Together, these countries account for nearly 60% of global marble production enjoyed by the India marble & stone market. However, in term of exporters, Turkey was the market leader with over 40% market share, followed by Italy, Greece and Spain. Among Asian exporters, India stood third behind Turkey and Pakistan.

4)    Other Minerals in the India Marble & Stone Market

Apart from marble, India also produces granite, road metal, brick earth, gravel, limestone etc. India is still the outlier compared with the rest of the world in many ways vis a vis the India marble & stone market as stones still form the mainstays of civil construction in the country. Public buildings, hotels, and temples etc. all still extensively use stones for construction. In fact, with rise in prosperity levels and an increasingly consumption based economy, stones are increasingly being used in homes, with the expanding Indian middle class becoming a primary growth driver in the India marble & stone market. For example, India has varieties of granite in over 200 shades. As of 2005, Granite reserves in India, as per the Indian Bureau of Mines, totalled 37,426 million cubic metres and ranked fifth in export of processed product. Granite production occurs mainly in Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

Similar, slate reserves in India are found in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh etc. In terms of Limestone deposits, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana corner the market share with over 30%. Major quarries of limestone can be found in Bethamcherla, Macherla, Neereducherla, Mudimanikyam of Kurnool, Guntur, Anantapur, Rangareddy, and Nalgonda districts. India’s total limestone reserves are estimated at around 93,623 million tonnes.

Conclusion: India enjoys a huge diversity of various stones and minerals and must leverage its position to establish itself as a global exporter of the same, thus benefiting the India marble & stone market. Rajasthan, especially, can develop into a global mining hub all by itself, enjoying a dominant share in the marble and sandstones markets. Various globally recognised types of marbles, including the Makrana marble, Rajnagar marble, Andhi marble etc. have already established Rajasthan as a globally known region. In addition to marble, Rajasthan also enjoys significant reserves of sandstone, granite slate etc. Over 90% of the deposits of sandstone are found Rajasthan, spread over the districts of Bharatpur, Dholpur, Kota, Jodhpur, Sawai-Madhopur, Bundi, Chittorgarh, Bikaner, Jhalawar, Pali, Shivpuri, etc. It will be interesting to see if the Rajasthan government can develop the state into a full-fledged mining hub, rather than the small-scale operations that dot the state currently. India has a history of optimally utilising its various reserves, with Khajuraho Temple, Elephanta Caves, Taj Mahal, Konark Temple etc. all being produced from locally sourced raw materials, but for further growth in the India marble & stone market, it is essential that exports to various countries be enhanced.

 There have been some positive reforms that the government has instituted to make the sector more competitive, in order to streamline export models. For example, in the case of marble and travertine blocks, Minimum Import Price (MIP) reduced from USD325 per metric ton to USD200 per metric ton whereas customs duty on import of marble & travertine blocks has gone up from 10% to 40%. This is done in a bid to have contractors and builders source more material locally, unless massive work is being carried out requiring huge quantities of raw materials, in which case it would become cheaper to import. Experts at TechSci Research suggest that such flexible policies will definitely be beneficial to the India marble & stone market in the long run. While more systemization, better regulations, market consolidation etc. are urgently needed in the sector, overall the prospects of India marble & stone market look very bright.

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