Since it was first held, STONETECH is always the weather vane and barometer of the stone industry at home and abroad. It also played an important role in the first and the second periods of China stone industry’s development, which are market driven and factor driven, and successfully lead the stone industry’s transformation and development, to effectively promote the technology and trade communication at home and abroad. In 2005, the fair became the first professional stone fair in Asia approved by Union of International Fairs (UFI). In 2012, it won to be the support and leading fair by Ministry of Commerce of P.R.C.

 

The 20th STONETECH will be held in China International Exhibition Center, Beijing from April 18-21, 2013. 300 stone and related companies will come together in this year’s fair. The exhibiting products cover stone blocks, tiles & slabs, special shape stones, stone carving & sculptures, tombstones, landscaping stones, stone machines, equipments and maintenance products, etc, totally 14 major categories and 120 minor items. The total products are 10000 items, and among them, there are about 100 new quarries, about 600 special products with apparent design. The exhibiting area covers 20000 square meters. UMGG, Dong Fang Yu Tang, Fu Yuan Guang Tai, Wanfeng Stone, GENI Ceramics, Jingshan Tang Stone, CMM, Feizhou Machinery Equipment, Huaxing Machinery, KEDA, Wuhan Keda Protective Materials, and many other good reputation companies from domestic and overseas will present the fair. Traditional stone export countries including Portugal, Turkey and Iran will show their latest products, while Italy, which is famous for its stone processing technologies and machinery equipments will group exhibit organized by FEDERMACCHINE. 

 

The 20th STONETECH 2013 Beijing is held by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Building Materials Sub-Council (CCPITBMSC), CSMA, CIEC Exhibition CO., Ltd. CCPITBMSC is the authority organization to start and promote foreign trade for China building materials industry. It always devotes to promote communication and cooperation between domestic and overseas companies, and has built ripe overseas channel and won good reputation in the world, and it also has built a wide economic and trading connection with about 100 countries and regions’ industrial and commercial fields. CSMA is the most authoritative professional stone organization in China. It covers sectors of stone quarries, stone processing, stone application and maintenance, stone trade and logistic, R&D, professional stone detection, etc. It play an important role as a bridge between government and enterprises. As a professional fair organizer, CIEC Exhibition CO, Ltd has rich domestic and overseas exhibition resources and promoting ways. These three organizers will reintegrate their advantages to make the STONETECH get into a new development period which is efficiency driven period, in line with the third period of stone industry development. In this period, stone enterprises change their focus on introducing their international images, on building their brands and on widening domestic promoting channels. 

 

 

A data of China stone import and export 2012 shows that the increasing rate of import and export downs sharply and the products export was negative growth. Among that, China exported stone materials 24.07 million tons in 2012, increasing 0.2% year-on-year, while the increasing rate downed 10.9% compared with 2011. According to economists’ forecasting, in 2013, the main economies will be still weak needs, and the developed countries are slow recovery, while new economies will still keep low developing speed, so the international trade will keep its obvious slump. It has been the necessary choice for lots of enterprises to survive and develop that expand domestic needs and conform to China’s urbanization construction. As the competition in domestic stone market became fierce, enterprises are positively looking for new promoting channels. The channel of project is always competed by enterprises for it covers a large market share. Besides, the home decoration market which was always overlooked at traditional views exactly contains a large market share. According to an incomplete data, recently the stone application in home decoration covers 10% in total consumption, and some of high-grade residences consume more than 30% stone materials. And, the stone consumption on home decoration is yearly increasing at a speed of 20% to 30%.

 

Therefore, the 20th STONETECH will be held in Beijing firstly because the northern market led by Beijing has a large project market and strong needs. In following two years, there will be about 200 key construction projects in Beijing with total investment of 1047.3 billion Yuan. As the third pole of China economic growth, the Bohai economic circle will pay attention to infrastructure construction. Secondly, stone center northward moves and regionally transforms. For example, many regions such as Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tianjin, etc has built amount of stone producing and processing bases, which became a strong power targeted at new quarries, new technologies and ultimate markets compared with southern traditional stone processing bases. The organizers signed strategic cooperation agreement for the 20th STONETECH with municipal engineering institution, the construction of Party A, building design institute, decorating companies, and new stone bases including Beijing, Xinjiang, Tianjin, and Inner Mongolia, etc. Before the fair opening, the organizers held new products release and company introducing conference in Fujian Shuitou, Guangdong Yunfu, China Architecture Design & Research Group, Beijing Xilian Stone Market, Tianjin Bohai Rim Stone Market, and Xinjiang Stone Industrial Park.

 

During the fair, Xinjiang Building Materials Industry Management Committee will hold 2013 Xinjiang New Stone Products Introducing Meeting, and focus on explaining the practical application of new stones in construction projects and home decoration sectors. China Architecture Design & Research Group and other design groups will organize designers to visit and purchase in the fair and communicate with stone enterprises face on face. Besides, the fair will hold a series of activities related with projects, such as Construction Project Promoting Meeting 2013, and the Trade Matching of Present Buyer Groups, etc.

 

Although stone has gradually entered home decorating market, it is still difficult to grow sharply in short time. Firstly, stone enterprises are lack of brand awareness, and common consumers are hard to identify good and bad products. Secondly, It is not a long time for stone materials to enter home decorating market and the range is narrow, so many consumers haven’t had the sense of purchasing. Thirdly, stone materials have a high requirement on the installation and maintenance, which makes common consumers give up. For those reasons, the organizers specially hold a series of topic conferences and activities to help enterprises promote their brands such as Stone Industry Leading Enterprises Summit 2013, and the other side to help consumers know more about stone application cases and stone maintenance knowledge, such as Stone Design and Home Decorating Cases Promoting Conference, Stone Maintenance and Protection Forum 2013, and the Meeting of Analysis on New Standard of Stone Wall Panel Installation, etc.

 

 

Stone industry is typical resource industry and stone has a feature of non-renewable. In November, 2012, the 18th CPC National Congress made a strategic decision of greatly promotion of ecological civilization from a new historical view, and referred that the way is to change the mode, to adjust structure, to save the resources, and to protect environment. As the first stone fair with the topic of sustainable development of stone and improving stone products value added, STONETECH kept introducing this idea and related new technologies and new though. That is one of key reasons that STONETECH can get support from the Ministry of Commerce. In this year’s fair, visitors will see more and newer domestic and overseas quarrying and processing technologies and equipments which can greatly improve quarrying rate and processing output rate and also environment friendly produce. At the same time, the fair will hold the 4th China International Stone Design Forum, and will invite domestic and overseas famous designer and stone enterprises to discuss how add stone invisible value through design and how to widen stone application in real situation and to save waste materials in the process of cutting. 

 

 

On the ranking list of China stone export destination 2012, Central Asia and ASEAN rank the first and second as the quantity increasing rate of 18.7% and 14.9%. However, China exporting to Europe gets sharply down. This shows that under the influence of economic crisis, Europe and the North America’s needs for China stones greatly slump, while ASEAN and Central Asian needs high speed increased. The organizers of STONETECH observed the situation, and focused on inviting ASEAN and Central Asian visitors. They also built cooperating relationship with professional agencies and trade promoting organization in these regions under the help of powerful international channels. It is expected that there will more than 10 international buyer groups from ASEAN and Central Asia in the 20th STONETECH. 

 

Meanwhile, in order to make domestic buyers more convenient to find out purchasing objectives fast and accurately, the organizers will launch the service of one-to-one domestic buyers’ needs matching, which is to know buyers’ purchasing needs, to get exhibitors’ products information, to match needs and supplies as soon as possible. And the Program of Purchasing Intention Negotiation also will be held on-site.

 

 

After high speed development of the first period of market-driven and the second period of factor-driven, China stone industry has enter the third period of efficiency-driven, which adjust structure and transform and upgrade to management, brand, technology and channel. And the traditional small group-mode bases with extensive market and vast cheap labor resources have gradually lost their advantages. As the weather vane of China stone industry and a strong bridge of domestic and foreign trade and communication, STONETECH will help enterprises to build brand awareness, to bring in new foreign technologies and join international competition, to open up promoting channels, and spread the design awareness, etc. STONETECH will make enterprises have irreplaceable competitive advantages in the period of efficiency-driven.

 

China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Building Materials Sub-Council

China Stone Materials Association

CIEC Exhibition CO., Ltd.