Xiamen became largest nationwide imported stone distribution hub

　　According to the Xiamen Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Reporter learned that the whole 2016 year, the Bureau inspected and supervised 21040 batches of imported stones weighing 6.7205million tons, worth USD $1.181billion, up 2.21%、5.11% and 1.46% year on year respectively. Despite the low performance of continued world economy recovery,  the imported stones in Xiamen Port still kept a steady growth, becoming the largest imported stone distribution hub across the country.

　　The stones imported in Xiamen port were characteristic of the following points: first of all, the mainly imported stone products include marble, granite blocks and its semi-finished products; second, the origins of stones vary widely, primarily from over 70 countries and regions like Turkey, India, Brazil, Egypt, Finland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Norway, Greece; third, the marble tops in the imported amount listing, 13625 batches in all, with a total of 4.0408 million tons and value of USD $703 million, respectively up 4.01%、8.42%、and 5.87%  year on year. The marble imports account for 60.13% in the total; the imports of granite take the second place, comprising 5% of the total; last, there are various means of transportation, mainly by break-bulk ships or shipping containers. The majority of countries in Europe, America and Africa adopt the sea containers while the Southeast Asian countries often use break bulk ships.

　　Insiders make an analysis that there are three reasons for the imported stones in Xiemen port to stay a steady growth: on the one hand, it benefits from the excellence of the port resources.  Now Xiamen port has a great work capacity to deal with international containers and break bulk ships, with deep water and long coastline, and owns intensive international far-away and off shore lines. On the other hand, beneficial to the advantage of the stone-processing industrial cluster, Xiamen at the present has more than 1200 professional stone import companies, with 6000 traditional stone processing plants nearby, making deep stone-processing and high added-value products raise the import proportion, stone export trade increases in an on-going way, simply contributing to  a steady stone import growth. Besides, the annual China Xiamen International Stone Fair provides a great platform, which attracts a lot of attention from manufacturers of stone processing at home and abroad, to open service windows to foreigners and enhance its international effect.