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| European natural stone industry recovers again  Stone+tec 2007, the 15th International Trade Fair Natural Stone and Stoneprocessing Technology, in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg from 6-9 June 2007, generated positive signals for the European natural stone industry. The 963 exhibitors (2005: 1,058) and 41,084 trade visitors (2005: 40,282) proved the great stability of the 2007 edition of the event. A survey shows that both visitors and exhibitors at Stone+tec 2007 are looking to the future with confidence: Around a quarter of both groups assume that the economic situation in the industry will remain steady at the present level and over half the visitors and as many as two thirds of the exhibitors expect a rising tendency.With an international share of 28 per cent for visitors and 66 per cent for exhibitors, Stone+tec is one of the large international exhibitions in Nuremberg. Besides visitors from Germany, the European visitors came mainly from the Benelux States, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Scandinavia, Poland, Switzerland, France, Ireland and Spain, but also from the Baltic States, Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus. The visitors from non-European countries came mainly from India, North America, China, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The leading exhibiting nations after Germany were Italy, China, Turkey and Spain. After years of restraint, the basic mood at Stone+tec 2007 was almost unanimously positive. Nine out of ten visitors are involved in procurement decisions in their company and one third placed orders during the exhibition. The visitors' interest focused mainly on information about new products and general market orientation, but also on preparing the ground for new business contacts and cultivating existing ones. More than two thirds of this year's visitors have already decided to visit Stone+tec in Nuremberg again in 2009 and half of them only visit Stone+tec and no other natural stone exhibition. Whether the presentation of the German Natural Stone Award and the Peter Parler Award, the Seminar for Tilers or the exhibitors' product presentations – Stone+tec 2007 offered almost all groups of visitors interesting and valuable information and new impetus for their everyday work with natural stone beyond the display of products and services. The new EventArea of Stone+tec 2007 was a very popular meeting-place at the heart of exhibition activities during the "Stone Craft Day" on Thursday and the "Architecture Day" on Friday and provided a direct physical and thematic link between the exhibition and supporting programme. The special show entitled "Gravestones Workshop of the Future" in hall 3 offered the same advantage and showed new ways in an environment of constantly changing burial culture. The next Stone+tec in the cycle takes place in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg from 20-23 May 2009. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Construction News :: home page |