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| Stone+tec celebrates its 30th anniversary  Stone+tec, the International Trade Fair Natural Stone and Stoneprocessing Technology, celebrates its 30th anniversary from 20-23 May 2009. The biennial Stone+tec generated positive signals for the industry at the last event in spring 2007 with 963 exhibitors and 41,084 trade visitors. Whereas the USA was regarded as a lucrative sales market for natural stone in the past years, the present economic crisis there, the strong euro and the sound, indeed booming markets in Europe have directed the industry's attention back to the old continent again. Stone+tec in Nürnberg is located at the heart of this demand and can meanwhile look back on three decades of reflecting and inspiring the German and European natural stone markets.The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) has some good news to report on the economic situation in the Federal Republic of Germany: "Growth has in all probability accelerated in the first quarter of this year, driven by the dynamic development in the industry and in the primary building trade." The market in Germany is thus developing positively despite the general cooling down of the world economy. With a slight decline in international demand, mainly the domestic demand has a supporting effect, according to the ministry: "Building production showed particularly strong growth. This increased by another 3.7 % in February, after +11.4 % in January. The prospects for the manufacturing industry remain very favourable." The economic growth in the countries of Central Eastern Europe is still positive despite a slight weakening. In its estimate at the beginning of the year, the Federal Office for Foreign Trade forecast a change of some 2.4 % in the GDP for the whole European Union in 2008 – a figure that is appreciably exceeded by the countries of Central Eastern Europe. With an international share of 28 % for visitors and 66 % for exhibitors, Stone+tec is one of the major international exhibitions in Nürnberg. 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. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Construction News :: home page |