Theater, music, radio and many cinema sharing Walk of Fame Hollywood, and not on any sidewalk. The surface that brings together more than 2,000 stars, among them the glorious Spaniards. Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem or Antonio Banderas– definitions mosaic-based: a material consisting of small pieces of stone and a large amount of cement. It is a mixture that began to be used in Venice in the fifteenth century, given its good resistance and very low cost – it used scraps from the construction of marble floors – but it has nothing to do with minerals such as Galician slate. is also strongly permeating this neighborhood of Los Angeles. In the metonymy “Set, camera, action” in the industry, big celebrities They step on terrazzo, yes, but they sleep under Galician slate.
Native to regions such as the Valdeorras region, conquering celebrities, reaching the roofs of their houses and Now sets the trend in the country of America. “He did that decades ago,” he says. Severino Gonzalezmanager Galician Pizarra Cluster, underscores that since then its exports have gained ground in the United States. Just last year, sales increased more than 40% It was the largest in the historical series with 10,000 tons worth 7.7 million compared to 2021.
in other states
Galician slate triumphs for “giving prestige” to the properties that wear it, but it’s far from falling in love with Hollywood, where “there are still commissions”, it also shines in other states. yanks. As a result, the bounce across the pond is still very small compared to major markets. Led by Joe Biden, the nation ranks sixth in importance. After France, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Irelandwho buys nine out of every 10 kilograms leaving the community as a whole.
“The demand is driven by their tradition in cities like Orleans,” says González, on the French soil, which achieved around 139,000 tons in 2022, emphasizing that quarries are “decreasing little by little.” “In the end, only one remained active, which closed a few years ago. Now there are different maintenance works that need to be done, for example in Loire chateaux with slate roofs,” he adds. And this is where Galicia comes in.
Price increase
General level of autonomy 307 thousand tons of export in 2022According to figures available on the DataComex portal of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, it is approximately 180,000 fewer than the maximum reached in 2000 (was 489,500). Despite this 37% reduction in the amount shipped abroad, we billed only 0.8% less (approximately 234 million). Reason? Galician slate price increased 60% in twenty years.
Considering the 20 main markets served by the Community, the top paying countries for this mineral are Australia and Belgium (about 1.13 euros per kilogram). These are followed by other regions with high purchasing power in the north, such as Luxembourg (1), Canada (0.87) or Denmark (0.86), while at the opposite pole our neighbor Portugal (where you pay just 0.39 Euros per kilogram).
different demands
González notes that this difference is due to “several factors”, emphasizing that “each customer has their own format” and “not the same product going to one area or the other.” “They like thin slate in France, larger models in the UK,” he elaborates. Likewise, the distance the order is shipped or the currency of the country it will arrive in has an impact, all in an inflationary context that does little benefit to the industry. Although a large amount of material remains to be exported, “another thing is that the conditions are very unfavorable and it is not profitable to extract it.”
As the manager of Clúster da Pizarra de Galicia has clarified, the increase in their prices is due to the increase in costs they incurred last year. “Expenses have increased a lot, even there are companies that cannot reflect this on their sales,” he says. Considering that electricity is doubled, it is understandable, diesel too, “impressive” increases in pallets and explosives change every 15 days.
War “buries” exports to Ukraine
Over the last five years, the interest generated by Galician slate abroad is in France (with 47.8% sales growth), Belgium (65.5%), Ireland (24.8%), or the United States (80.1%) It increased. , the first non-EU market for the community, but saw a noteworthy drop in the UK (-16.8%). Cluster da Pizarra de Galicia attributes this decrease to less use of this material in their construction, added to the “uncertainty” caused by the war in Ukraine last year. In the country of Volodymyr Zelenski, currently besieged by Russian troops, the export and value of the material in question fell to 63 tons in 2022 (76.1% less than 263.5 tons in 2021, or 81% less than 332.3 tons in 2020) (only 26,600 Euros, 78% less than the previous year). Both figures are at their lowest since 2017.