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Most people in the world of stone and others too normally associate Macael in the province of Almeria with the multinational Cosentino, which has its headquarters and main manufacturing units located there. Often overshadowed, not very well known outside Spain, there also exists another very sophisticated industry in the area of craftsmanship in marble with a great tradition going back centuries.

1. While the long awaited construction boom in India is nowhere on the horizon, there is some improvement in construction activity in some parts of the vast country. Bangalore and its surrounding area, the NCR (National capital region) and some other cities are places where stone people are selling more than before. But there are also thousands of unsold upmarket flats in buildings in major cities like Mumbai and many building companies are in serious financial trouble. A nationwide construction boom is still some years away.

Porcelain, compact quartz, agglomerates… these new hard surfaces appeared in the building market just three decades ago and their extraordinary evolution, both technological as well as in marketing has meant they have succeeded in establishing in all the world markets and in applications that, till recently, were almost exclusive to natural stone.

The fair Rocalia, held last December, 2017 in Lyon (France), served as a window to creativity and new applications in natural stone. One of these applications is furniture in homes. Both the exhibitions organised by the fair and some stands in the fair showed interesting creations that we highlight here.

1. In 2018 the Polish economy is expected to grow at reasonably fast pace with several commercial projects projected and expected to be in the construction stage.

2. The purchasing power of the Polish consumer has been increasing year after year ever since it entered the European Union and it now seems to have reached a level where goods which were beyond the reach of most people are now becoming accessible for a large part of the population. Given the optimistic state of the Polish consumer, more spending on home decoration is expected in 2018.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

During the fair ROCALIA, held in Lyon (France) on the dates 5 to 7 December, 2017,the competition "Building with Natural Stone in the XXIst Century", organised by the association SNROC and the magazine Pierre Actual, also took place. The competition awards projects completed recently in France in which natural stone which mostly either comes from France or has been elaborated there.

The unique beauty of natural stone when aligned with new technologies can create ever more imaginative new textures and finishes.

Few people would not have not heard of Antonio López, the greatest living Spanish painter. While his fame derives from his paintings, it was he who designed the marble sculpture “La Mujer de Almanzora”, (“The woman of Almanzora”, in English), the highest in Spain, recently completed and installed during the summer of 2017 in Olula del Río (Almeria).