Recently, the 25th China (Nan'an) Shuitou International Stone Fair Promotion Conference and the Launch Ceremony of the China Stone Material Hundred Cities Alliance were grandly held in Xiamen, marking the official entry of my country's stone industry into a new development stage led by Nan'an and linked with hundreds of cities. Following closely, at the 26th Xiamen International Stone Fair, Nan'an stone enterprises made a collective appearance, gaining significant attention and attracting high interest from global merchants.
Remarkably, Nan'an produces almost no raw stone locally, yet, with the keen business acumen and pioneering spirit of its locals, it has built a world-class stone industry cluster from scratch over thirty years, firmly establishing itself as a core player in the global stone industry.
A small city, a world-class stone capital. There's a saying in the industry: "The world's stone industry looks to China, and China's stone industry looks to Nan'an."
Walking into Nan'an, one sees rows of stone processing plants everywhere, with a dazzling array of stones in various textures and colors. Spanish Beige, British Brown, Brazilian Calacatta, and Angora Black-global stone varieties from around the world converge here, as if the world's stones have been brought into this small city.
In the 1990s, the benefits of reform and opening up reached southern Fujian, and a group of foreign trade businessmen were the first to spot the opportunity: Japan had a large demand for tombstone stones, Europe was keen on marble decoration, and southern Fujian's mature stone carving techniques and abundant labor force perfectly matched the overseas market demands.
At the beginning of the industry's development, factories and trading markets were built along the national highway in Nan'an. Subsequently, the government spearheaded the creation of the first building materials market in southern Fujian (now China Stone City), bringing together merchants from the entire chain of mining, processing, and trading, and at one time becoming the largest professional stone market in the country. Liu Liang, chairman of Yingliang Group, recalled that in the early days, when out-of-town visitors came to Nan'an, the first question the motorcycle taxi drivers often asked was not where they lived, but whether they were there to buy stones.
Over thirty years of iterative development, Nan'an's stone industry has transformed from a rough, small workshop along the national highway into a high-end stone production and sales center serving the world, building the world's largest and most complete stone industry ecosystem. Currently, the area boasts over 1,800 stone enterprises and 250,000 industry employees, with an annual output value exceeding 100 billion yuan. Its stone production capacity accounts for 40% of the global total and 70% of China's, connecting resources from over 70 countries and exporting products to over 140 countries and regions, truly securing its position as a world-class stone capital.
Front shop, back factory: Buying and selling globally.
Nan'an, despite its global pricing power in the stone industry, actually lacks local mines and raw stone resources.
Nan'an's business logic is simple: if it's not available locally, find it globally. Even with language barriers, they rely on dictionaries to venture abroad, their footprints covering high-quality stone producing regions worldwide, including Italy, India, Turkey, and Brazil.
Leveraging the advantages of Xiamen Port's international shipping hub, Nan'an sources high-quality raw stones globally, ships them back locally for deep processing, turning Turkish marble into Roman columns and Brazilian luxury stone into high-end background walls. The finished products are then sold from Xiamen Port to various parts of the world, forming a unique front shop, back factory model.
The annual Xiamen International Stone Fair serves as a premier platform for Nan'an to connect with global orders and showcase its industrial strength. This exhibition, now the world's largest professional stone trade fair, covers 191,000 square meters this year and attracts buyers from 120 countries and regions.
Today, Nan'an is a global buyer and seller. From slab trading and luxury stone operations to finished product customization, design services, recycled stone R&D, intelligent equipment manufacturing, and green low-carbon production, its complete industrial chain advantages are continuously propelling Nan'an's stone industry to the global market.
Iterative Upgrading: Entering a "New Stone Age" for Stone
In the past, Nan'an relied on processing and selling raw materials, competing on resources, prices, and costs. Now, the industry has undergone a comprehensive transformation, shifting from selling products to selling technology, design, solutions, and brands.
Photovoltaic wire saw technology has been applied to stone cutting, and intelligent equipment is exported to many countries, significantly improving stone yield. Green intelligent production lines and solid waste recycling technology are breaking the stereotype of stone processing as high-pollution and high-energy-consumption, achieving closed-loop green production against the backdrop of increasingly stringent global environmental regulations.
Wang Qing'an, president of the Nan'an Stone Association, frankly stated that stone equipment is a high-value-added upstream link in the industrial chain. The rise of Nan'an's equipment industry is not only a result of the extension of the industrial chain, but also a vivid example of the county's economic transformation from "Made in China" to "Intelligent Manufacturing in China."
Currently, Nan'an stone machinery is being deployed in overseas factories, international designers are recognizing Nan'an recycled stone, and European buyers are referencing the Nan'an stone price index… This small city in southern Fujian is writing a new chapter in the globalization of its stone industry.
Chen Liangti, deputy secretary-general of the industry association, believes that upgrading the stone industry requires not only hard power in intelligent manufacturing and technological innovation, but also soft power in cultural exploration and creative design.
When stone is merely a building material, it is always constrained by industry cycles; once it is endowed with cultural connotations and design value, it can transcend cycles and gain pricing power. From selling stones to creating cultural and creative products and designs, Nan'an has given warmth to cold stone, completing a leap from nothing to full-chain growth to cluster transformation, steadily climbing towards the high end of the global value chain.
The growth path of Nan'an stone is also a microcosm of China's industrial economy: without raw materials or initial market control, as long as it is good at integrating global resources and building a complete industrial chain, it can stand firm in the core position in the international division of labor.