Spanish Surge

June 6, 2006

“We’re from Southern California,” I replied in a voice that sounded calm, although anything you say after 17 hours of sleepless air travel probably sounds serene. “Don’t worry. You don’t scare us in the least.”
“Southern California! Oh yes! I used to live there!” he says as he turns to look at me in the back seat, tripping off some deep fear alert in my body, as several slower Peugeots and Toyotas loom ahead through the windshield. “Yes, yes, I lived mainly in the east! East L.A.! I liked it very, very much!”
He turned to face the road again, deftly avoiding a driver with the crust to actually drive the speed limit. “But, I moved back here two years ago,” he continued. “This is where you can make something for yourself. It’s better here.”
It’s better here. That’s something you expect to hear about the food, or the weather, or the wine or anything but the economy in Spain. And yet this is a place that now seems on the up-tick, including its sizeable stone industry.
I came here in early May for PIEDRA, the biannual stone event for the Iberian peninsula. After a few of these events, the 2006 edition could be summarized as one of fewer tombs and a lot less gloom.
As with other European stone shows, PIEDRA’s exhibits include the urns, crypts and other accouterments of the funeral trade. Usually, these start to dominate some halls – not by their number, but by their placement at the head of halls to sometimes give the event an ominous flavor. People often seemed to be dull in their presentation of stone and equipment, which certainly isn’t the usual behavior of Madrileños.
That somewhat morbid spirit floated through much of the last PIEDRA in 2004, with a moribund economy and plenty of questions about the growth of stone exports. It didn’t help that one of the exhibit halls, barely six weeks before PIEDRA, served as a temporary morgue for victims of the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings.
The long faces didn't show up this year. People seemed peppier, and booths filled up quicker with buyers ready to deal. Exhibitors featured the usual Spanish hospitality, with wine and that great Spanish ham carved right from a huge shank in the booth – but people this time weren't as concerned about eating as much as doing business.
It’s the attitude that permeated Madrid this spring, with optimism coming from taxi drivers, business executives and anyone out and about on the streets of Madrid. If anything, there's always time to talk – not because of the stereotypical (and inaccurate) manaña attitude, but for the regular traffic tie-ups around the numerous major public-works projects in the capital city.
It's serious enough that the heart of Madrid, the Playa de Sol, beats to the sound of jackhammers and heavy machinery. And, some outdoor concerts in the Plaza Mayor amused the audiences by playing sounds of construction between performing acts.
The soundtrack of frantic construction is more than building on the public Euro. Plenty of the buildings in the transitional neighborhood I stayed in are being completely gutted on the inside for apartments, condominiums and hotels.
No matter the project, it’s a cinch that stone will play a big part. Yes, it's plentiful here in domestic supply, but it’s also traditional. You’ll find incredibly ornate pieces in places like the Palacio Real (the royal palace), but you also find nicely trimmed granite countertops and flooring at a basic tapas bar. It’s also part of any public space, from the main terminals at Barajas airport to hotel lobbies and the local outlet of the ubiquitous ham shop.
Observers of the Spanish stone industry are flabbergasted as quarriers begin to invest in new equipment and open new areas for extracting granite, marble and limestone. Even a year ago, anyone talking about pouring money into quarrying and slab/tile production in Spain would’ve been considered crazy. Not today, as major financial groups are taking hard looks at picking up some of the larger Spanish stone producers.
The main force behind industry expansion is the booming domestic market; at least 70 percent of the stone quarried and processed here stays in Spain. As more stone becomes available, however, it’s inevitable that the amount of slabs and tiles headed for export markets will increase.
That’s good news for the U.S. market, which is already the main destination of Spanish stone heading out of the country. There’s an active market for marble; the stately, aged look of Spain’s limestone should also be appealing to U.S. customers as available quantities increase.
As with other European goods, there’s always the problem of the exchange rate with the Euro and the dollar, which chases some U.S. business to non-Euro countries. Several suppliers of stone simply shook their heads at PIEDRA when asked about selling in the United States – “too expensive” were two English words easily understood.
For others, however, U.S. sales are a matter of offering quality stone at reasonable – if not budget – prices. They’re optimistic about the future, just like my taxi driver.
“Invest here!” he said. “Find a plot of land and get a building up! You can sell apartments for a million apiece! It’s a great time to do business here!”
I gave him a better-than-average tip. Two years from now, I might be staying in his hotel.