China is second only to Italy in the production of stone materials with an annual output of more than 100 million sq.m. of granite, marble, terrazzo and other stones.

According to the State Administration of Building Materials Industry, China's stone materials production has been growing at an average annual rate of 13 percent over the past 15 years. With the world's largest and most varied stone reserves, the country has a large number of stone quarries in the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Sichuan, Shandong, Zhejiang, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, and Yunnan.

China is well-known internationally for its granite, marble, and white marble production, and has markets for its stone products in Japan, the Republic of Korea, Germany, the United States, Russia, Thailand and Indonesia, as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

According to Zhang Wenbo, vice-chairman of the China Stone Materials Industry Association, China has made great headway in expanding cooperation with overseas partners by setting up at least 400 foreign-funded stone materials production ventures.

China also has made progress in improving its stone materials production technology, he said.

In recent years, the country has introduced equipment from Italy, Germany, and other countries which has helped the development of stone materials production.

China has more than 100 enterprises manufacturing stone production equipment, and exports this equipment to Russia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Indonesia and Hungary, the official said.