Middle East Stone Welcomes Leading Suppliers as Third Annual Expo Gets Underway

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21 May 2017

The Gulf’s biggest dedicated stone expo will welcome the world’s premiere suppliers of marble, ceramics and natural stone when it gets underway in Dubai on Monday. Middle East Stone has gathered suppliers of some of the rarest international stone found anywhere in the world – including the likes of Iran, Brazil, Turkey and America – for the third annual dedicated stone meet.

Global leaders from across all stone-based fields – from quarrying to cutting and colouring – will showcase rare, unique and international stone to over 15,000 professionals from the natural stone, marble, granite and ceramics community.

Amongst Middle East Stone’s pool of international exhibitors is one of the world’s biggest stone producers and exporters – Brazil. The Brazilian industry is thriving due to the unique qualities their natural stone possesses, ranging from classic colours and patterns to strong all-weather resistance. It is also renowned for its adaptability and, as with all different international suppliers of stone, is a necessity for the vast catalogue of construction planned for across the MENA-region over the next decade.

PBA Stones, who have travelled to Middle East Stone from their base in Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil, said: “You can never compete with mother nature’s perfection and beauty. Brazilian natural stones are the greatest materials found on earth – the geological richness found in Brazil is one of a kind, combining materials that offer gorgeous patterns.”

Jon Lancto, president of the Marble Institute of America, and director at the joint MIA+BSI (Building Stone Institute), stressed the importance of this week from both an importing and exporting point of view.

He said: “Besides having many members present at the show, Middle East Stone represents a long history of supporting the use of natural stone. Dubai is a key hub for importing natural stone for regional use and exporting for world use. As a key market, Dubai is important to many suppliers around the world. Natural stone is facing competition from engineered products. However, high end users are increasing their use of stone on many of their projects.”

Exhibitors taking part in Middle East Stone include MAPEI, Callache, Marmo Classic, Services & Trade Marble, Aseel Marble, Al Emadi, Stone Trade International, Fortune Enterprise, SABTA, Arwani Trading and US Diamond. Glaze Granite & Marble, Sun Italia & Laticrete have backed the event as show sponsors, with the latter supporting the four-day Stone Conference; a series of free to attend, CPD accredited seminars focusing on developments, trends, challenges and opportunities within the industry. Speakers include Jim Hieb (MIA), Mike Picco (Picco Engineering), Ranen Beaver (Laticrete Intenational), Dr Hans-Dieter Hensel (Hensel Geosciences), Jonathan Ashmore (Anarchitect), Craig Ross (Cavendish Maxwell) and Fabrizio Nicola (FILA).

Running from Monday through Thursday at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Middle East Stone provides stone buyers, traders, architects, designers and contract flooring professionals access to the very latest industry products – from stones, marble and ceramics, to stone manipulating technologies.

For more information and to register for Middle East Stone, visit: www.middleeaststone.com.