29.8.10

Engineered Stone : Competitive Barriers

In Europe and due to the world crisis, the engineered stone producers (that use Breton technology) are joining forces. Basically the main challenge is the products that are arriving at a lower cost through Chineses producers. The strict tolerances for the CE marking have objectively been made to barricade the entrance, however it'll not be enough.
If we look at the current state of the markets, we have most marble based producers either bankrupt or with serious market difficulties .... while the quartz producers have been struggling to survive.
The future lies ahead, and competition will grow as the oriental competition sets in, and this will cause a price decrease ...
ASTA Europe has been instated by the main European producers as a joint force to establish a joint strategy to protect the industry. Truth is that cheaper products and lower quality are  seen continuously side by side marching in to the European Market. And basically the products look very similar one with other which confuse the end user, so much work is needed in this area to protect the market and the end user froim being defrauded.
Quality of a product is based on many factors, and they (the consumers) have the right to know exactly what they are buying, I believe that much deceive is currently going on and a great necessity of control and supervision is needed.