One of the beautiful features of Spanish buildings is the extensive use of marble for facades, columns and flooring. When you pass Alicante you can see the vast tracks of the local stone being quarried for this purpose.
Members of the Comisión Sectorial de la Piedra Natural say that the natural stone used in several public works currently being developed in the Valencian Community is coming from other countries, among them Egypt and China. They cite the examples of the extensions to the airport at Altet and the new hospital, La Fe de Valencia where foreign marble is being used.
The stone workers union says that this is not helping their sector which is in crisis at the moment. They have therefore requested the Catalan Autonomous Government to specify the use of local marble in public buildings.
In reply the consellera say that the construction industry sources its materials for building within a free market.
It is hard to imagine, with a material as heavy as stone, how importing it from China could be more economical than buying it locally unless the local marble is vastly overpriced.
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