Global Building Materials Market Reports & Forecasts

What these building materials reports cover

Each report profiles one export product — natural stone, cement and clinker, ceramic tiles, glass or gypsum board — from the buyer's side: what the product is, how it is graded, how it is packed, and how much of it fits in a container or a ship. The aim is to give importers, contractors and traders the facts they need before asking for a quotation.

• Technical specification. The test values buyers check, such as compressive strength and water absorption for stone (ASTM C170 and C97), strength class for cement (EN 197-1), and PEI wear class for glazed tiles.
• HS code. The customs classification used to find the import duty and any restrictions in the destination country; check it in the HS code explorer.
• Price basis. Indicative prices are quoted FOB (free on board) at the Egyptian port of loading; see the Incoterms guide for what that includes.
• Packing and payload. Crates, big bags or stillages, and the realistic quantity per 20ft or 40ft container, limited by weight long before volume for dense materials.

Reports in this library (7)

Open a report above to see its summary and full specification sheet.

Why heavy materials are shipped by weight, not volume

Stone, cement and tiles are dense. A 20ft container can usually take about 25–28 tonnes of cargo, and road weight limits in the loading and destination countries can be lower still. A container of granite slabs therefore leaves with plenty of empty space; the limit is the scale, not the cubic metres. Always plan heavy cargo against the payload limit, and check the numbers with the CBM and container load calculator and the container specifications.

Bulk cement and clinker move differently: large volumes go in bulk carriers under the IMO IMSBC Code for solid bulk cargo, while bagged cement goes in 50 kg bags or 1–1.5 tonne big bags on flat-rack or general-cargo ships.