A loose aggregation of rock fragments, gravel is a key ingredient for surfacing roadways particularly for roads in rural areas with relatively less traffic. Gravel is classified by size of its granules.
In addition, gravel is combined with sand for mixing with asphalt and for producing other construction materials including concrete blocks, bricks and pipes as construction filler. Other uses include making roofing shingles, supporting water filtration and for providing traction on icy roads during winter. Gravel can also be added with industrial sand to produce glass.
Among continents, European countries (59.9%) sold the highest dollar worth of exported gravel during 2019 with shipments valued at $1.6 billion. In second place were exporters in Asia at 28.3% while 9.1% of worldwide gravel shipments originated from North America. Smaller percentages came from Latin America (2.2%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, Africa (0.3%) then Oceania (0.2%) led by New Zealand.
For research purposes, the 4-digit Harmonized Tariff System code prefix is 2517 for pebbles, gravel and broken or crushed stone gravel.
Top Gravel Exports by Country
Top 15
Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of gravel during 2019.
- China: US$369.6 million (13.8% of total gravel exports)
- Germany: $236.4 million (8.8%)
- Norway: $228.9 million (8.6%)
- Belgium: $172.6 million (6.5%)
- France: $124.5 million (4.7%)
- Austria: $112.8 million (4.2%)
- Canada: $95 million (3.6%)
- Mexico: $91.5 million (3.4%)
- Italy: $91.3 million (3.4%)
- United Kingdom: $87.7 million (3.3%)
- Malaysia: $84.5 million (3.2%)
- Vietnam: $78.4 million (2.9%)
- Indonesia: $71.9 million (2.7%)
- Belarus: $71.7 million (2.7%)
- India: $68.3 million (2.6%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 74.2% of globally exported gravel in 2019.
Among the top exporters, the fastest-growing exporters of gravel since 2015 were: Belarus (up 153.4%), India (up 118.9%), Malaysia (up 91.6%) and China (up 47.8%).
Three top suppliers posted declines in their international sales of gravel: Vietnam (down -12.5%), Mexico (down -0.6%) and Norway (down -0.1%).
Advantages
The following countries posted the highest positive net exports for gravel during 2019. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the surplus between the value of each country’s exported gravel and its import purchases for that same commodity.
- China: US$356.1 million (net export surplus up 44.2% since 2015)
- Norway: $226.9 million (up 0.5%)
- Mexico: $85.9 million (down -3.4%)
- Belgium: $83.6 million (up 52%)
- Malaysia: $77.2 million (up 108.5%)
- Vietnam: $76.2 million (down -12.1%)
- Italy: $70.3 million (up 39%)
- Indonesia: $67.6 million (up 9.8%)
- India: $64.8 million (up 266%)
- Belarus: $58 million (up 292.8%)
- Canada: $54.1 million (down -5.7%)
- Austria: $53.6 million (up 13.7%)
- United Kingdom: $46.5 million (up 22.4%)
- Croatia: $38.2 million (up 876.2%)
- Slovenia: $36.7 million (up 31.8%)
The People’s Republic of China garnered the highest surplus in the international trade of gravel. In turn, this positive cashflow confirms China’s strong competitive advantage for this specific product category.
Opportunities
The following countries posted the highest negative net exports for gravel during 2019. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the deficit between the value of each country’s imported gravel purchases and its exports for that same commodity.
- Hong Kong: -US$339.5 million (net export deficit up 165.4% since 2015)
- Singapore: -$247.5 million (down -1.8%)
- Netherlands: -$240.9 million (up 64.7%)
- United States: -$192.1 million (down -8.3%)
- Switzerland: -$131.5 million (down -5.3%)
- Russia: -$90.5 million (down -39.5%)
- Poland: -$83.7 million (up 47.8%)
- Taiwan: -$68.1 million (down -51.5%)
- Bangladesh: -$59.7 million (up 702.8%)
- Germany: -$49 million (down 0%)
- Denmark: -$43.3 million (up 33.9%)
- Luxembourg: -$39.6 million (up 19.9%)
- Sweden: -$36.3 million (up 61.5%)
- Macao: -$27.6 million (up 116.1%)
- Ireland: -$22 million (up 65.5%)
Hong Kong incurred the highest deficit in the international trade of gravel. In turn, this negative cashflow highlights Hong Kong’s competitive disadvantage for this specific product category but also signals opportunities for gravel-supplying countries that help satisfy the powerful demand.
Companies
Gravel Exporting Companies
According to global trading platform Alibaba, the following suppliers are selected examples of gravel-trading exporters. The home-country location for each business is shown within parentheses.
- ECO World FZE (United Arab Emirates)
- Canada Trading & Contracting Inc (Canada)
- Shijiazhuang Mining Imp & Exp Trade Co (China)
- Shri Vinayak Industries (India)
Searchable List of Gravel Exporting Countries in 2019
You can change the presentation order by clicking the triangle icons at the top of the columns. An entry of 0% in the right-most column means that 2019 data was unavailable.
| Rank | Exporter | Exported Gravel (US$) | 2018-9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | China | $369,635,000 | +35.8% |
| 2. | Germany | $236,415,000 | -2.7% |
| 3. | Norway | $228,868,000 | -10.2% |
| 4. | Belgium | $172,629,000 | +0.3% |
| 5. | France | $124,534,000 | +0.3% |
| 6. | Austria | $112,777,000 | -3.2% |
| 7. | Canada | $94,960,000 | +7.1% |
| 8. | Mexico | $91,511,000 | +9.7% |
| 9. | Italy | $91,266,000 | +29.2% |
| 10. | United Kingdom | $87,710,000 | -2.3% |
| 11. | Malaysia | $84,502,000 | +47.7% |
| 12. | Vietnam | $78,422,000 | -49.5% |
| 13. | Indonesia | $71,886,000 | +31.6% |
| 14. | Belarus | $71,697,000 | -10.4% |
| 15. | India | $68,306,000 | +69.7% |
| 16. | Netherlands | $58,718,000 | -9.5% |
| 17. | Slovenia | $56,364,000 | +0.5% |
| 18. | Croatia | $55,814,000 | +20.3% |
| 19. | United States | $55,692,000 | -1.8% |
| 20. | Finland | $39,807,000 | +44.7% |
| 21. | Bahamas | $33,482,000 | +1.1% |
| 22. | Turkey | $32,300,000 | +11.5% |
| 23. | Denmark | $31,328,000 | +2.8% |
| 24. | Spain | $30,388,000 | +9.9% |
| 25. | Czech Republic | $20,747,000 | +5.4% |
| 26. | Romania | $19,288,000 | -13.7% |
| 27. | Russia | $18,392,000 | +18.2% |
| 28. | Sweden | $15,168,000 | -2.3% |
| 29. | Greece | $14,854,000 | +8.8% |
| 30. | Poland | $12,708,000 | +13.8% |
| 31. | Hungary | $12,395,000 | +12.2% |
| 32. | Iceland | $11,358,000 | +6.4% |
| 33. | Thailand | $11,114,000 | -18.3% |
| 34. | Bosnia/Herzegovina | $10,640,000 | +26.2% |
| 35. | Slovakia | $10,216,000 | +8% |
| 36. | Laos | $9,877,000 | +111.4% |
| 37. | Lithuania | $9,643,000 | +104.4% |
| 38. | Honduras | $7,939,000 | +33.7% |
| 39. | Hong Kong | $7,739,000 | +19,248% |
| 40. | Ireland | $7,120,000 | +56.6% |
| 41. | Jamaica | $6,907,000 | +595.6% |
| 42. | South Korea | $6,681,000 | -33.3% |
| 43. | Ukraine | $6,553,000 | -85.9% |
| 44. | Switzerland | $5,439,000 | +32.9% |
| 45. | Serbia | $5,174,000 | +16.9% |
| 46. | Portugal | $4,909,000 | -13.1% |
| 47. | Estonia | $4,902,000 | -16.3% |
| 48. | Kazakhstan | $4,450,000 | -2.1% |
| 49. | Latvia | $3,786,000 | -23% |
| 50. | New Zealand | $3,752,000 | -19% |
| 51. | North Macedonia | $3,505,000 | +45.3% |
| 52. | Albania | $3,059,000 | +1,658% |
| 53. | Bulgaria | $2,797,000 | +17.8% |
| 54. | Brazil | $2,355,000 | +51.4% |
| 55. | Japan | $2,197,000 | -9.2% |
| 56. | Bangladesh | $2,097,000 | -15.3% |
| 57. | Senegal | $2,007,000 | +198.2% |
| 58. | Namibia | $1,906,000 | -7.3% |
| 59. | Philippines | $1,697,000 | -16.4% |
| 60. | United Arab Emirates | $1,689,000 | -99.6% |
| 61. | Peru | $1,652,000 | +7.4% |
| 62. | Argentina | $1,561,000 | +18.3% |
| 63. | Egypt | $1,344,000 | +37% |
| 64. | Colombia | $1,076,000 | -65.1% |
| 65. | Morocco | $1,016,000 | -16.1% |
| 66. | Haiti | $992,000 | +28.8% |
| 67. | Tunisia | $895,000 | +558.1% |
| 68. | Jordan | $891,000 | -55.8% |
| 69. | Dominican Republic | $794,000 | +61.1% |
| 70. | Dominica | $791,000 | +278.5% |
| 71. | Cyprus | $730,000 | -86% |
| 72. | Luxembourg | $727,000 | -9.9% |
| 73. | South Africa | $665,000 | -34.5% |
| 74. | Israel | $659,000 | -0.2% |
| 75. | Taiwan | $636,000 | +23% |
| 76. | Guatemala | $589,000 | +89.4% |
| 77. | Paraguay | $562,000 | -77.1% |
| 78. | Costa Rica | $522,000 | -17.7% |
| 79. | Uzbekistan | $476,000 | -80.9% |
| 80. | Australia | $425,000 | +17.4% |
| 81. | Zambia | $388,000 | -28.7% |
| 82. | Georgia | $362,000 | -56.4% |
| 83. | Singapore | $290,000 | -53.7% |
| 84. | Montserrat | $216,000 | -38.8% |
| 85. | Barbados | $211,000 | +580.6% |
| 86. | Andorra | $197,000 | -37.7% |
| 87. | Montenegro | $136,000 | +202.2% |
| 88. | Iran | $97,000 | -98.8% |
| 89. | Curaçao | $94,000 | +27% |
| 90. | Myanmar (Burma) | $81,000 | -44.1% |
| 91. | Saint Lucia | $80,000 | -97.1% |
| 92. | Uruguay | $59,000 | -90.3% |
| 93. | Lesotho | $38,000 | +8.6% |
| 94. | Ivory Coast | $25,000 | +400% |
| 95. | Cameroon | $23,000 | +666.7% |
| 96. | Sierra Leone | $22,000 | -53.2% |
| 97. | Pakistan | $19,000 | -98% |
| 98. | Gabon | $18,000 | +350% |
| 99. | Gibraltar | $16,000 | -20% |
| 100. | Chile | $16,000 | +1,500% |
| 101. | Panama | $15,000 | -64.3% |
| 102. | Azerbaijan | $14,000 | -30% |
| 103. | Mozambique | $12,000 | 0% |
| 104. | New Caledonia | $11,000 | -57.7% |
| 105. | Moldova | $9,000 | +125% |
| 106. | Kyrgyzstan | $9,000 | -55% |
| 107. | Qatar | $8,000 | +300% |
| 108. | Chad | $7,000 | +600% |
| 109. | Guinea | $7,000 | 0% |
| 110. | US Minor Outlying Is | $7,000 | 0% |
| 111. | Eritrea | $6,000 | +100% |
| 112. | Kuwait | $6,000 | -89.1% |
| 113. | Kenya | $6,000 | -97.6% |
| 114. | Rwanda | $4,000 | +300% |
| 115. | Mongolia | $4,000 | 0% |
| 116. | Greenland | $4,000 | 0% |
| 117. | Democr. Rep. Congo | $4,000 | +100% |
| 118. | Eswatini | $4,000 | 0% |
| 119. | Tanzania | $4,000 | 0% |
| 120. | Congo | $3,000 | 0% |
| 121. | Sri Lanka | $3,000 | -94.9% |
| 122. | Marshall Islands | $3,000 | 0% |
| 123. | Nicaragua | $2,000 | -50% |
| 124. | Oman | $2,000 | -100% |
| 125. | Bolivia | $2,000 | 0% |
| 126. | Algeria | $2,000 | -81.8% |
| 127. | Sudan | $2,000 | 0% |
| 128. | Somalia | $2,000 | 0% |
| 129. | Seychelles | $1,000 | 0% |
| 130. | Uganda | $1,000 | -66.7% |
| 131. | Burkina Faso | $1,000 | 0% |
| 132. | Armenia | $1,000 | -75% |
| 133. | Cabo Verde | $1,000 | 0% |
| 134. | Benin | $1,000 | 0% |
| 135. | Ghana | $1,000 | -100% |
| 136. | St Vincent/Grenadines | $1,000 | 0.0% |
| 137. | Iraq | $1,000 | -100% |
| 138. | Liberia | $1,000 | -96.8% |
| 139. | Mauritania | $1,000 | -87.5% |
| 140. | Mauritius | $1,000 | 0% |
See also Cements Exports by Country, Top Sand Exporters by Country and Sawn Wood Exports by Country
Research Sources:
Alibaba, Supplier showroom for gravel stone. Accessed on June 5, 2020
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Field Listing: Exports – Commodities. Accessed on June 5, 2020
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on June 5, 2020
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on June 5, 2020
Minerals Education Coalition (MEC), Mining & Minerals Information, Minerals Database, Sand and Gravel, Central Intelligence Agency. Accessed on June 5, 2020
Wikipedia, Gravel. Accessed on June 5, 2020