Natural stone exports face new challenges in Europe

With the gradual improvement of the EU's unified market, the vast majority of products involving health, safety, and environmental protection (home appliances, building materials, medical equipment, etc.) have been compulsorily included in the “must carry the CE mark, otherwise they will not be allowed to enter the EU. Market circulation". For products produced by non-EU countries, it will be increasingly difficult to enter the EU and the EU free trade zone without carrying the CE mark. Therefore, obtaining the CE mark is also referred to as product entry is a "special pass" into the European Economic Area (including the European Union, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein).

As early as October 2003, the European Union had already begun to issue CE marking requirements for the export of three kinds of natural stone products to the EU (natural stone slabs, natural stone cubes, natural stone sidewalks and sapwood used for outdoor paving). That is to say, manufacturers are required to provide supporting technical documents that meet the standards EN1341, EN1342 and EN1343, and they are marked in the form of CE. Although the compulsory certification of these three types of stone has a two-year buffer period since October 1, 2003, due to factors such as trade protectionism in various countries, in fact, some countries have already begun to implement this standard. At the same time, from the perspective of future development trends, more and more construction products will be limited to carrying the CE mark to enter the European circulation. On January 1, 2005, Europe also began to require conformity certificates with CE marking on natural stone and its products applied in civil areas (such as houses and sidewalks).

By marking the CE on the product, the manufacturer indicates that the product fully complies with the relevant European directives for product directives. Before marking the CE mark, it must pass the certification of relevant product directives, such as the European Construction Product Directive CPD89/106/EEC. When the product is marked with the CE mark, it must also provide the technical documentation of the product in order to be marketed. Circulation. The easiest way to prove compliance with the directive is to harmonize standards through Europe; if a particular product category meets harmonized standards, it also means that it meets the corresponding product directives.

The CE mark is not a test mark. It merely indicates that the manufacturer declares that its product complies with all relevant regulations. Therefore, the manufacturer can choose the evaluation method. Stone manufacturers can select different experimental programs according to the specifications, uses and raw materials of different choices of EN standards. After certification, they can indicate the CE mark on their own stone products. The process of CE mark certification mainly includes the testing of product material properties, production process quality control, documentation of relevant technical declarations, and identification of CE marking. In addition, in order to ensure the long-term quality of the product, there must also be follow-up periodic production quality supervision inspections and external sampling tests. In order to indicate compliance, the testing and certification work may also have to be carried out by an authoritative and authoritative independent body, ie a third-party certification body (eg, German LGA, etc.). Products that do not comply with relevant product directives may cause many problems in the process of export trade and market circulation. Therefore, we recommend that manufacturers commission third-party certification agencies to carry out CE mark certification and evaluation.

China's accession to the WTO, China's stone companies face the competition of domestic and international companies in the same industry, as well as the challenges of international market technology and trade barriers. In the strategy of how to develop foreign markets, especially in the European and American markets, we should plan ahead and be ready in advance to respond positively. This is not only the immediate goal of expanding market share, but also the need to improve the long-term goals of the company's own core competitiveness.