Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:09 pm
Angola has huge natural resources (Africa's largest oil producer, the world's fifth largest diamond producer). It does have a lot of stone, however, it has little manufacturing capability to do anything with this stone.London Stone Paving wrote:Hats of to you Ted for carving yourself a niche out there. Do you get much need for stone out there?
On the side of the road, one can buy a sort of stone that is reminiscent of Cotswold stone (not quite as pretty but still nice). I have never bought it but apparently people use it to underpin their homes if they have subsidence.
From what I remember when I once enquired it is not that expensive and I would have been quoted a silly price as a white guy in a fancy 4x4 pulling up on the roadside and not bothering to really haggle.
So although this stone is there, there are not many stone products on the market. I am importing pool copings and one hardly ever sees a patio out there. Angolans do love concrete - when an Angolan buys a house he normally concretes the whole yard. They do like stone though but it is not yet really available other than in random sized rocks.
Angola also produces granite and there is a granite fabricator in Luanda who is quite proficient in its trade (a Portuguese-run firm). Angola produces Angolan Black Granite which is a very expensive granite on the international market, so I understand. Generally granite is good value out there although few go for the Angolan Black as it is still very expensive out there.
The very rich have granite window sills, granite shelves, granite floors etc.
Even the middle classes often have granite kitchen countertops and door thresholds (ie, a sort of strip separator to avoid ugly tiling when you use the same tile across two rooms iyswim).
