A short lane with an expensive failure mode
Tükiye is close to the United States by sea and deep in stone, tile and finishing materials. That makes the corridor attractive and slightly deceptive: the freight is manageable, so buyers relax, and the money is lost on grading, on breakage and on a customs classification nobody checked before the order.
Block, slab or finished: three different purchases
“Marble” is not a product. A quarry sells blocks by the cubic metre. A factory sells slabs by the square metre, cut to 2 cm or 3 cm, polished or honed, sold in bundles that came from one block and therefore match. A fabricator sells finished pieces cut to a drawing. The three have different prices, different packing, different waste and different people to argue with.
If the buyer is going to fabricate, bundles matter more than price. Slabs from different blocks will not match across a run, and a job that needs twelve matching slabs cannot be filled from a mixed pallet at any discount. That has to be written into the order: block number, bundle integrity, sequence preserved.
Grading and resin are where the margin hides
Natural stone is graded commercially, not by a public standard, which means grade A from one supplier can be grade B at the next. The honest way to buy is against a sealed reference sample plus a written tolerance for veining, colour variation and filled defects, with photographs of the actual bundles before shipment.
Most commercial travertine and much marble is resin treated and often mesh backed on the reverse. That is normal and it is not a defect, but it changes what the material can be used for and it has to be declared. A slab sold as unfilled that arrives resin filled is a claim; a slab sold as resin filled is a product.
Crating decides whether you receive what you bought
Stone travels badly and arrives expensively. Slabs ship on A-frames or in wooden bundles, strapped, with the faces separated. A crate that is well built costs a few dollars per square metre and a crate that is not costs the value of the stone. Moisture trapped in a sealed crate marks the surface of light material, so the pack has to breathe.
We write the breakage allowance into both contracts in the same words, with the same inspection window and the same evidence standard: photographs at the time of discharge, before the crate leaves the port. A claim raised three weeks later against a seller who has already been paid is a conversation, not a remedy.
Classify before you order, not at the border
The importer of record is liable for the classification, the duty and anything that follows from getting it wrong, and the seller in Izmir is not. Two things have to be settled before the order rather than at entry.
The first is the ordinary HTS heading and duty rate for the exact product. The second is whether the product falls inside the scope of a trade remedy order. Quartz surface products from Türkiye have carried antidumping and countervailing duty orders since 2020, while quarried stone such as granite, marble, soapstone and quartzite is excluded from that scope. Rates are reviewed, so the live rate has to be confirmed at the time of entry, and a cash deposit on a subject product can exceed the value of the goods. This is the single check in this corridor that turns a good purchase into a loss.
What the short ocean leg is worth
The practical advantage of this lane over a far eastern one is the schedule. A shorter transit means the working capital is tied up for less time, a replacement for a damaged consignment arrives inside the same season, and a sample shipment can be judged before the main order rather than after it. We quote FOB and CIF side by side so the buyer can see exactly what that schedule costs.
What buyers ask about this lane
The four questions that decide whether a shipment on this corridor works, answered the way we answer them on a first call.
What is the difference between buying blocks, slabs and finished stone?
A quarry sells blocks by the cubic metre, a factory sells slabs by the square metre cut to 2 cm or 3 cm and bundled by block, and a fabricator sells pieces cut to a drawing. The three have different prices, packing, waste and counterparties. If you intend to fabricate, bundle integrity matters more than the unit price, because slabs from different blocks will not match across a run.
Is resin treated stone a defect?
No. Most commercial travertine and much marble is resin treated and often mesh backed, which is normal and has to be declared. Stone sold as unfilled that arrives resin filled is a claim; stone sold as resin filled is a product.
Do antidumping duties apply to stone from Türkiye?
Quartz surface products from Türkiye have carried antidumping and countervailing duty orders since 2020, while quarried stone such as granite, marble, soapstone and quartzite is excluded from that scope. Rates are reviewed, so the live position must be confirmed at the time of entry. A cash deposit on a subject product can exceed the value of the goods.
How is breakage handled?
The allowance, the inspection window and the evidence standard are written into the supply contract and the sale contract in the same words: photographs at discharge, before the crate leaves the port. A claim raised weeks later against a seller who has been paid is a conversation, not a remedy.
A lane is the asset, the product travelling down it can change
Once the producers, the forwarder, the customs broker and the document set work on a route, the same route carries a different product next time. These are the routes we already run.
Send a specification. Get a landed price.
Product, quantity and destination port is enough to start. If you only have a problem, describe it and we will write the specification with you.