StatWatch: Quartz Growth Curve Still Steep

May 10, 2013

The hot times continue for quartz, with Spain and Israel pushing the market. Don’t count out China, though.

Spain’s first place this March tickles the $7-million mark in customs valuation, but Israel takes bigger strides from last year to mark second place at $5.4 million. China falls off the pace of the first two months of 2013, although its $1.5 million is more than double of March 2012. On the other side of the slab, the Czech Republic’s exports to the United States drop to zero in value and volume for March.

U.S. Quartz Slab Imports – Value
(U.S. dollars)

	Mar-13	Mar-12	Change
Spain	$6,912,482	$5,535,330	24.9%
Israel	$5,425,371	$3,378,027	60.6%
Canada	$1,595,831	$1,359,066	17.4%
China	$1,560,983	$759,080	105.6%
Italy	$553,561	$492,041	12.5%
Portugal	$416,446	$451,477	-7.8%
Vietnam	$226,190	$201,520	12.2%
India	$211,233	$271,257	-22.1%
Belgium	$172,026	$426,705	-59.7%
Brazil	$69,312	$13,677	406.8%
Korea	$50,284	$42,526	18.2%
Turkey	$45,792	$0	N/A
Germany	$30,357	$0	N/A
Czech Republic	$0	$61,923	N/A

Total	$17,269,868	$12,992,629	32.9%

Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

The top spot in volume remains with Spain in March, but Israel squeezes the margin to less than 100,000 ft² by doubling and then some (129.1%) its own shipments from 2012. China continues to establish itself as one of the U.S. market makers, and even Canada and Italy show gains from last March. India continues to move up, although monthly totals still average well short of 100,000 ft².

U.S. Quartz Slab Imports – Volume
(square feet)

	Mar-13	Mar-12	Change
Spain	736,218	549,314	34.0%
Israel	630,711	275,330	129.1%
China	216,193	79,158	173.1%
Canada	136,712	111,546	22.6%
Italy	69,642	47,856	45.5%
India	53,109	26,608	99.6%
Portugal	47,458	52,323	-9.3%
Vietnam	19,989	23,315	-14.3%
Belgium	18,665	36,748	-49.2%
Turkey	6,448	0	N/A
Korea	6,006	5,425	10.7%
Germany	4,036	0	N/A
Brazil	3,261	850	283.5%
Czech Republic	0	5,963	N/A

Total	1,948,449	1,214,437	60.4%

Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

StatWatch is a snapshot of U.S. dimensional-stone and hard-surfaces imports, offering a summary and exclusive Stone Update analysis of data from the U.S. International Trade Commission. Comparisons are made mainly to gauge market trends. Analysis is made on import figures of the latest month available.

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