StatWatch: No Dog Days for Imports

U.S. dimensional-surface imports failed to break any records in August, but gains in most sectors kept fabricators and installation crews busy in late summer.

And, for the first time in, well, years, quartz surfaces didn’t set a new monthly high in imports, with one country slacking back on U.S.-bound containers. Totals from this August for quartz, however, still show annual growth of more than 50%.
 
GRANITE

Imports of “worked” (at least partially finished) granite dipped below the 200,000 metric-ton (MT) level for the first time in three months with 172,201 MT in August. Not to worry; the total marked a 7.2% rise from last August, and kept granite in the 7% growth range for 2015.

Brazil remained the top granite provider at 87,452 MT; while the country kept its 50%+ share of granite imports, it also showed slower-than-average annual growth at only 3.7%., while China and India each zipped past August 2014 totals by more than 20%. Canada kept unusually strong to place fourth at 10,168 MT; Italy, meanwhile, followed a strong 16.6K MT July with 5,992 MT in August.

MARBLE

Marble went into a cool-down during the hot August weather, with imports moving under the 50K MT levels of recent months to 43,070 MT. Despite the month-to-month drop-off, August totals managed to beat last year’s level by 33.7%.

Much of the adjustment on marble shipments came from Turkey; it notched back some 25% from this July, although the 15,505 MT this August represented a 98.7% gain from 2014. Italy and China held down second and third spots in August with annual gains of more than 9% each.

QUARTZ SLABS

Just last month, StatWatch noted that “it’s going to be news when U.S. quartz-slab imports don’t set a new monthly record.” Bulletin: August’s 5,807,167 ft² came in under July’s record shipments.

Don’t think of this as the start of the great nosedive for quartz, however, as this August’s total ran ahead of 2014 shipments by 56.8%. China led all countries with close to 2.2 million ft² and beat August 2014 totals by more than 200%. The biggest year-to-year drop came from Israel with 24.6% less in quartz slabs sent to the United States; it’s unclear, though, whether this is due to production from Caesarstone’s new plant near Savannah, Ga., or from company sales performance or higher-than-normal inventories.

TRAVERTINE

While travertine imports this August were lower than the year before, it’s hard to characterize the drop as a major movement. The 63,374 MT received in U.S. ports-of-entry represent a decline of only 2.5% from 2014.

Market leader Turkey, with 54,706 MT in August, showed a 3.5% annual drop – the same rate of decline as second-place Mexico. Italy stood out as the only country to increase U.S. travertine shipments – 69.2% at 1,998 MT.

OTHER CALCAREOUS

There’s something about August to roil one market; while other sectors scaled back from earlier in summer, other-calcareous shippers pushed ahead to 21,367 MT, besting last year’s totals by 43.6%

While Italy led the list at 5,670 MT (up 81% from last August), Canada goosed the overall total with year-to-year increase of 249.7% at 5,564 MT. China took a tumble from its usual lead position this year into third place with 4,660 MT (-12%) .

OTHER STONE

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