U.S. Stone Imports, July 2012

Granite continues its growth from last summer, albeit in small increments of shipping. Marble remains hot, travertine stalls, and the odd lots of “other stone” offer good news.

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

All figures give are for July 2012 (change from July 2011 amounts in parentheses). “Worked” stone is material that’s shorn from boulders and blocks, and then cut in standard dimensional measures (such as slabs and tiles) and polished (at least once, one side). “Value” represents the declared customs value of stone.
 
WORKED GRANITE VALUE
Total: $109.2 million (+10.0%)
Sector leader: Brazil @ $46.3 million (+7.9%)

Backfill: Brazil leads a crowd that generally peps up import values, as with China ($23.7 million, +13.9%), Italy ($12.8 million, +22.8%), Taiwan ($2.9 million, +66.3%), Canada ($2.6 million, +7.4%) and Spain ($2.4 million, +111.5%). Only India goes against the trend, declining 5.4% from last July to $17.1 million.

WORKED GRANITE VOLUME
Total: 127,666 metric tons (+1.8%)
Sector leader: Brazil @ 53,238 metric tons (+4.1%)

Backfill: India’s granite values may be down, but the 28,849 metric tons shipped in July 2012 is a 25.3% year-to-year boost and the main support for keeping the category in positive territory. China drops 18.6% to 27,930 metric tons, and Italy declines 4.3% to 8,128 metric tons. Other good news comes from Spain (3,148 metric tons, +72.9%) and Taiwan (2,366 metric tons, up 51.5%).

WORKED MARBLE VALUE
Total: $28.5 million (+32.6%)
Sector leader: Italy @ $16.3 million (+56.0%)

Backfill: It’s a virtual replay of June; Italy builds its position and China strengthens ($4.4 million, +17.6%) in second place. Both Spain ($2.2 million, -6.5%) and Turkey ($2.0 million, -9.0%) decline from July 2011. The boomers below $1 million include India ($575,293, +161.0%) and Brazil ($565,839, +81.0%).

WORKED MARBLE VOLUME
Total: 24,556 metric tons (+46.7%)
Sector leader: Italy @ 8,988 metric tons (+66.5%)

Backfill: Italy not only takes back the lead in the category; it’s the third-highest monthly total for a country’s marble shipments to the United States. (Italy also owns the top two spots; 9,546 metric tons in August 2008 and 9,431 metric tons in August 2006.) China also shines with 6,336 metric tons, up 42.0% from July 2011; Mexico supplies an abnormal boost (1,025 metric tons, up 1,120.2%).

TRAVERTINE VALUE
Total: $25.4 million (-1.3%)
Sector leader: Turkey @ $17.0 million (2.1%)

Backfill: It takes a lot to unhitch this sector from Turkey’s direction, and the culprits are China ($720,157, -51.6%) and Mexico ($4.1 million -14.6%). Helping to limit the fall are Italy ($2.0 million +90.4%) and Peru ($1.0 million, +24.2%).

TRAVERTINE VOLUME
Total: 42,824 metric tons (-18.4%)
Sector leader: Turkey @ 34,650 metric tons (-1.4%)

Backfill: The leader takes a slight slip, but the hard hits come from Mexico (4,831 metric tons, -42.7%) and China (744 metric tons, -55.7%). Peru climbs to third place at 1,154 metric tons – a 36.1% gain from July 2011 – and Italy moves up 59.8% to 1,013 metric tons.