Quartz Shipments Set New U.S. Record (Again)
U.S. quartz slab imports took a quick rest in early summer before moving back to boom-time growth curves in July, setting new records in customs values and volume.
The $25.3 million in quartz-slab import values broke the $22.2 million mark set in May, although the leader – Spain, at $9.2 million – didn’t come close to setting a new single-country record. Israel keeps a strong second at $5.9 million, but the big dealer is Canada with $3.9 million in slabs moving across the border. Other members of the million-dollar club in July are China, pushing its values up 88.9% from July 2012 to $2.6 million, and Italy, marking a 238.8% year-to-year growth with its $1.3 million.
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The 2.7 million ft² of quartz slab entering U.S. ports-of-entry In June easily surpasses May’s high of 2.4 million ft². The new marks again represent a team effort, with the biggest growth from July 2012 coming from Canada (381,451 ft², up 202.1%), China (316,373 ft², up 60.1%) and Italy (146,960 ft², up 474.1%) .
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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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