StatWatch October 2018: Back to (Sort of) Normal
By Emerson Schwartzkopf
The Chinese scale-back in quartz-surfaces imports to the United States may stop the stratospheric rise of the sector, but it’s still the strongest one in hard-sector shipments
Despite the quartz flow from China dipping more than 20% from last year’s levels, the manufactured surface managed a 10% overall worldwide growth, spurred mainly by non-Pacific-Rim countries.
The decline in Chinese quartz in October came in the face of twin tariff actions — one on all Chinese imports by the Trump administration and the other coming after the U.S. government agreed with an unfair-trade petition brought earlier this year by U.S. manufacturer Cambria.
Other hard-surface sectors saw mixed results, with mostly small gains or losses in overall shipments. (The often volatile other-calcareous sector made the only double-digit change in natural stone.)
QUARTZ SLABS
China chopped its shipments of quartz slabs in October by 22.3% from the same time last year as exporters scaled back in anticipation of the anti-dumping tariffs. In comparison to this summer, October’s flow from China dropped 46% from the previous month, and 62% from 12.9 million ft² in July.
Shipments from other countries, meanwhile, perked up as China’s quartz tsunami ebbed. Every other country sending more than >100,000 ft² to the United States experienced double-digit growth from October 2017 volume (with the exception of Italy). India’s 147.3% jump made the largest impact and Vietnam reversed direction from a recent slump, but healthy gains also came from Canada and several European countries.
Incidentally, the customs value for October’s quartz-surface imports from China totaled $31.7 million — the lowest amount in 18 months. That’ll take some of the bite out of the critical-circumstances decision by the U.S. Department of Commerce last month that could enforce retroactive tariffs as high as 314% on shipments from mid-August to mid-November.
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All charts: U.S. International Trade Commission and Stone Update analysis
WORKED GRANITE
At least the good news about worked (sawn, one-side polished) granite — an increase in September — lasted a month. In October, it’s back to a year-to-year decline, albeit a small one at 4.2%.
Brazil slid 12.8% from October 2017 with 53,938 metric tons this year for the largest decline. India made the biggest move up among granite’s Big Three, up 32.4%. China’s year-to-year shipments for October declined 3.9% … or very close to its 3.5% decline this September.
| U.S. Imports: Worked Granite | |||
| (metric tons) | |||
| Oct-18 | Oct-17 | Change | |
| Total | 116,494 | 121,548 | -4.2% |
| Top Countries | |||
| Brazil | 53,983 | 61,919 | -12.8% |
| China | 28,667 | 29,817 | -3.9% |
| India | 21,541 | 16,265 | 32.4% |
| Spain | 6,941 | 6,434 | 7.9% |
| Italy | 2,108 | 3,339 | -36.9% |
| Canada | 1,501 | 2,329 | -35.6% |
WORKED MARBLE
The nominal 0.6% decline in worked-marble imports for this October is slightly deceiving, as most of the major suppliers to the United States made double-digit losses or gains from a year ago. Only Turkey, the sector leader, registered a ho-hum month by declining only 0.8% with its 10,079 metric tons.
India and China scored major gains from last year with October shipments, offsetting big decreases from Italy and Brazil.
| U.S. Imports: Worked Marble | |||
| (metric tons) | |||
| 18-Oct | 17-Oct | Change | |
| Total | 36,342 | 36,575 | -0.6% |
| Top Countries | |||
| Turkey | 10,079 | 10,161 | -0.8% |
| India | 7,366 | 6,175 | 19.3% |
| China | 7,127 | 5,537 | 28.7% |
| Italy | 5,884 | 7,298 | -19.4% |
| Brazil | 3,050 | 4,111 | -25.8% |
| Spain | 793 | 960 | -17.4% |
| Egypt | 537 | 539 | -0.4% |
TRAVERTINE
| U.S. Imports: Travertine | |||
| (metric tons) | |||
| 18-Oct | 17-Oct | Change | |
| Total | 22,734 | 22,113 | 2.8% |
| Top Countries | |||
| Turkey | 17,032 | 15,541 | 9.6% |
| Mexico | 3,404 | 3,656 | -6.9% |
| Italy | 865 | 560 | 54.5% |
| China | 745 | 621 | 20.0% |
| Peru | 284 | 179 | 58.7% |
| Spain | 172 | 190 | -9.5% |
| Brazil | 121 | 20 | 505.0% |
OTHER CALCAREOUS
| U.S. Imports: Other Calcareous | |||
| (metric tons) | |||
| 18-Oct | 17-Oct | Change | |
| Total | 11,665 | 14,482 | -19.5% |
| Top Countries | |||
| Canada | 3,173 | 1,738 | 82.6% |
| China | 2,099 | 3,995 | -47.5% |
| Turkey | 1,566 | 1,835 | -14.7% |
| Portugal | 864 | 956 | -9.6% |
| Italy | 820 | 766 | 7.0% |
OTHER STONE
| U.S. Imports: Other Stone | |||
| (metric tons) | |||
| 18-Oct | 17-Oct | Change | |
| Total | 44,071 | 47,437 | -7.1% |
| Top Countries | |||
| Brazil | 19,283 | 23,769 | -18.9% |
| India | 13,636 | 11,699 | 16.6% |
| China | 5,392 | 4,286 | 25.8% |
| Canada | 2,050 | 2,444 | -16.1% |
| Italy | 1,716 | 1,926 | -10.9% |
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