First Quarter 2012 U.S. Stone Imports

May 31, 2012

U.S. Imports: Other Calcareous Volume – First Quarter
(metric tons)
	2012	2011	Change
Turkey	23,393	1,643	1323.8%
Italy	4,580	2,083	119.9%
China	3,095	4,505	-31.3%
Portugal	2,126	2,391	-11.1%
Dominican Republic	1,546	977	58.2%
Spain	1,272	2,351	-45.9%
Mexico	1,201	19,719	-93.9%
Canada	1,078	2,449	-56.0%
France	1,073	1,137	-5.6%
All Others	4,806	3,741	28.5%
Total	44,170	40,996	7.7%
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission

Look, it’s a wacky market when Mexico, the dynamic leader in last year’s first quarter, cuts its shipments by more than 90% in 2012 … and the category still shows a gain. Turkey offers the out-of-proportion share this year, although Italy lowers its value-per-ton to increase exports to the United States. China, meanwhile, throttles back its shipments by almost one-third.

SLATE

Slate plays the bogeyman, as it drops a small shadow on an otherwise sunny report on U.S. stone imports.

U.S. Imports: Slate – First Quarter
(U.S. dollars)
	2012	2011	Change
China	5257812	4711105	11.6%
India	3813204	5141944	-25.8%
Brazil	1142372	1112821	2.7%
Italy	320364	152483	110.1%
Spain	313010	181577	72.4%
Canada	258713	220947	17.1%
United Kingdom	219152	768831	-71.5%
All Others	397053	409590	-3.1%
Total	11721680	12699298	-7.7%
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission

Slate involves two major players; while China manages a double-digit gain, the market leader last year – India – ends up losing market value more than twice-as-fast. Italy doubles its exports from 1Q 2011, but the effort is less than a tenth of India’s quarterly total.

The big loser continues to be the United Kingdom, which offered good growth in slate shipments through last year. For 1Q 2012, it exports less and less each month, with a 71.5% drop from the same time last year.

OTHER STONE

The omnibus category of imported stone makes the smallest of gains … but it’s a gain.

U.S. Imports: Other Stone Value – First Quarter
(U.S. dollars)
	2012	2011	Change
India	$16,297,458	$12,195,655	33.6%
Brazil	$12,042,024	$8,514,701	41.4%
China	$5,091,645	$4,935,757	3.2%
Canada	$4,631,347	$2,943,014	57.4%
Italy	$3,366,557	$2,820,783	19.3%
Mexico	$969,263	$1,568,334	-38.2%
All Others	$2,755,019	$5,498,679	-49.9%
Total	$45,153,313	$38,476,923	17.4%
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission

Given the large gains by leaders India and China, other stone values should grow even more than the 17.4% total from last year’s first quarter. The problem lies with the less-than-$1-million exporters; the countries with shipments below seven figures are off more than 40% from 2011 so far.

U.S. Imports: Other Stone Volume – First Quarter
(metric tons)
	2012	2011	Change
India	18,464	14,500	27.3%
Brazil	11,986	11,138	7.6%
China	7,227	7,407	-2.4%
Canada	3,732	2,082	79.3%
Italy	2,023	1,665	21.5%
Mexico	1,092	1,746	-37.5%
All Others	3,135	8,987	-65.1%
Total	47,659	47,525	0.3%
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission

Other stone took such a dive in the past few years that any gain – even three-tenths of a percent – is a major plus. India offers strong performance, with a healthy gain by Brazil. China – once again – shows some soft numbers, but it’s the decline of smaller exporters en masse that contribute to the overall tiny growth rate.

Data for this article, and for accompanying charts, is derived from information reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. International Trade Commission. All analysis is made using comparable data. “Cut /slab” data excludes crude/roughly trimmed stone comprised of marble/travertine, granite or other categories where volume measurement is in cubic meters instead of metric tons.

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