Mid-Year 2007 Stone Imports: Topping Off

MARBLE

2007 import value: Up
2007 import volume: Up, but how much?

The market’s taking a shine to at least one stone: marble. All the import figures indicate that there’s growth in value and volume.

Unlike granite, where very little material comes into the country “unfinished” – in raw boulder or block – at ports-of-entry, only 55 percent to 60 percent of marble comes in worked form. Since the dimensional-stone trade is fueled by worked stone, estimates are limited to that category.

The import value for worked marble in the first six months of 2007 totaled $151.9 million, up from $126.5 million. Italy remains the king of marble imports, with its $64.4 million in first-half 2007 easily doubling the total of its nearest competitor, Spain ($25.8 million).

Applying the five-year average, the estimate for total 2007 worked-marble import value is $366 million, which would be a 36.9-percent gain from 2006. However, the total value of worked marble last year ($267) dropped 5.5 percent from 2005 totals, which might indicate some softness in current markets.

Using last year’s January-June figures as a guide, the estimate on total 2007 import value drops to $320.9 million. However, that’s still a strong 20-percent gain from all of 2006.

The figures from 2006 make estimating worked-marble import volume a bit tricky. The 137,698 metric tons received stateside in the first six months of 2007 is barely 2,000 metric tons more than for the same period in 2006.

Using the five-year average, the estimated final tonnage of worked marble for 2007 is 295,489 metric tons, up 9.3 percent from 2006. Using the 2006 import rate as a guide, the 2007 estimate drops to 274,353 metric tons, or only a 1.5-percent increase from last year.

A big jump in import value and smaller increases in actual tonnage may look incongruous, but the numbers are really telling another story. A higher value-per-metric-ton means that imported marble prices are going up.

TRAVERTINE

2007 import value: Up, marginally
2007 import volume: Down

While granite lit up the dimensional-stone market in the first years of this century, travertine also made heady gains. Unlike other countries, United States import data tracks travertine separately from marble, giving the stone its due in market share.

The rocket ride for travertine, however, seems to be easing. The $262.5 million in import value for January-June is up from the same period in 2006, but it’s a gain of less than two percent for a stone that previously experienced hikes of 20 percent to 30 percent per year.

Turkey remains the dominant player in U.S. travertine imports, with its $166.6 million accounting for 63.4 percent of the stone’s total value for the first half of 2007. That’s only a 2.5 percent increase in value from January-June 2006, however.