“Safeguard” Hearing Hints at Industry Crossroads
By Emerson Schwartzkopf
WASHINGTON – Two very different futures for quartz surfaces in the United States arose here last week during a federal hearing on possible import restrictions.
During a marathon 10-hour session, a group of North American manufacturers told the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) that current cutbacks in production would only get worse if the flow of foreign quartz-surface imports remains unchecked.
A collection of importers, distributors, fabricators, foreign trade officials and others, meanwhile, argued that any action to limit supply or raise costs through tariffs would stifle U.S. use of the manufactured surfaces.
The USITC held the hearing on Feb. 24 to consider the “safeguard” petition asking for a 50% tariff and country-by-country import quotas on quartz-surface imports. The petition, also known as a Section 201, is sought by the Quartz Manufacturers Alliance of America (QMAA), a majority of U.S. and Canadian producers.
Unlike specific actions about below-market sales and subsidized production sought in the past with individual countries like China, India, and Spain, the safeguard action essentially requires that a strong influx of imports shows “harm” to a domestic industry.
The QMAA offered a picture of an industry in acute slowdown, with low-priced imports cutting domestic production and market share. A USITC study in advance of the hearing showed imports increased by 78% from 2020 to 2024.
During that time, U.S. overall demand for quartz surfaces increased by 62%, but domestic production fell by 17%, according to the study.
As a result, U.S.-produced quartz surfaces saw its market share drop from 19.4% in 2020 to 11.7% in 2024.
Andrew Eich, Cambria Company LLC president/COO, said the company cut production shifts from a seven-days-a-week target at its LeSueur, Minn., factory to four or five days.
“Capacity utilization today is stuck at 60%,” he said. “This strains the financial performance of the company and, importantly, it limits our ability to invest in the future.”
Marty Davis, Cambria CEO, cited the example of LE Stone, a Thailand-based quartz-surface manufacturer, as an example of what U.S. producers face with imports. In 2020, the company added 20 production lines.
“This is more than double the capacity of the entire U.S. industry,” Davis said. “These line would be in the United States if we’d ensure free, fair, and transparent trade.”
Roy Viana, director of slab products for Dal-Tile, said a second production line at its Dickson, Tenn., plant was scheduled to go live by the end of 2023, but it still isn’t in regular operation.
“It is difficult to say when we can expect to run full utilization of the second line, especially without safeguard relief,” Viana said.
“We have had to delay the installation and ramp-up of the second line, because we cannot earn an adequate return in the current import environment,” said Matt Kahny, Dal-Tile president. “Given the pressure from imports, it will be extremely challenging to reach full levels of production and employment.”
Daniel Vaz de Melo Sá, project manager for Guidoni Group’s factory in McRae-Helena, Ga., said that while the production line has an installed capacity of 11.9 million ft² annually, the company is now down to a 900,000 ft² rate with one shift operating only two days a week.
”It has been heartbreaking to see our American facility battered by imports, to the point that we have lay off roughly half of our workforce,” he said. “Today, when I walk through the plant, I see uncertainty and fear in the eyes of employees who fear they may be next.”
Michael Morici, vice president of surfaces/channel management for LX Hausys America, said the company’s Korean-based corporate parent invested a cumulative $175 million by installing three quartz-surface production lines at its Adairsville, Ga., plant.
In 2020, all three lines operated on a three-shift basis; between 2021 to 2025, production declined by almost 40 percent and a corresponding workforce reduction of 100 employees.
“In 2020, our domestic operations earned a reasonable profit, but we’ve been operating at a loss now for several years,” Morici said.
“There are now many in our leadership that want to stop this bleeding by closing our production facility,” he added. “We are pleading with them to wait and see what happens in this safeguard investigation before making a final decision. If current trends continue, however, I fear we’ll be forced to close our factory.”
Saul Braga, production manager for Hyundai L&C Canada, noted that the proportion of quartz surfaces sent from its London, Ontario, plant to the United States declined from 65% to 43% in the past three years. The company also shut down one of its two London production lines last year.
While other manufacturers supported the safeguard petition in full, Hyundai L&C and Cosentino North America straddled the issue, supporting the concept that low-cost imports have harmed the U.S. manufacturers, but asked the USITC to exempt Spain and Canada from tariffs and/or quotas.
“There has been a surge of imports from Pacific Rim jurisdictions,” said Brandon Calvo, Cosentino North America sales vice president and COO. “If the commission determines that these imports are substantial, are a substantial cause of serious injury to the domestic industry, we trust the commission will make an appropriate recommendation in the remedy phase.
“The data shows that imports of Spain have not caused such injury to the domestic industry and cannot be a basis for any safeguard remedy,” he added.
“Over the past three years, imports from Canada have constituted about 2% and have steadily declined,” Braga said. “We are not shipping volumes, nor are we increasing our presence or market share in the U.S.market.
“If conditions do not improve, and especially if all global imports, including imports from Canada, become subject to safeguard relief, we could be forced to shut down the remaining line in total,” Braga added. “That would mean further reducing our operations in the North American region, including the US market. That outcome would not fix the problem.”
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D) and U.S. Representative Tom Emmer (R), both from Cambria’s home state of Minnesota, also testified in favor of the safeguard action.
Those opposing the safeguard petition, meanwhile, noted that tariffs and other restrictions on quartz-surface imports would lead to higher overall costs to end users and make the material a less-viable option.
Janelle Edmonds, chief procurement officer for Houston-based Wisenbacker Builder Services, noted that her company is one of the largest quartz-surface fabricators in the United States, processing slightly less than 2 million ft² in 2024. Price increases and limits on availability would reduce overall quartz-surface use.
“If imported quartz becomes more expensive, difficult to source, or has limited design options, then the materials we fabricate for our builder customers could shift toward alternative materials, not necessarily to domestic-made quartz-surface products,” Edmonds said. “Rather, we will be forced to shift back to buying larger volumes of natural stone, solid surface, engineered marble, or similar alternative surfaces, which are less popular in today’s market.”
Market tolerance is low for increasing any costs in housing, including materials such as quartz surfaces, according to Ken Gear, CEO of the Leading Builders of America group that includes home-building member companies such as D.R. Horton, Pulte, Lennar, and Toll Brothers.
”Your decision in this case will have a major impact on the ability of millions of everyday Americans to afford a home in our industry,” he said. “Everything we do today is driven by one overriding issue, and that’s affordability.”
Gear related that he talked about the safeguard action with builders at the recent International Builders Show in Orlando, Fla., and explained the position that builders would switch to higher-priced U.S.-made quartz if 50% tariffs and quotas were imposed.
“Before I even finished my sentence,” Gear said, “the room literally broke out in laughter at the suggestion that American homebuilders would increase costs on any input by 5%, never mind 50%.”
The diversity of products from imports also factors in its use, said Rup Shah, president of surfaces distributor/manufacturer M S International in Orange, Calif.
“There are literally 1000s of unique quartz designs available in the market today,” he said. “A customer’s primary reason to buy a particular product is design. If the look is wrong, the customer will walk away and the sale will be lost. This is so irrespective of the supplier or from where the product was sourced.”
Shah added that “production capacity is not the same as commercially usable supply. Builders and fabricators need the right designs in the right thicknesses and finishes. Consistent availability and prompt delivery are critical.
“When those elements are missing, capacity does not translate into sales.”
Based on production and import levels, U.S. producers wouldn’t be able to meet total quartz-surface demand, according to the USITC pre-hearing report. The estimated p[practical production capacity of U.S. plants in 2024 came to 45.6 million ft², far below the total U.S./import market that year of 168.5 million ft².
One U.S.-based producer – Elite Quartz of Latta, S.C. – opposed the safeguard petition. Darrell Turbeville, Elite’s general manager, told the USITC that his factory has been profitable since 2022 by focusing on producing surfaces with “on-trend” colors and designs.
”If you can’t stay on trend, it doesn’t matter what your price point is, people won’t buy a countertop that doesn’t look good,” he noted.
safeguard proponents noted the closure of two U.S. plants – USA Quartz in Jacksonville, Fla., and Caesarstone Ltd.’s Richmond Hill, Ga., facility – due to the impact of imports in its arguments.
However, Caesarstone CEO Yos Shiran told the commission that’s a mistaken conclusion, as the company closed all of its quartz-surface manufacturing plants to outsource production while retaining design and marketing functions.
“I want to state clearly, Caesarstone did not close its U.S. manufacturing operations because of import competition,” Shiran said. “This was not a U.S.-specific response. It was a global response designed to reposition Caesarstone for long-term competitiveness.
Shiran added that the Richmond Hill plant remains unsold, but due to concerns over silicosis-liability legal actions and not quartz-surface imports.
The commission also heard from government representatives from China, the European Union, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Spain and Türkiye, as well as individuals speaking for quartz-surface companies in the Czech Republic, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. All opposed the safeguard action.