StatWatch: Granite Gets December Chill

By Emerson Schwartzkopf

Should the U.S. dimensional-surfaces market be worried about what’s happening to shipments of granite?

December 2015 offered yet another down month for the industry’s key surface, with Brazil and China showing large year-to-year losses in tonnage to U.S. ports of entry.

The half-full argument from the monthly exclusive Stone Update analysis of data from the U.S. International Trade Commission is that the rate of decline in December 2015 isn’t as great as November 2015. The other side of the tale is, well, it’s still a large, double-digit decline.

 

GRANITE

Chalk it up to excess inventory and the precarious economies of Brazil and China, the two biggest granite partners of the United States, but the overall 26.8% drop in all dimensional granite was a lousy season’s greetings. Brazil led the decline again with its 49,864 MT metric tons (MT) last November marking a change of -37.4% (which at least wasn’t as bad as November’s -49%) from the same time in 2014.

China moved down 32.1% from the previous year to 26,251 MT in December. Italy brought some cheer with an 8.5% gain from December 2014, but the 6,059 MT for the last month of 2015 is a far distance from its U.S. shipments in the early 2000s

Does this portend a slowdown in the countertop market? Given the increases in quartz-slab imports, it’s extremely unlikely that we’re seeing another crash – but, given that the first quarter of any year is slow as far as surface imports, any clear trend up or down won’t be apparent until early summer.

 

WORKED GRANITE: U.S. IMPORTS  (metric tons)      Dec-15 Dec-14 Change TOTAL 113,294 154,705 -26.8% Top Sources       Brazil 49,864 79,619 -37.4% China 26,251 38,678 -32.1% India 16,855 18,459 -8.7% Italy 6,059 5,585 8.5% Canada 5,244 4,205 24.7% Spain 4,316 5,901 -26.9% Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

 

 MARBLE

No wild market swings here for U.S imports; it’s tough to get much duller than movement of less than a percentage point, as with December 2015’s year-to-year change for 0.8% on 36,584 MT.

The remarkable part of December 2015 dimensional-marble imports is that there’s any gain at all, given Turkey’s year-to-year decline of 23.2%. Beefy numbers from India (+82.4%), Greece (113.2%) and, despite its problems in granite, Brazil (126.2%) made up the difference.

 

WORKED MARBLE: U.S. IMPORTS (metric tons)      Dec-15 Dec-14 Change TOTAL 36,584 36,298 0.8% Top Sources       Italy 9,896 9,551 3.6% Turkey 9,545 12,425 -23.2% China 7,437 6,840 8.7% India 3,077 1,687 82.4% Spain 1,956 2,609 -25.0% Brazil 1,891 836 126.2% Greece 1,194 560 113.2% Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

 

QUARTZ SLABS

December wasn’t the best month for 2015 quartz-slab imports – in fact, it was fifth-best overall – but the six million square-feet received in the United States beat the previous December by 63.3%.

While some parts of the quartz flow remained predictable — China again doubled-up from its December 2014 shipments – a few surprises came at year’s end. Spain punched up its year-to-year totals by close to 50%, while India scored a 81.4% gain and Italy made a huge move up at 213.3%. Vietnam, meanwhile, took a rare stumble, falling 24.4%.

And then there’s the closely watched gains (or losses) from Israel as an indication of Caesarstone’s financial health. In December 2015, the year-to-year numbers went up 18.7%; since company officials recently noted that its Richmond Hill, Ga., plant isn’t quite up to full speed, Caesarstone’s additional imports show that sales are going up.

 

QUARTZ SLAB: U.S. IMPORTS  (square feet)      Dec-15 Dec-14 Change TOTAL 6,006,321 3,678,089 63.3% Sources       China 2,341,783 1,083,580 116.1% Spain 1,270,840 849,896 49.5% Israel 678,815 571,918 18.7% India 418,673 230,810 81.4% Canada 398,856 367,221 8.6% Italy 241,908 77,457 212.3% Vietnam 212,759 281,433 -24.4% Turkey 140,932 0 N/A Germany 116,347 0 N/A Korea 88,425 62,786 40.8% Portugal 35,047 77,629 -54.9% Czech Republic 23,562 26,339 -10.5% Brazil 18,202 743 2350.7% Mexico 9,365 0 N/A Hong Kong 4,693 13,121 -64.2% Singapore 2,863 3,154 -9.2% Argentina 1,647 0 N/A Pakistan 1,076 0 N/A Hungary 527 0 N/A Belgium 0 28,126 N/A United Kingdom 0 2,368 N/A Romania 0 1,507 N/A Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

 

TRAVERTINE

TRAVERTINE: U.S. IMPORTS (metric tons)      Dec-15 Dec-14 Change TOTAL 45,117 53,579 -15.8% Top Sources       Turkey 36,572 46,297 -21.0% Mexico 4,081 3,818 6.9% Philippines 1,557 N/A N/A China 1,184 1,491 -20.6% Italy 937 687 36.4% Peru 545 734 -25.7% Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

 

OTHER CALCAREOUS

OTHER CALCAREOUS: U.S. IMPORTS (metric tons)      Dec-15 Dec-14 Change TOTAL 17,968 13,092 37.2% Top Sources       Canada 6,857 1,034 563.2% China 3,300 3,082 7.1% Turkey 1,840 903 103.8% Portugal 1,095 919 19.2% Spain 831 688 20.8% Italy 774 3,294 -76.5% Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

 

OTHER STONE 

OTHER STONE: U.S. IMPORTS  (metric tons)      Dec-15 Dec-14 Change TOTAL 30,462 22,294 36.6% Top Sources       Brazil 9,890 6,119 61.6% India 9,400 7,572 24.1% China 5,774 3,173 82.0% Canada 1,723 1,347 27.9% Italy 1,255 690 81.9% Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

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