StatWatch: No Christmas Bonus for 2017
Santa Claus could’ve skipped hauling coal last year and loaded up on natural stone instead for December deliveries. It would’ve helped the import numbers.
Shipments of most dimensional natural stones declined in year-to-year volume for 2017’s final month, according to a Stone Update analysis of data from the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC). None of the declines seem to predicate any awful news, save for closing out the year on a slight downtick.
Meanwhile, quartz surfaces continue flowing into the United States, although the growth curve may be lessening from the rocket-launch trajectory of the past few years.
GRANITE
The 106,737 metric tons of worked (sawn / one side polished) granite imported in December showed a 14.5% decline from the same time in 2016. Granite’s remaining Big Three – Brazil, China and India – all sent less to U.S. ports.
Brazil led the sector with 50,041 metric tons; that’s a 23.1% decline from December 2016. China kept the second spot with 27,999 metric tons, down 7.2% in year-to-year shipments. India dropped 16.1% with 15,325 metric tons.
Spain and Canada provided the bright spots at 4,505 metric tons (up 13.1%) and 4,133 metric tons (up 106.1%) in December 2017, although both were far off the Big Three’s pace. Italy, meanwhile, shipped 2,967 metric tons that month, nearly 22% lower than in December 2016 … and its second-lowest monthly total for granite in this century.
Early analysis shows that U.S. imports of worked granite in all of 2017 total 1.50 million metric tons, a decline of 4% from 2016. More information on granite and other dimensional surfaces will be available in the March-April issue of Stone Update Magazine.
MARBLE
Worked marble also took a small hit in December, with the 33,627 metric tons received in U.S. ports accounting for a 3.7% decline from the same time in 2016. The change in this sector represented the balance from massive swings in supply from the five largest exporters to the United States.
Turkey and India provided the upside; Turkey led all countries with 8,135 metric tons, a 45.3% boost from December 2016, and India’s 5,923 metric tons ranked fourth with a 49.0% gain.
The gainers, however, became the crust for a soft filling. Second-place Italy saw U.S. shipments decline 24.7% last December with 6,698 metric tons, while China’s 6,674 metric tons for the month dropped 38.1% from the previous December.
The only other worked-marble exporter in the thousand-metric-ton class – Brazil – gained 21.7% from the previous year with 2,933 metric tons in December 2017.
Worked marble imports for the full year 2017 are slightly above 440K metric tons, according to early analysis, for a growth rate of more than 6% from all of 2016.
QUARTZ
It’s very, very hard to belittle a growth rate of 22% in year-to-year December totals, but it’s also fair to note that the 10.2 million ft² in quartz surfaces coming into U.S. ports-of-entry shows the third month in declining monthly totals.
China again dominates the field with nearly 6.2 million ft² of quartz coming to the United States last December, marking a 54.1% increase from the previous year. December 2017 showed no slowdown for China’s supply status; it’s the second-best month every for the country’s quartz shipments (only topped by October 2017).
Israel popped up as a surprise second for last December, with its 1.2 million ft² showing a 18.3% gain. December 2017 also turned out to be the country’s second-best month for U.S. quartz shipments, bested only by its 1.4 million ft² in January 2015.
Spain dropped from its usual second-place perch, with the 1.1 million ft² in December 2017 representing a 23% decline from year-end 2016. December 2017 ended up being Spain’s slowest month for U.S. shipments since July 2016.
Preliminary estimates put 2017’s U.S. imports of quartz surfaces at 112.3 million ft², besting 2016 totals by almost one-third.
TRAVERTINE
Travertine imports in December 2017 rolled in at 22,260 metric tons, and 17.9% behind the same time in 2016.
Turkey, the dominant player in U.S. travertine imports, shipped 14,145 metric tons in December, a 29.6% downturn from the previous year’s end. Italy’s 3,453 metric tons last December – a 145.9% increase from 2016 – offset some of the loss, with Mexico in a close third at 3,433 metric tons (but only 0.1% up from December 2016).
Initial analysis puts 2017 U.S. travertine imports at 336,800 metric tons, or 22% below 2016 levels.
OTHER CALCAREOUS
Not all natural-stone imports took a hit at the end of last year. Other Calcareous varieties, with 11,762 metric tons, experienced a 4.4% from December 2016.
China claimed the top spot with Other Calcareous last December with 2,813 metric tons, up 22.1% from the previous year. Turkey moved into a strong second at 1,939 metric tons (up 41%), and Portugal scooted up to third with 1,256 metric tons (up 23.5%).
The biggest loss in tonnage for December 2017 came with Italy, where the 688 metric tons received on U.S. docks represented a 58.6% tumble from the previous year. Canada’s 817 metric tons last December showed a 48.2% drop from the same time in 2016, proving to be the country’s weakest month for shipments in 2017.
Intital estimates for all Other Calcareous imports in 2017 come in near the 175,000 metric-ton level, making for a 21% gain from 2016.
OTHER STONE
The omnibus Other Stone sector also scored a gain in December 2017, with the 39,654 metric tons in U.S. imports topping the same time in 2016 by 4.9%
Sector leader Brazil didn’t contribute a positive effort, with its 16,027 metric tons last December marking an 18% decline from the previous year. Second-place India more than picked up the slack, however, with 14,464 metric tons, besting the same period in 2016 by 84.8%.
Initial estimates show U.S. imports of Other Stone for 2017 at close to 487,000 metric tons, signaling a 12.5% rise from 2016 levels.
Final 2017 performance of U.S. dimensional-surface imports will be analyzed in the March-April edition of Stone Update Magazine.
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