StatWatch: Slow Crossings at the Equator?

By Emerson Schwartzkopf

Maybe there’s a toll-booth traffic jam in crossing the Equator. Or a lack of containers in South America. Or, to be honest, a slowdown on Brazil’s granite expressway to the United States.

U.S.-bound granite shipments from Brazil fell by almost half in November 2015 – and, since Brazil is the #1 U.S. supplier, overall granite-import data took a large (40%+) drop. Given all-too-painful memories of the Great Recession, those are number to make anyone queasy in the dimensional-surfaces trade.

Granite, however, seems to be a one-off, as other sectors showed late-year growth growth, as shown in the monthly exclusive Stone Update analysis of data from the U.S. International Trade Commission. And the big growth area of 2015 – quartz surfaces – keeps going full-throttle.

GRANITE

Any sharp move down in stone imports isn’t good news, and November 2015’s 41.1% drop in year-to-year shipments to the United States certainly isn’t in the Thanksgiving spirit. Most of the decline comes from economically challenged Brazil, with its 59,787 metric tons (MT) last November marking a change of -49% from the same time in 2014.  

China, with its own economic turmoil, dropped 22.8% from the previous year to 32,842 MT in November 2015. Italy recorded a radical year-to-year drop of 76.2%, but a huge one-month-only increase 2014 skewed the comparison; in looking at 2015, Italy experienced its second-best month so far in November.

Brazil, however, hit its 2015 high in May with 93,672 MT … and, with the exception of one month (August), experienced regular declines during the prime building season.

WORKED GRANITE: U.S. IMPORTS
(metric tons)      
  Nov-15 Nov-14 Change
TOTAL 132,388 225,732 -41.4%
Top Sources      
Brazil 59,787 117,154 -49.0%
China 32,842 42,562 -22.8%
India 18,577 19,942 -6.8%
Italy 9,336 39,193 -76.2%
Canada 6,253 2,252 177.7%
Spain 4,316 3,012 43.3%
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

 

 MARBLE

The two-country duel in 2015 for top U.S. importer looked to be over last November, as Italy regained a commanding top spot with 11,911 MT and a 15.3% increase from November 2014. Turkey dropped into a distant second in November 2015 with 6,513 MT – its weakest month of the year – although the total still topped November 2014 by 8.1%.

Other suppliers to the United States marked increases from the previous year, except for China (4,916 MT, down 16.3%). Overall, U.S. marble imports grew 10.7% to 32,496 MT.

WORKED MARBLE: U.S. IMPORTS
(metric tons)      
  Nov-15 Nov-14 Change
TOTAL 32,496 29,033 10.7%
Top Sources      
Italy 11,991 10,153 15.3%
Turkey 6,513 5,984 8.1%
China 4,916 5,706 -16.1%
India 2,961 1,862 37.1%
Spain 2,269 2462 -8.5%
Brazil 1,740 825 52.6%
Greece 907 833 8.2%
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

 

 

QUARTZ SLABS

The relation of the year-to-year fortunes of granite and quartz surfaces seemed to reflect Newton’s Third Law of motion; while the former went down by nearly half in November 2015, the latter rode a 54.1% boost.

China again provided the biggest move, with its 2 million ft² marking a 179.1% increase from November 2014. Other Asian producers in India and Vietnam also shipped more than 400,000 ft² and showed year-to-year growth of 263.8% and 53.7%, respectively.

The attention-grabber of months past, Israel, again showed a decline of 18.1% in November 2015 from the previous year. However, similar monthly decreases in the second half of 2015 may be more of an indication that Caesarstone may be importing less and augmenting supply with its Richmond Hill, Ga., plant, which officially opened in late spring.

QUARTZ SLAB: U.S. IMPORTS  
(square feet)      
  Nov-15 Nov-14 Change
TOTAL 6,083,476 3,834,521 58.7%
Sources      
China 2,075,293 763,194 171.9%
Spain 1,277,439 1,061,838 20.3%
Israel 739,943 903,727 -18.1%
Canada 475,173 547,528 -13.2%
India 439,932 120,933 263.8%
Vietnam 428,361 278,613 53.7%
Turkey 171,910 0 N/A
Italy 167,519 103,786 61.4%
Korea 93,840 64,110 46.4%
Germany 90,761 22 — 
Portugal 58,556 91,278 -35.8%
Czech Republic 58,157 7,879 638.1%
Brazil 37,114 19,676 88.6%
Hong Kong 12,508 0 N/A
Mexico 10,646 0 N/A
Oman 3,993 0 N/A
Romania 775 0 N/A
Belgium 0 23,229 N/A
Austria 0 108 N/A
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

 

TRAVERTINE

TRAVERTINE: U.S. IMPORTS  
(metric tons)      
  Nov-15 Nov-14 Change
TOTAL 61,005 46,072 32.4%
Top Sources      
Turkey 54,760 39,966 37.0%
Mexico 3,688 3,701 -0.4%
China 792 686 15.5%
Italy 687 1,129 -39.1%
Peru 512 442 15.8%
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

 

OTHER CALCAREOUS

OTHER CALCAREOUS: U.S. IMPORTS 
(metric tons)      
  Nov-15 Nov-14 Change
TOTAL 17398 8912 95.2%
Top Sources      
Canada 3588 454 690.3%
Italy 2803 1409 98.9%
Turkey 2275 737 208.7%
China 1777 2,102 -15.5%
Portugal 1432 1,073 33.5%
Spain 1403 837 67.6%
Israel 990 232 326.7%
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

 

OTHER STONE 

OTHER STONE: U.S. IMPORTS 
(metric tons)      
  Nov-15 Nov-14 Change
TOTAL 28516 21334 33.7%
Top Sources      
Brazil 12,378 7,561 63.7%
India 5,971 5,786 3.2%
China 4,778 3,165 51.0%
Canada 1,539 1,145 34.4%
Italy 1,375 1,281 7.3%
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, Stone Update analysis

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