StatWatch: Summer’s Breeze
More than fireworks went boom in July, as U.S. dimensional-surface imports all took to the sky – albeit at different elevations.
Even granite, with some sluggish performance this spring, managed to pick up the pace with an overall positive 7.4% year-to-year growth in July, although two of the sector’s major shippers slipped from 2014 totals.
Marble and quartz slabs, meanwhile, continued their double-digit leaps from 2014 totals. Quartz set yet another monthly import record, with only one country registering only nominal shipping growth. (And, it’s not the one hosting a producer getting knocked on Wall Street.)
As for each sector:
GRANITE
Imports of “worked” (at least partially finished) granite shipments) to the United States climbed past the 200,000 metric-ton (MT) mark in July, finishing at 201,429 MT. That’s up 7.4% from the same time last year.
The growth came without help from the two largest exporters to the U.S. market, as Brazil and China dropped off 13.2% and 31.2%, respectively. Canada picked up most of the slack with a massive 25,000 MT increase from July 2014 that likely won’t be seen again in August.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MARBLE
Marblemania continued in the United States in July, with the 53,627 MT in worked marble blowing past last year’s totals by 72.2%.
Turkey throttled back slightly from June’s 21+K MT totals, but still far outstripped traditional leader Italy. Spain showed good progress by doubling up from July 2015 shipments.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
QUARTZ SLABS
(Editor’s note: Wordwide import totals corrected on Sept. 23, 2015.)
It’s going to be news when U.S. quartz-slab imports don’t set a new monthly record; this July, however, it’s just another ho-hum high mark of 6,380,388ft² and a 58% gain from 2014.
And, again, the big push comes from China, with 169.1% year-to-year growth and close to a 740,000 ft² margin from the next-biggest importer, Spain – which also offers a slight surprise by growing only 1.5% in volume from July 2014.
Caesarstone took plenty of whacks on its public-share prices last month as Wall Streeters saw bad times ahead, but the initial imports from Israel for this year’s third quarter looked good with a 26% gain from 2014.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TRAVERTINE
Whatever level of travertine Turkey loads on U.S.-bound ships, the overall market here usually moves accordingly. That holds for this July, as total imports of the stone grew by 38.5% from last year … and Turkey’s tonnage grew 34.2%.
Since 83% of all U.S. travertine imports come from Turkey, the country’s bound to dominate the figures. Italy came in with a big one-time boost in July, although Italian travertine looks to be getting stronger in shipments throughout 2015.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
OTHER CALCAREOUS
The most-volatile sector in U.S. surface imports calmed down this summer, with its 16,952 MT in July showing a relaxing 3.5% growth from 2014. China seems to be taking charge with other calcareous, which often includes non-traditional shippers such as Lebanon and New Zealand sending huge amounts in a few months and then fading away.
The stone is still moving off the docks in one contentious area: Syria is a small U.S. player at 234 MT in July, but that’s a year-to-year hike of 162.9%.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
OTHER STONE
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Get the news of the industry with Slab & Sheet, the weekly e-newsletter every Thursday from Stone Update. Sign up for free delivery here.
For the latest industry info, check Stone Update on Twitter and Facebook.
