U.S. 2022 Tile Market: Mainly Flat

ORLANDO — With the U.S. residential sector slowed by rising mortgage rates and inflation, supply issues, and labor shortages, the U.S. ceramic-tile market experienced the same slight downturn in sales as other hard-surface products last year.

The Anderson, S.C.-based Tile Council of North America (TCNA) reported at Coverings 2023 this month that total ceramic tile consumption in 2022 was 3.07 billion ft², down 1.3%% from 2021’s 3.11 billion ft². However, last year’s total remains ahead of sales for 2019 and 2020, when the total number went to sub-3 billion ft² levels.

Spain remained the largest exporter of ceramic tile to the U.S. in 2022. Despite its exports falling by 12.8% in volume from 2021, Spain still represents almost one-fifth (19.8%) share of total U.S. imports by volume. Italy was the second largest exporter to the U.S. in 2022 by volume, comprising 17.3% of the U.S. import market.

Mexico remained the third-largest exporter to the U.S., with a 16.6% share. India and Turkey rounded out the top five, with India showing its all-time highest position at fourth, with 13% of U.S. volume. Turkey’s numbers showed a 12.3% of the U.S. market, although the country’s totals declined by 1.2% from 2012. Both Turkey and India show impressive increases in volume since 2018.

And, while total shipments to this country were down last year, the total U.S. value of those products increased by 17.5% to just under $3 billion. Receiving the most for its tile – at $2.36 ft² – was Italy.

Meanwhile, U.S. manufacturers shipped just under 900 million ft² of ceramic tile domestically last year, a 1% increase from 2021. U.S. shipments represented 28.9% of the total tile market last year, for a value of $1.48 billion. The per unit value of domestic shipments was $1.66 per ft², up 12¢ per ft² from 2021, but putting it behind both Italy and Spain in per-square-foot value.

Looking at U.S. ceramic tile exports – only slightly more than 5.5% of the total market – it saw an increase of 33.6% to 50.8 million ². The recipients of almost 90% of those tiles were Canada and Mexico, with 70.5% going to Canada.