U.S. Hard-Surface Imports: Uncertain April

By Emerson Schwartzkopf

Hard-surface shipments to the United States in April offer a muddled picture of material demand at the beginning of the spring construction season.

The new leader – quartz surfaces – continued to roll into the country in record amounts, but the gains aren’t as large as in the past few years. China, the main quartz-import player, showed signs of trimming its shipments.

Granite, meanwhile, tracked behind last year’s dull performance, as sector leader Brazil continued a double-digit slump from last year. Marble showed a 5% gain from 2017, but other natural-stone sectors trailed behind 2017 numbers, if only by a few percentage points.

It’s still too early to put on the worry hats for hard surfaces this year. Don’t forget where yours is hanging, though.

All of the import data is from the U.S. International Trade Commission, with analysis by Stone Update. (Changes from last year’s totals are shown in parentheses.)

QUARTZ SURFACES

April 2018: 9,736,163 ft² (+23.5%)
April sector leader: China, 4,732,650 (+20.5%)
YTD: 40,993,850 ft² (+33.6%)
YTD sector leader: China, 23,351,205 (+58.8%)

So what’s wrong with a sector reporting 20%-plus growth in April? Normally, nothing, but this isn’t normal for quartz surfaces, because growth appears to be slowing down.

China, the sector leader, blasted to new heights this January, shipping just a tad more than 7 million ft² to the United States. Since then, amounts began drawing back, from 5.8 million ft² in February to 5.6 million ft² in March … and, in April, 4.7 million ft², the lowest monthly total since May 2017.

Meanwhile, April provided some major market lifts — Spain’s 2.1 million ft² (up 53.9% from the same time last year) and India’s nearly 530,000 ft² (+40.7%) – and one big drop, as Israel’s 502,459 ft² is a 28.7% dive from April 2017.

It’s been the custom to associate major quartz-surface companies with their home countries; i.e., Israel=Caesarstone, Spain=Cosentino, etc. However, that big drop from Israel isn’t a direct corollary to Caesarstone’s U.S. performance, since the company is farming out some of its simpler designs to other countries. Some of that growth in shipments from other countries around the globe may really be Caesarstone-branded slabs.

WORKED GRANITE

April 2018: 110,600 metric tons (-12.9%)
April sector leader: Brazil, 53,724 metric tons (-19.4%)
YTD: 404,410 metric tons (-7.6%)
YTD sector leader: Brazil, 178,440 metric tons (-16.0%)

Worked (cut, one-side-polished) granite continues in its malaise, which is another dive into the thesaurus to describe a sector that’s not doing well. In April, it’s due to more than sector leader Brazil.

Brazil is following its usual trend of a strong January, followed by a drop in February and March before heading back up in April. However, it’s consistently lagging some 15%-20% behind 2017 totals; as the biggest granite exporter to the United States, it’s a good indication of lower overall market demand. The real laggard with granite this April is China, as its 18,136 metric tons is a 30.1% drop from the same month last year. (From January-April this year, China’s up 3.2% from 2017.)

Canada scored another big month this April, with the 5,425 metric tons of granite coming across the border marking a 71.4% increase from last year. The northern neighbor is up 14.1% year-to-date from 2017; however, both March and April exports are much higher than usual, and that trend may not continue.

WORKED MARBLE

April 2018: 35,368 metric tons (5.0%)
April sector leader: Turkey, 11,714 metric tons (+73.7%)
YTD: 138,214 metric tons (+1.8%)
YTD sector leader: Turkey, 48,301 metric tons (+85.8%)

TRAVERTINE

April 2018: 24,242 metric tons (0.5%)
April sector leader: Turkey, 11,714 metric tons (-6.3%)
YTD: 96,964 metric tons (-12.0%)
YTD sector leader: Turkey, 69,883 metric tons (-17.6%)

OTHER CALCAREOUS

April 2018: 9,700 metric tons (-15.0%)
April sector leader: Turkey, 1,989 metric tons (+53.1%)
YTD: 43,228 metric tons (-0.5%)
YTD sector leader: Turkey, 10,122 metric tons (46.4%)

It’s the Calcareous Triple Crown for Turkey in April, as it led in U.S. bound shipments of worked marble, travertine and other calcareous stone. The feat’s never been done in 18 years of tracking U.S. imports of hard surfaces.

While it’s a nice accomplishment for Turkey, it comes at a time when two of the sectors – worked marble and other calcareous – are cooling off after healthy gains in 2017. For year-to-date 2018, marble and other calcareous are +1.8% and -0.5% in tonnage, showing nominal gains/losses.

Travertine, meanwhile, managed to pull out a decent April; it’s only a gain of 0.5% from the same time last year, but that’s big news for a sector that’s nowhere near its pre-Great Recession levels. The credit in this sector goes to Mexico and Italy, with year-to-year gains of 10.3% and 140.9%, respectively.

OTHER STONE

April 2018: 36,649 metric tons (-6.5%)
April sector leader: Brazil, 15,270 metric tons (-25.8%)
YTD: 133,404 metric tons (-2.1%)
YTD sector leader: Brazil, 50,741 metric tons (-22.5%)

For more information on hard-surface imports, see “Quartz’s Long Shadow: Surface Imports First Quarter 2018” in the May-June issue of Stone Update Magazine, and the U.S. Hard Surface Imports 2017 white paper from Stone Update Magazine.