U.S. Surface Imports November 2017
By Emerson Schwartzkopf
In November 2017, granite looked good … at far as U.S. imports are concerned.
The Stone Update analysis of November data from the U.S International Trade Commission put “worked” granite — cut and one side polished — in double-digit growth from the previous year, with only one of the top five granite-exporting countries showing any slowdown.
The positive numbers ran the gamut of November 2017 hard-surface imports, with stellar growth (again) with quartz slabs and upwards movement from other varieties. Only travertine shipments dropped in year-to-year comparisons.
Before breaking out the hats and horns for the Granite’s Back! parties, though, there’s one big reason for November 2017 looking so good: November 2016 was a down month. The next-to-last month of 2016 was the worst for U.S. granite imports in all of that year, and the 30.5% increase from market leader Brazil (and 23.4% hike for second-place China) in November 2017 result from comparisons with lousy numbers.
India and Spain, meanwhile, only showed year-to-year growth of 2.1% and 0.4%, respectively, but those still shows a gain. Of the top five, only Canada took a tumble, although the 26.6% decrease is being compared to a abnormally high total for November 2016 shipments.
Quartz-slab shipments continued to climb in November 2017, led by China’s astonishing 61.7% year-to-year growth in square-footage sent to the United States. Of the top five, Israel and India marked double-digit jumps at 35.5% and 27.7%, respectively, while Spain showed “only” a 6.1% gain; Canada sounded the only sour note, but only a soft one with a nominal 0.5% decline.
Sharp-eyed quartzologists may be spotting a trend, however, of quartz-slab imports peaking and beginning to slow down the lunar-launch speed of growth. The 2017 pace in growth is easing after a monthly high point of slightly more than 11 million ft² in September. While monthly import numbers taper off in the fourth quarter for any hard surface — the same happened in 2016 with quartz in October-November 2016 before a big December rebound — but it’s worth watching closely.
December 2017 hard-surface import data will be featured next month at stoneupdate.com, with the annual report coming in the March-April issue of Stone Update Magazine. You can check the third-quarter 2017 wrap-up report in the magazine’s November-December 2017 issue.
WORKED GRANITE
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November 2017: 117,554 metric tons
Change from previous year: 16.1%
Market leader: Brazil, 48,927 metric tons
Change from previous year: 30.5%
WORKED MARBLE
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November 2017: 34,933 metric tons
Change from previous year: 4.8%
Market leader: Turkey, 11,637 metric tons
Change from previous year: 61.8%
QUARTZ SURFACES
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November 2017: 10,320,933 ft²
Change from previous year: 33.8%
Market leader: China, 5,993,566 ft²
Change from previous year: 61.7%
TRAVERTINE
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November 2017: 22,916 metric tons
Change from previous year: -23.6%
Market leader: Turkey, 17,203 metric tons
Change from previous year: -22.8%
OTHER CALCAREOUS
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November 2017: 12,613 metric tons
Change from previous year: 16.0%
Market leader: China, 2,658 metric tons
Change from previous year: 39.4%
OTHER STONE
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November 2017: 37,825 metric tons
Change from previous year: 25.9%
Market leader: Brazil, 16,505 metric tons
Change from previous year: 48.2%
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