U.S. Stone Imports 2008: Crash Diet

Unlike butter, flour or other commodities, stone isn’t going to spoil. Slabs and tiles bought at bargain prices can be held indefinitely, so don’t look for any bargain deals.

That surplus also means that U.S. stone-import data, which offered a great look at the progress of the national dimensional-stone industry, will likely be the last lagging indicator of recovery. Any initial growth in stone usage will start using the excess stone already available; by the time import figures start showing any improvement, the overall market will be on the upswing.

In other words, don’t look for stone-import numbers to improve anytime soon. In fact, if you’re looking for indicators of the health of the U.S. dimensional-stone trade, you might quit looking at import data altogether for awhile.

Data for this article is derived from information reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. International Trade Commission. All analysis is made using comparable data. “Cut stone/slab” data excludes crude/roughly trimmed stone comprised of marble/travertine, granite or other categories where volume measurement is in cubic meters instead of metric tons. Marble/travertine crude/roughly trimmed stone data is not included in value summaries, since the two stones are not delineated in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (2002) (Revision 2).

Original publication ©2009 Western Business Media Inc. Use licensed to the author.

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