StatWatch December 2018: The China Conundrum
By Emerson Schwartzkopf
If a country raises tariffs, will imports slow down?
With Chinese shipments of hard surfaces to the United States, that yes-or-no question gets a yes-and-no answer at the end of 2018.
In December, China’s quartz exports to the United States dropped by 85% in the face of proposed anti-fair-trade tariffs of at least 300%. Chinese exports of other hard surfaces — particularly granite — increased in the same month, despite a 10% additional levy imposed by the Trump administration.
The this-way, that-way movement of imports in December seemed a fitting end to a tumultuous year in imports, according to Stone Update analysis of surface-import data from the U.S. International Trade Commission.
The full story — in statistics and analysis — will be featured in a special edition of Stone Update Magazine, set for release late next month.
Quartz Slabs
China’s shipments of quartz slabs in December truly represented the end of a rocket ride, as amounts plummeted from previoius levels. The 896,697 ft² from last December is 85.5% less than December 2017’s 6,19 million ft², and far, far below the all-time monthly high of 12.96 million ft² … set just a few months before in August 2018.
The last time China exported less than one million square-feet of quartz slabs to the United States was in February 2015 (800,543 ft², in fact.) The antidumping and countervailing duties brought after Cambria Company LLC’s petition to the USITC last spring seems to be freezing out Chinese quartz in the U.S. market.
However, there’s still demand for foreign-made quartz surfaces; India boosted its year-to-year total by 364.6% in December, setting the country as the new #1 exporter to the United States with 1.82 million ft². Other countries recorded healthy boosts in U.S. shipments, including Turkey (192.3%), Korea (423.6%), Germany (831.3%), Brazil (272.4%) and the Czech Republic (560.2%).
Only a few other countries besides China showed a drop in U.S.-bound quartz slabs, including China’s special adminstrative district of Hong Kong (-82.4%), Italy (-45.0%) and Israel (-72.2%).
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Worked Granite
It’s a bright year-end for worked (sawn, one side polished) granite imports, as December 2018 marked the second month in a row for an uptick in tonnage at U.S. ports-of-entry. Last December’s shipments shpwed a 22.5% year-to-year increase with a total of 125,178 metric tons.
While Brazil led the sector in December with a 5.3% increase from the previous year, the big mover was, of all countries, China. Even though the country’s granite remains subject to a 10% Section 302 blanket tariff on all Chinese goods, the 44,854 metric tons received in the United States represented a 74.5% boost from December 2017.
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Worked Marble
The news is also upbeat for worked marble, with December 2018 imports of 38,581 metric tons ahead of the previous year’s total by 14.3%.
Turkey remained the sector leader in December with 9,406 metric tons — but only 39 metric tons ahead of China, which increased its U.S. marble shipments by 40.2% from December 2017.
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