StatWatch October 2018: Back to (Sort of) Normal

By Emerson Schwartzkopf

The Chinese scale-back in quartz-surfaces imports to the United States may stop the stratospheric rise of the sector, but it’s still the strongest one in hard-sector shipments

Despite the quartz flow from China dipping more than 20% from last year’s levels, the manufactured surface managed a 10% overall worldwide growth, spurred mainly by non-Pacific-Rim countries.

The decline in Chinese quartz in October came in the face of twin tariff actions — one on all Chinese imports by the Trump administration and the other coming after the U.S. government agreed with an unfair-trade petition brought earlier this year by U.S. manufacturer Cambria.

Other hard-surface sectors saw mixed results, with mostly small gains or losses in overall shipments. (The often volatile other-calcareous sector made the only double-digit change in natural stone.)

 

QUARTZ SLABS

China chopped its shipments of quartz slabs in October by 22.3% from the same time last year as exporters scaled back in anticipation of the anti-dumping tariffs. In comparison to this summer, October’s flow from China dropped 46% from the previous month, and 62% from 12.9 million ft² in July.

Shipments from other countries, meanwhile, perked up as China’s quartz tsunami ebbed. Every other country sending more than >100,000 ft² to the United States experienced double-digit growth from October 2017 volume (with the exception of Italy). India’s 147.3% jump made the largest impact and Vietnam reversed direction from a recent slump, but healthy gains also came from Canada and several European countries.

Incidentally, the customs value for October’s quartz-surface imports from China totaled $31.7 million — the lowest amount in 18 months. That’ll take some of the bite out of the critical-circumstances decision by the U.S. Department of Commerce last month that could enforce retroactive tariffs as high as 314% on shipments from mid-August to mid-November.

 

U.S. Imports: Quartz Slabs    (square feet)       Oct-18 Oct-17 Change Total 11,694,073 10,625,282 10.1% China 4,922,321 6,334,318 -22.3% Spain 2,094,913 1,733,935 20.8% India 1,607,050 649,849 147.3% Israel 806,087 594,964 35.5% Canada 673,734 581,035 16.0% Turkey 452,439 176,140 156.9% Vietnam 269,668 93,086 189.7% Czech Republic 196,872 28,083 601.0% Portugal 146,077 100,653 45.1% Italy 139,726 139,199 0.4% Korea 104,797 61,774 69.6% Brazil 74,013 35,176 110.4% Germany 65,025 37,954 71.3% Taiwan 63,701 9,677 558.3% Hong Kong 39,213 16,157 142.7% Belgium 19,816 6,534 203.3% Thailand 18,256 7,287 150.5% Romania 366 2,077 -82.4% Mexico 0 8,891 N/A Serbia 0 5,920 N/A St. Vincent/Grenada 0 2,530 N/A Croatia 0 43 N/A

All charts: U.S. International Trade Commission and Stone Update analysis

 

WORKED GRANITE

At least the good news about worked (sawn, one-side polished) granite — an increase in September — lasted a month. In October, it’s back to a year-to-year decline, albeit a small one at 4.2%.

Brazil slid 12.8% from October 2017 with 53,938 metric tons this year for the largest decline. India made the biggest move up among granite’s Big Three, up 32.4%. China’s year-to-year shipments for October declined 3.9% … or very close to its 3.5% decline this September.

U.S. Imports: Worked Granite
(metric tons)
	Oct-18	Oct-17	Change
Total	116,494	121,548	-4.2%
Top Countries
Brazil	53,983	61,919	-12.8%
China	28,667	29,817	-3.9%
India	21,541	16,265	32.4%
Spain	6,941	6,434	7.9%
Italy	2,108	3,339	-36.9%
Canada	1,501	2,329	-35.6%

 

WORKED MARBLE

The nominal 0.6% decline in worked-marble imports for this October is slightly deceiving, as most of the major suppliers to the United States made double-digit losses or gains from a year ago. Only Turkey, the sector leader, registered a ho-hum month by declining only 0.8% with its 10,079 metric tons.

India and China scored major gains from last year with October shipments, offsetting big decreases from Italy and Brazil.

 

U.S. Imports: Worked Marble
(metric tons)
	18-Oct	17-Oct	Change
Total	36,342	36,575	-0.6%
Top Countries
Turkey	10,079	10,161	-0.8%
India	7,366	6,175	19.3%
China	7,127	5,537	28.7%
Italy	5,884	7,298	-19.4%
Brazil	3,050	4,111	-25.8%
Spain	793	960	-17.4%
Egypt	537	539	-0.4%

 

 

TRAVERTINE

 

U.S. Imports: Travertine
(metric tons)
	18-Oct	17-Oct	Change
Total	22,734	22,113	2.8%
Top Countries
Turkey	17,032	15,541	9.6%
Mexico	3,404	3,656	-6.9%
Italy	865	560	54.5%
China	745	621	20.0%
Peru	284	179	58.7%
Spain	172	190	-9.5%
Brazil	121	20	505.0%

 

OTHER CALCAREOUS

 

U.S. Imports: Other Calcareous
(metric tons)
	18-Oct	17-Oct	Change
Total	11,665	14,482	-19.5%
Top Countries
Canada	3,173	1,738	82.6%
China	2,099	3,995	-47.5%
Turkey	1,566	1,835	-14.7%
Portugal	864	956	-9.6%
Italy	820	766	7.0%

 

OTHER STONE

 

U.S. Imports: Other Stone
(metric tons)
	18-Oct	17-Oct	Change
Total	44,071	47,437	-7.1%
Top Countries
Brazil	19,283	23,769	-18.9%
India	13,636	11,699	16.6%
China	5,392	4,286	25.8%
Canada	2,050	2,444	-16.1%
Italy	1,716	1,926	-10.9%

 

 

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