News
U.S. Imports: Granite, Marble Up; Quartz Down
December 2018 marked the second month in a row for an uptick in worked-granite tonnage at U.S. ports-of-entry. That month’s imports of 125,178 metric tons showed a 22.5% increase from December 2017.
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%.
Quartz-surface shipments last December plummeted due to China's slowdown of 85.5% from the previous year, as the country faces massive unfair-trade tariffs.
The full story -- in statistics and analysis -- will be featured in a special edition of Stone Update Magazine next month.
Cambria Seeks Tariff on "Quartz Glass"
WASHINGTON – Cambria Company LLC sought to widen the field of Chinese-made hard surfaces subject to unfair-trade tariffs.
Cambria asked the U.S. Commerce Department on Feb. 14 to include surfaces using fine-grained glass powder instead of quartz sand. The U.S. quartz-surface maker claimed the switch to "quartz glass" would allow Chinese producers to avoid proposed tariffs in excess of 300%.
Several U.S. importers, including Arizona Tile and MSI, objected to reviewing the tariff definition. However, federal regulators on March 5 agreed to review Cambria’s request, with a final deadline of March 27 for legal briefs.