U.S. Hard-Surface Imports
Travertine
Volume
TOTAL 121,707 metric tons (-20.0%) Sector Leader Turkey, 90,428 metric tons (-18.8%)
Travertine remains a diminishing sector at the half-year break. The top five countries exporting to the United States all showed double-digit losses from 2018.
Value
TOTAL $62,060,290 (-24.4%) Sector Leader Turkey, $37,213,500 (-28.1%)
Search for a positive in this declining sector: Italy moved to #2 by being the only major country to do better this year than in 2018. It topped last year's total by $44,971, or 0.5%.
Other Calcareous
Volume
TOTAL 64,561 metric tons (-16.2%) Sector Leader Turkey, 15,532 metric tons (+4.2%)
China's slow pace in this sector continued through June, with U.S. exports off 30.9% from 2018. Portugal, Canada and Italy also showed double-digit declines from the previous year.
Value
TOTAL $60,651,097 (-12.1%) Sector Leader Italy, $12,440,167 (-5.6%)
China contiued to lag behind its 2018 sector customs value by more than 40% (-45.4%, to be exact). Of the top five exporters to the United States, only Spain showed an increase from last year. Surprising growth came from Morocco (52.1%) and Lebanon (146.3%).
Other Stone
Volume
TOTAL 201,182 metric tons (-7.1%) Sector Leader India, 75,449 metric tons (+1.1%)
India's slight month-by-month edge over Brazil led to the top spot at mid-year, but the 20% drop by Brazil is troublesome. China and Canada move ahead of 2018 by 9.8% and 9.6%, respectively.
Value
TOTAL 176,267,849 (-1.2%) Sector Leader Brazil, $74,194,664 (-0.9%)
An unusually bad February created a hangover with Brazil's U.S. exports that lasted through June. The only big gainer in first-half 2019 is Canada, up 19.2% from last year.