Previous page and above: Photo by Timelab from Unsplash
When it comes to hard surfaces, the United States buys much, much more than it produces. Depending on the sector, the amount of material imported makes up for anywhere from 69% to 93% of total use. The first half of 2023 is not a time of stellar industry performance; all hard-surface sectors are down from 2022 in value and volume of shipments. It’s not a terrible time by any measure – imports are up from the pandemic spring of 2020 and the late years of the 2010s. But 2023’s year-over-year declines aren’t pretty.
For this mid-year import review, Stone Update is taking a worldwide view … as in showing, with interactive maps, the origins of hard-surface imports. After looking at total import values, there’s a sector-by-sector breakdown to show which countries supply different surfaces. Hover over any colored-in country on a map with your cursor (or, for mobile devices, your finger), and you’ll get the country name, the first-half 2023 total volume, and how those shipments compare to the same time last year.
Hover/touch on any blank area of the map, and a +/- appears in the upper-left corner of the map to allow enlargement or reduction. This allows viewing of some very tiny (in terms of geographic size) exporters such as Singapore or the Palestinian Territories. If you focus on Italy with the Porcelain map, for example, you may need to hit the + command more than a dozen times – but you’ll be able to eventually spot the Republic of San Marino. To make any map return to normal size, click the [ ] command that also appears in the upper left.