CLEVELAND, OH — While U.S.-based production of engineered stone continues to expand, the vast majority of the nation’s quartz slab supply is now being imported from Canada, Israel, Spain, Vietnam – and, most notably, India and Turkey.
That’s among the major findings of a newly released study by the Cleveland, OH-based market research firm The Freedonia Group, which also noted that imports of quartz slab from China have plummeted since the imposition in 2018 of steep tariffs on Chinese imports.
“Prior to 2019, China was by far the leading source of quartz slab imports to the U.S., as suppliers were able to provide materials at a price level much lower than domestic producers, as well as being able to supply the market with a wide variety of colors that were not able to be made using the Breton process, (which involves mixing materials together, compressing them to remove the air, and applying heat to fuse them together),” Freedonia Group researchers said.
However, since tariffs in excess of 200% were imposed on quartz imports from China, U.S. suppliers and fabricators “sought other low-cost sources of quartz slab, resulting in Chinese imports plummeting,” Freedonia said.
In 2019, tariffs were also imposed on quartz slabs from India and Turkey, as suppliers from these countries were ruled to have “dumped” product at unfair prices into the U.S. countertop market, The Freedonia Group said. “Nevertheless, import activity from India and Turkey has remained strong since then, as the tariffs imposed on these countries were lower than those imposed on China,” the company added.
Since 2018, imports from India have surged and now account for the highest share of U.S. quartz supply, according to Freedonia.