Port-of-Entry

The General View: The roller-coaster ride started climbing again in May for U.S. hard-surface imports, with the $490.8 million in value marking the second biggest month on record. (It’s only topped by July 2021’s $493.6 million.) That’s a strong 17.5% ahead of this April, and 12% up on May 2021.

The Expected: Quartz slabs led all sectors with $155.4 million in value, and that’s way ahead of April’s $138.4 million. That’s only $800,000 shy of the record (June 2021’s $156.2 million), but May 2022 topped all months in volume with 20.5 million ft².

The Unexpected: The Russia-Ukraine war, along with skyrocketing natural-gas prices, continue to cause plenty of heat for European porcelain manufacturers. Italian producers are keeping the kilns hot, though, in sending 31.6 million ft² to the United States in May … an increase of almost 36% from this April.

The Strange: For the first time since April 2021, all eight sectors tracked by Hard Surface Report showed an increase in month-to-month import values.

Next Month: COVID variants, an Eastern European war and global inflation continue to roil the U.S. hard-surface trade, and now there’s a new wild card: the proposed 163% anti-dumping tariff on most quartz surfaces from India. Will the largest sector in hard-surface imports be upended again?