StatWatch: October 2010

December 11, 2010

Travertine Volume
Total: 39.883 metric tons (-2.8%)
Sector leader: Turkey @ 29,100 metric tons (8.9%)
Backfill: Three out of four metric tons of travertine arriving in the United States in October came from Turkey, but its increase in volume couldn’t offset Mexico 39.4% loss from October ’09 with 6,784 metric tons. China scored a huge 172.7% increase with 1,650 metric tons. The cumulative 397,833 metric tons for 2010 still runs 8.7% ahead of the same time in 2009, although that’s due to larger-than-normal shipments in June 2010 by Turkey, Canada and Peru.

Other Calcareous Value
Total: $6.8 million (-14.1%)
Sector leader: China @ $917,555 (5.5%)
Backfill: Double-digit gains from October ’09 came to Canada (23.6%), Turkey (71%) and France (35.6%), while perennial value leader Italy dropped 44.5% at $640,851. Cumulative 2010 import values for other calcareous show a 20.8 percent decline at $77.1 million, mainly due to a country that’s disappeared from the market.

Other Calcareous Volume
Total: 9,670 metric tons (-87%)
Sector leader: New Zealand @ 1,336 metric tons (N/A)
Backfill: After dominating U.S. imports in this stone category for the past few years, Lebanon just dropped out this summer. It led all year (save February, where the Philippines barely took the top spot) and recorded 42,527 metric tons in May. Since then, Lebanon’s shipped 4 metric tons – that’s right, four. New Zealand came out of nowhere to top the volume chart, but with import values in October of a mere $77,600. Something just doesn’t make sense here.

Slate Value
Total: $4.7 million (9.1%)
Sector leader: China @ $1.8 million (-1.7%)
Backfill: China and India, the top two countries in U.S. slate imports, both dropped below October ’09 levels. The overall gain this October came with a remarkable $438,232 in shipments from the United Kingdom, representing a stunning 1,644.3% increase from $25,123 last October; Brazil also pitched in nicely with $389,144, a 36.4% gain.

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