StatWatch: February 2011

Italy didn’t fare very well either this February, marking a 13.8-percent decline from 2010 at 4,049 metric tons. The good news came from the top two – Brazil, as the sector leader, and China bumping up volume by 3 percent to 19,328 metric tons.

Remember Canada, the wunderkind of this January at 21,139 metric tons? Advance one month, and the shipments fall to a regular 894 metric tons.

WORKED MARBLE VALUE
Total: $11.4 million (6.3%)
Sector leader: Italy @ $4 million (8.6%)

Backfill: As far as import values, marble is getting a sunny start to 2011; of the four top importing countries, three of them (Italy, China, Turkey) show improvement from last year. China’s $3 million in February 2011 is 9.3-percent up from the same time last year; Turkey gets a huge bump-up of 40 percent at $1.5 million.

That leaves one market leader – Spain – with a different tale. The February 2011 value of $1.2 million leaves a 9.4-percent shortfall from 2010. The remainder of the marble-importing countries offer mixed results – Portugal and Greece are up, while India, Egypt, Israel and Pakistan are down – but the top four represent 84 percent of U.S. worked-marble shipment value.

WORKED MARBLE VOLUME
Total: 11,310 metric tons (14.5%)
Sector leader: China @ 4,664 metric tons (24.8%)

Backfill: No buts or howevers to qualify this category; marble slab/tile tonnage coming across U.S. ports of entry improves overall, and for the four-biggest supplying countries, from February 2010. China maintains its lead, and Italy (2,208 metric tons, up 15.8 percent) keeps its second-place standing.

Turkey, meanwhile, shows the biggest gain – 29.9 percent – with its 1,773 metric tons in February 2011, and may show a serious challenge to Italy for the second spot. Spain’s 1,631 metric tons show a slight 2.6 percent raise from last year.

TRAVERTINE VALUE
Total: $18.5 million (-3.8%)
Sector leader: Turkey @ $12.6 million (-0.3%)

Backfill: When changes in statistics are barely noticeable – as with Turkey’s less-than-a-percent dip – one term for defining this is frictional. Another that’s a lot less scientific is running-in-place. In other words, there’s not much happening with travertine import values.

The big changes come later in the order; second-place Mexico slips 4.8 percent from last year with $3.7 million in February 2011 import values. However, that’s up from January 2011’s $2.6 million, which could portend some welcome gains in coming months. China’s going the other way, with the $795,864 from February representing a 26.8-percent drop from last year – and a big dip from January 2011’s $1.1 million.