Mid-2008: New World Orders?

   Of the 412,427 metric tons of travertine arriving in the United States in this year’s first half – a 7.02-percent drop from 2007’s first six months – 306,624 metric tons came from Turkey, with its 7.29-percent decline closely tracking the market’s overall performance. Mexico’s 47.781 metric tons showed a 10.07-percent drop, while Italy slid 11.18 percent with 18.833 metric tons.
   Peru, meanwhile, offered one of the best performances of any country among all leading stone importers. The 20,057 metric tons of Peruvian travertine coming here in first-half 2008 showed a 72.52-percent increase from the same time last year.
   In value-per-metric-ton, Turkey matched its output lead with the lowest average at $411.68. Peru’s good performance may be due to its $532.55 per metric ton, while Mexico averaged $783.57 and Italy came in at $859.71.
   Turkey may also be the quickest major importer to adjust prices for the slow U.S. market. The $411.68 per-metric-ton average for its travertine in the first half of 2008 is $122 less than the country’s per-ton average for all of 2007.

THE REST
   U.S. slate imports became a contest in first-half 2008 to see which one of the market leaders – China or India – would ship more in value and/or suffer the smallest decline. India won both prizes, edging out China by $19.29 million (-12.08 percent) to $19.24 million (-18.73 percent), respectively.    The $47.3 million in first-half 2008 slate imports predictably split the decline from January-June 2007 down the middle from the two leaders at 15.66 percent.
   The omnibus “other stone” category, including all non-classified stone types, stayed relatively flat in value through the first six months of 2008. The $132.7 million in other stone value represented only a 1.32-percent dip from the same time in 2007. India took first place by basically staying even, with its $34.1 million showing a bare .45-percent increase. Brazil moved into a close second at $33.2 million with an 8.04-percent first-half 2008 growth.
   The other category normally profiled in Stone Business import articles – other calcereous – gets a pass for first-half 2008, mainly because our analysis indicates there’s an error somewhere in U.S. government statistics. The data shows that one country imported more than 180,000 metric tons in the first six months of this year, but the average value per metric ton would only total $35.04, or more than $200 below any competitor. That’s too far beyond cheap to be right, and we’ll check with the appropriate agencies on this.
   
Data for this article, and for accompanying charts, is derived from information reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. International Trade Commission. All analysis is made using comparable data. “Worked” data excludes crude/roughly trimmed stone comprised of marble/travertine, granite or other categories where volume measurement is in cubic meters instead of metric tons. Marble/travertine crude/roughly trimmed stone data is not included in value summaries, since the two stones are not delineated in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (2002) (Revision 2).