Port-of-Entry

The General View: It’s a repeat of last time, as April’s total value of $366,046,477 is marginally better than the previous month. However, the margin is smaller, with only a 2.6% month-over-month increase.

The Expected: Quartz surfaces continued the 2023 journey into statis in April, with both value and volume remaining close (<-2%) to March levels. Year-over-year totals run behind 2022 by more than 10%, with India leading in volume of shipments … but still close to 30% behind last year’s pace.

The Unexpected: Marble took a big year-over-year crash in April, declining 18% in import value and 23.5% in volume. Turkey remained the leader in April 2023 shipments by a wide margin but lagged behind the same time last year by 33.4%.

The Strange: Porcelain-tile imports became the models of month-over-month consistency in April. Import values from March changed by -0.1%, while volume went just a bit better with a nominal 0%. (For the record, April’s 81,496,006 ft² is 13,821 ft² less than March’s total, for a precise decline of -0.017%.)

Next Month: A scan of the 2021-2023 interactive charts that Hard-Surface Report offers for each sector shows that every April can be, in a nice term, static when compared to March. Imports usually pick up the pace in May; if numbers fail to move up in 2023, it’s going to be a long year.