Port-of-Entry

The General View: U.S. hard-surface imports inched forward in June, as the $440.1 million in customs value represented only a 3.5% increase from May. The news is worse in year-on-year comparison: June 2023 fell 14% short of the same time last year.

The Expected: Most sectors followed the path of previous years, with a good uptick from earlier in the spring. However, given the deep lows reached earlier this year, overall shipments at the half-year point are mostly off by 10%-20%. Quartz surfaces arriving at U.S. ports-of-entry during June, for example, are only behind the same month last year by 7.5%. The January-June 2023 total of 87 million ft², however, is 19.6% less than the same period last year.

The Unexpected: Granite’s May revival stalled in June, as month-on-month shipment values hit a hiccup by declining half-a-percent to $65.3 million. Year-on-year volume dropped by 20% from June ‘22, due to declines from Brazil (-14.1%) and India (-46.3%). China, despite the additional Section 31 tariffs of 25%, sent 15% more to the United States.

The Strange: Porcelain volume managed to eke out the only sector increase in June, with year-on-year growth of 1.7%. That small edge came as India’s 34.2 million ft² represented a giant 70% leap from June 2022.

Next Month: The pattern of hard-surface shipments in 2023 is looking more and more like regular life after the go-go time of the pandemic-fueled renovation boom … as long as U.S. importers and distributors stay consistent with restocking in the next couple of months.