Articles
2019 U.S. Ceramic Tile Market Update
In 2019, U.S. ceramic tile consumption declined for the first time in a decade to 273.2 million sq.m. (-5,4% on 2018). This affected both the domestic production (83 million sq,m, -4.8%) and imports (193 million sq.m, -5.5%), with China dropping by 36.4%. Read More
The US ceramic tile market and the new duties on Chinese imports
With the adoption of countervailing and antidumping duties on Chinese tile imports in the US, the race is on for both US tile manufacturers and all the other supplying countries to win a slice of the 64.3 million sq.m of Chinese products. Read More
Money Well Spent: 2020 flooring investments target future growth
As flooring manufacturers head into 2020, leaders are bullish on the industry’s outlook and are making extensive and aggressive plans to invest in a variety of areas to grow their businesses, from expanding their physical footprints to growing their product assortments. Read More
Tile looks to expand competitive edge
The tile industry saw a 2.1 percent increase in 2019, totaling $3.9 billion in sales according to Catalina Research. While growth was in the low single digits, Catalina noted that ceramic tile was the only flooring category outside of resilient to gain share in 2019. This year, the tile industry is looking to raise its competitive edge by expanding into new spaces such as kitchen and bath and exteriors. Read More
Catalina reports uptick as 2019 ends
The industry’s strength was centered in luxury vinyl tile (LVT) products, while sales of all other flooring products declined. Catalina said in 2019, LVT sales could have increased by over 25 percent in dollars and square feet (Catalina Report on LVT and Other Resilient Flooring). On the other hand, sales of all other flooring products could have declined by 2.9 percent in dollars and 5 percent in square feet, Catalina said, adding the weakest performing sectors were carpet and area rugs, laminate flooring and wood flooring. Conversely, the ceramic tile sector was able to make some inroads in the face of soaring LVT sale Read More
Catalina releases 2019 industry trends report
According to the latest Floor Coverings Industry Trends Report from Catalina, during 2019, the value of U.S. floor coverings manufacturer sales (shipments minus exports plus imports) could increase by 1.2 percent to $27.6 billion. Square foot sales, however, could decline by 1.1 percent to 23.6 billion. Manufacturer sales were sluggish during 2019 due to an overhang of inventories accumulated from the rush to import Chinese-made flooring in late 2018 to beat rising tariffs, the report stated. Read More
Your numbers up and other lessons for good math
Basically our industry is $68+ billion. Of that, $22 billion is installation or labor. Since these numbers are adjusted every five years to Census of Retail and Census of Construction, there is no more than 5 percent error in the numbers. We can quibble about whether it is really $66.4 billion or some other number close but that is the size. Read More