U.S. Ceramic Tile Industry Shows Decline

U.S. Tile Consumption — The table shows U.S. tile shipments, imports, exports, and total consumption in thousands of sq. ft.

U.S. Ceramic Tile Consumption — The chart shows total U.S. consumption of ceramic tile (in sq. ft.) over the last several years.

U.S. Tile Imports from China — The effects of the preliminary countervailing duty (CVD) and anti-dumping determinations, which were announced in Sept. 2019 and Nov. 2019, respectively, are shown in this chart.

U.S. Tile Imports by Country (2018) — This chart shows the five countries from which the most tiles were imported in 2018 based on volume.

% Share of Tile Imports by Country — In 2019 U.S. shipments (less exports) were 863.6 million sq. ft. (80.3 million m2), down 5.2% from 2018. This represented the lowest level of domestic shipments since 2015.

U.S. Tile Imports by Country (2019) — The chart shows the five countries from which the most tiles were imported in 2019 based on total U.S. $ value (CIF + duty).

Values of Tile by Country — The average values of tile (CIF + duty) from the five countries from which the most tiles were imported (based on volume) in 2019.

The American ceramic tile market declined for the first time in a decade in 2019, according to The Tile Council of North America despite the fact that the U.S. economy experienced its tenth consecutive year of expansion on the heels of the Great Recession.

U.S. ceramic tile consumption in 2019 was 2.9 billion sq. ft. (273.2million m2), down 5.4% from the previous year.

The U.S. imported 2.08 billion sq. ft. of ceramic tile in 2019, down 5.5% from the previous year (2.20 billion sq. ft.). Imports comprised 70.6% of 2019 U.S. tile consumption by volume, down from70.7% in 2018. Although China remained the largest exporter of ceramic tile to the U.S. by volume, its exports to the U.S. fell dramatically last year. This was due primarily to the effects of a trade remedy case filed by a coalition of several U.S. manufacturers, which petitioned the federal government to remedy unfairly dumped and subsidized ceramic tile imports from China.

Chinese imports made up 21.2% of total U.S. tile imports by volume in 2019. This was down from 31.5% in 2018 and represented China's lowest share of U.S. imports since 2008. Imports from Mexico comprised 17.3% of total U.S. imports in 2019, unchanged from 2018. Spain surpassed Italy as the third largest exporter of tile to the U.S., making up 16.9% of U.S. imports by volume, up from 14.1% in 2018. The next largest exporters to the U.S. were Italy (15.9% import share) and Brazil (9.8%).

On a dollar basis Italy remained the largest exporter to the U.S. in 2019, comprising 29.6% of U.S. imports. China was second with a 20.3% share, and Spain was third with a 20.1% share.

In 2019, U.S. shipments (less exports) were 863.6 million sq. ft., down 5.2% from 2018. This represented the lowest level of domestic shipments since 2015. Domestically-produced tile made up 29.4% of total U.S. tile consumption (by volume) in 2019, up slightly from its share the previous year (29.3%). In dollar value 2019 U.S. FOB factory sales of domestic shipments were $1.33 billion, down 4.0% compared to 2018.Domestically-manufactured tile made up 37.6% of 2019 total U.S. tile consumption by dollar value.

U.S. ceramic tile exports were 31.8 million sq. ft. in 2019, up 6.8% from 2018. The two largest recipients of these exports were Canada (70.7%) and Mexico (11.0%).

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