Ceramic Tile Statistics

Ceramic Tile And Stone Consultants (CTaSC) provides ceramic tile research and marketing services. CTaSC can evaluate products and markets to help determine how best to position, promote and distribute your products in the USA. In addition to the free information below, there is a Comprehensive Ceramic Tile Research Report for the USA Markets that is available that will give you all the details of the Ceramic Tile Industry. The report provides forecasts and trends, and lists major importers and their foreign suppliers. For more information click the following: Ceramic Tile Report

The ceramic tile industry saw its sales more than double over the years up to the current down turn of the US economy, and even after sales have dropped more than 25% in the recent years, there is still a shortage of qualified installers. We still need to train more tile installers!!! Most installers never get any formalized training and don't fully know the industry standards. We need to train our tile installers!!!

In the Floor Covering Weekly (FCW) 2011 annual statistical report, FCW and Catalina Research reported the following information on the ceramic tile and floor covering industry in USA:

According to Catalina Research and the U.S. Department of Commerece sales of ceramic tile in 2010 the overall ceramic tile market increased from 2009 by 9.2% to $2.015 billion in wholesale dollars. This is after 2009 $1.85 billion sales was a 25.8 percent drop from 2008 $2.48 billion in sales. In square foot value, ceramic tile consumption in 2010 increased 6.9% to 1.992 billion from 1.85 billion square feet in 2009. 2009 volume was a 18.2 percent drop from 2.26 billion square feet in 2008.

Ceramic tile still remains the most important hard surface flooring material on both a dollar and square foot basis with a 24.9% market share of installed floor covering products (includes sales of product, labor and installation products) second to only carpet. This is up 3.75% from 2009 market share. New home construction dropped 14.2 perecnet in 2010. These numbers represent a 74 percent decrease in new home construction from 2005 to 2010. It is likely to take a minimum of seven years to get back to 2005 construction levels for new homes, and even then the homes will probably be about 10 percent smaller.

Ceramic Tile Manufacturer Sales (shipments minus exports plus imports) increased 9.2% to $2.02 billion in 2010 from $1.85 billion in 2009. This is after a 25.4% decline in 2009 from $2.48 billion in 2008 compared to $3.16 billion in 2006, which was up 3.3% that year.

Ceramic Tile square-foot volume increased 6.9% to 1.992 billion in 2010 from 1.85 billion in 2009. This is after an 18.2% drop in 2009 from 2.26 billion square feet in 2008; approximately the same consumption level as 1999. Volume decreased -19.4% in 2007 from 2006 to 2.66 billion square feet vs. 3.30 billion square feet consumption in 2006, which increased 3.3% that year.

US floor covering sales volume increased 1.9% to 17.83 billion square feet in 2010 from 17.66 billion square feet in 2009. This is after dropping 16.4% from 21.17 billion square feet sold in 2008. This is after dropping 10.6% volume in 2008. US floor covering dollar sales increaesed 3.1% to $17.13 billion in 2010 from $17.12 billion sold in 2009. This is after having dropped 19.6% from $21.28 billion sold in 2008, which represented a 8.4% decline in sales dollars that year. This is after 2007 dropped 9.6 percent in sales to $23.22 billion from $25.68 billion in 2006.

Floor covering categories market share in volume are Carpet & Areas Rugs 59.9%, Vinyl sheet & floor tile 17.1%, Ceramic Floor & Wall Tile 11.2%, Laminates 5.4%, Hardwood 4.6%, Stone 1.5%, and Rubber 0.3%.

Floor covering categories market share in wholesale dollars are Carpet & Areas Rugs 54.7%, Vinyl sheet & floor tile 12.1%, Ceramic Floor & Wall Tile 11.6%, Hardwood 9.4%, Laminates 5.1%, Stone 6.2%, and Rubber 0.9%.

Ceramic Tile in 2010 made up 11.6% of the $17.13 billion floor covering market in value. Ceramic Tile in 2009 made up 10.8% of the $17.12 billion market and in 2008 made up 11.3 percent of the $21.28 billion flooring market in value. Ceramic Tile made up 12.4 percent of the 2007 $21.67 billion flooring market in value and 13.1 percent in 2006. In volume, ceramic tile made up 11.2% of the 17.83 billion square feet in 2010 and 10.5% of the 17.66 billion square-feet 2009 floor covering market, and 10.3% of the 2008 volume of 20.49 billion square-feet. Ceramic Tile was 11.5 percent of the industry's 23.06 billion square feet in 2007 (was 12.3 percent in 2006). Ceramic Tile placed third in dollars and third in volume in the floor covering market.

Ceramic Tile's average cost per square foot dropped to $1.01 in 2010 vs. 7.8% to $1.00 in 2009 after rising 5.9% to $1.08 in 2008. It rose 7.3% to $1.02 in 2007 versus $0.96 in 2006, $0.94 in 2005, $0.91 in 2004, $0.88 in 2003, $0.89 in 2002, $0.92 in 2001, $0.95 in 2000, $0.98 in 1999, $1.02 in 1997, and $1.13 in 1992.

Floor Covering’s End Use break down 2009: Residential total was 64.6% ($11.05 billion) in 2010 vs. 65.9% in 2009 vs. 66.5% in 2008 vs. 69.9% in 2007, up from 67.8% in 2006, of overall market value with the remodel portion at 56.3% in 2010 vs. 54.8% in 2009 vs. 53.4% in 2008 vs. 55.4% in 2007, new homes at 8.0% in 2010 vs. 10.7% in 2009 vs. 12.5% in 2008 vs. 13.8% in 2007. Commercial total was 35.4% ($5.28 billion) in 2010 vs. 34.1% in 2009 vs. 28.9% in 2008 vs. 25.9% in 2007, down from 30.9% in 2006, with overall market value of new commercial at 12.0% in 2010 vs. 12.2% in 2009 vs. 10.2% in 2008 vs. 9.1% in 2007, and contract commercial at 19.0% in 2010 vs. 17.8% in 2009 vs. 18.7% in 2008 vs. 16.8% in 2007. Transportation equipment category represented 4.4% in 2010 vs. 4.1% in 2009 vs. 4.6% in 2008 vs. 4.5% in 2007 of the market.

Floor Covering products are distributed through the following channels with the respective market share: 42.8% of sales go through Floor Covering stores, 29.6% of sales go through Home Centers, 13.6% goes through hard surface flooring and ohter building material stores, 1.8% goest through furniture stores, 1.6% goes through depmartment sstores, and10.6% goes through others.

Ceramic Tile's End Use break down 2010 ($1.97 billion wholesale dollars) in residential sales dollars was 56.4% and commercial sales dollars was 43.6%. New Residential construction was 16.4% in 2010 vs. 26.1% in 2009 vs. 27.0% in 2008 vs. 30.8% in 2007; Residential replacement & repair was 39.5% in 2010 vs. 30.2% in 2009 vs. 29.9% 2008 vs. 29.0% in 2007; New commercial construction was 25.4% in 2010 vs. 24.8% in 2009 vs. 16.7% in 2008 vs 23.6% in 2007; Commercial contract was 18.0% in 2010 vs. 17.4% in 2009 vs. 25.2% 2008 vs 15.4% in 2007; Factory-built housing was 0.5% in 2010 vs. 1.0% in 2009 0.8% in 2008 vs. 0.8% in 2007; Transportation was 0.2% in 2010 vs. 1.0% in 2009 vs. 0.4% in 2008 vs. 0.4% in 2007.

Ceramic Tile Imports in 2010 accounted for 54.9% of total ceramic tile wholesale dollar sales compared to 61.1% in 2009 compared to 71.3 percent in 2008 and compared to 87.6 percent in 2007 that was up from 74.7 percent in 2006 that was down from 78.6 percent in 2005, of ceramic tile dollar value. Import dollar value for 2010 was $1.21 billion up fomr 2009 that was $1.13 billion, which was down 31% from $1.63 billion in 2008, $1.96 billion in 2007, $2.37 billion in 2006, and $2.26 billion in 2005. Import volume in 2010 in square feet was 70% of total ceramic tile volume compared to 54.1% of in 2009, compared to 84.1% in 2008, and 82.0% in 2007, and 82.7% in 2006. Ceramic tile import volume was 1.393 billion square feet in 2010 compared to 1.33 billion in 2009 that was down 30% from 1.68 billion square feet imported in 2008 compared to 2.18 billion square feet in 2007, 2.73 billion square feet in 2006, and 2.64 billion square feet in 2005.

Mexico, Italy, China, Spain and Brazil are the biggest exporters of ceramic tile to US. Approximately three-fourths of U.S. imports in 2010 (in volume) came from Mexico, Italy and China combined. Mexico overtook Italy as the largest exporter of tile to U.S. in square footage, but Italy remained the top exporter to the U.S. in dollar value comprising 41.4 percent of U.S. tile imports. China was the third-largest exporter in the U.S. in both square footage and dollar value. The value per square foot of all tile imports for 2008 was $1.02, up 6.3 percent from 2007 and up 10.9 percent from 2006.

U.S. ceramic tile factory export sales shipments in 2010 was equal to 2009 in value, but was down 9.7% in volume. 2009 exports were down 10.5% in value and down 9.3% in volume from 2008. 2010 export value was $50.3 million the same as 2009 compared to $56.2 million in 2008, compared to $52.3 in 2007 compared to $48.5 in 2006, and compared to $47.7 in 2005. 2010 export volume was 50.2 million square feet compared to 55.6 million square feet in 2009 compared to 61.3 million square feet shipped in 2008, compared to 56.6 million square feet in 2007, 55.6 million square feet in 2006, and 49.6 million square feet shipped in 2005. Most of the 61.3 million square-feet of ceramic tile exports in 2008 were to Canada (53.6%) and Mexico (17.6%).

According to Catalina Research the ceramic tile sector experienced a slight increase in demand in 2010, and growth is expected to continue to some slight degree in 2011. There are some signs of improvement in the 3rd quarter 2011. The housing market showed strong gains and specialty floor coverings store sales turned upwards. Housing permits increased by 6.5% and starts rose by 5.5% in the third quarter of 2011. In October these gains further accerlerated Speciality floor covering store sales increased by 1.2% in the third quarter after declining 7.9% in the first half of the year. The improvement is likely due to consumers considering housing prices low enough after declining by 26% over the last five years. They are also reacting to historic low mortgage rates. The share of households delinquent on their mortgage payments has fallen to the lowest level since the end of 2008. So the question is how sustainable are these trends? We could see continued gains in the housing market, since the lack of Congressional action on the budget results in neither a cut in spending or an increase in taxes. So we may see stronger floor covering sales for 2012. However, all bets are off for 2013 if the automatic cut in spending and increase in taxes (a total of $4.9 trillion over ten years) goes into effect.

Consumers may opt to upgrade their homes instead of spending discretionary dollars on vacations, according to industry insiders. Also, as Americans age and become more aware of health and environment issues, tile and other hard surface materials may become the preferred surface. Now is a good time to target the multi-residential segment, which has high growth, since those with foreclosed homes need to rent as well as those who can qualify to purchase a home.

Per Capita Consumption in 2010 went up to 6.4 square feet per capita in the USA compared to 5.8 square feet per capita in 2009 compared to 6.9 in 2008, which was down from 8.8 square-feet in 2007, which was down from 11.1 square feet in 2005. Compared to mature markets such as Spain with 36.4 square feet per capita, Italy with 26.0 square feet per capita, Brazil with 35.8 square feet per capita, Canada with 10.65 square feet per capita, and China which had 24.3 square feet per capital, there is still a lot of potential for increase ceramic tile sales in USA. So the growth potential for ceramic tile in the U.S.A. is still very high and can increase 3 to 7 times or more, leading the way for a very healthy future for all the participants of the ceramic tile industry. China's per capita consumption was 24.3 square feet per capita, and considering their 1.324 billion population that gives China 35.8% of the world consumption in 2009.

This page will be updated periodically with the most current and complete information available.