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

According to the Tile Council of North America, "The ceramic tile industry has seen its sales double in the last 7 years to 2.274 billion square feet in 2001. Yet throughout this period the number of people that are reportedly 'tilesetters' has increased by only 25% (according to Department of Commerce figures)." 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) 2009 annual statistical report, FCW reported the following information on the ceramic tile and floor covering industry in USA:

In 2008, ceramic tile experienced the sharpest drop of all the flooring segments, with sales declining by 20.9 percent on a square-foot basis and 15.7 percent in dollorars according to Catalina Research and the U.S. Deparment of Commerce figures. This is the first time U.S. ceramic tile consumption declined in consecurtive years since 1990-1991. The ceramic tile market was especially hit hard as the number of new and replacement kitchens and bathrooms declined and average prices rose as the dollar weakened.

Ceramic tile still remains the most important hard surface flooring material on a dollar basis, however, this sector lost considerable share in 2008. The weak residential market coupled with the start of the decline in the commercial sector contributed to the decrease in market in 2008. The falloff is related to the underlying decline in both residential housing starts/remodeling and in commercial construction, combined with low consumer confidence, financing market constraints, and general economic conditions.

Ceramic Tile Manufacturer Sales (shipments minus exports plus imports) declinced to $2.28 billion (15.6%) versus 2007 to $2.70 billion in 2007 (that was a -14.8% decrease from 2006) vs. $3.17 billion in 2006, which was up 3.3% that year.

Ceramic Tile square-foot volume dropped by 20.9 percent to 2.10 billion square feet 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 in 2006, which increased 3.3% that year.

US floor coverings in 2008 declined by 13.7 percent to 20.49 billion square feet, while dollar sales dropped by 11.4 percent to $20.20 billion. This is after 2007 dropped 10.6 percent to $20.95billion from $23.43 billion in 2006, and square footage dropped 11.3 percent to 22.58 billion square feet from 25.46 billion square feet in 2006.

Floor covering categories market share in dollars are Carpet & Areas Rugs 57.9%, Ceramic Floor & Wall Tile 11.3%, Stone 5.0%, Hardwood 9.7%, Vinyl Sheet, Tile & Linoleum 10.1%, Laminates 5.2%, and Rubber 0.8%.

Floor covering categories market share in volume are Carpet & Areas Rugs 61.9%, Ceramic Floor & Wall Tile 10.3%, Stone 1.1%, Hardwood 4.2%, Vinyl Sheet, Tile & Linoleum 17.1%, Laminates 5.1%, and Rubber 0.3%.

Ceramic Tile in 2008 made up 11.3 percent of the $20.20 billion flooring market in value. 2007 made up 12.4 percent of the $21.67 billion flooring market in value (was 13.1 percent in 2006), 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 second in dollars and third in volume in the floor covering market.

Ceramic Tile's average cost per square foot rose 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. The increase in 2008 reflects rising raw materials costs and the weakening US dollar. The weaker dollar makes foreign-sourced products more expensive to US consumers. Rising ceramic tile prices made this sector less price competitive to laminates, stone, and wood flooring, all of which either experienced lower prices or more sluggish cost increases.

Floor Covering’s End Use break down 2008: Residential total was 66.5% vs. 69.9% in 2007, up from 67.8% in 2006, of overall market value with the remodel portion at 53.4% vs. 55.4% in 2007, new homes at 12.5% vs. 13.8% in 2007. Commercial total was 28.9% vs. 25.9% in 2007, down from 30.9% in 2006, with overall market value of new commercial at 10.2% vs. 9.1% in 2007, and contract commercial at 18.7% vs. 16.8% in 2007. Transportation equipment category represented 4.6% in 2008 vs. 4.5% in 2007 of the market.

Ceramic Tile's End Use break down 2008 in Sales: New Residential construction was 27.0% vs. 30.8% in 2007; Residential replacement & repair was 29.9% vs. 29.0% in 2007; New commercial construction was 16.7% vs 23.6% in 2007; Commercial contract was 25.2% vs 15.4% in 2007; Factory-built housing was 0.8% vs. 0.8% in 2007; Transportation was 0.4% vs. 0.4% in 2007.

Ceramic Tile Imports in 2008 accounted for 71.3 percent of total ceramic tile dollar sales 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. 2008 ceramic tile volume in square feet was down 22.6 percent to 79.9 percent of ceramic tile comsumption that was imported after being down 20.3 percent from 2.73 billion square feet in 2006 to 2.18 billion square feet in 2007. In 2008 1.9 billion square-feet of of ceramic tile was imported in the US compared to 2.18 billion square-feet in 2007.

Mexico, Italy, China, Spain and Brazil are the biggest exporters of ceramic tile to US. Approximately two-thirds of U.S. imports in 2008 (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 was up 7.5 percent in value and 8.3 percent in volume their highest level ever. Most of these 466 million square-feet of ceramic tile exports were to Canada (53.6%) and Mexico (17.6%).

The According to Catalina Research the ceramic tile sector experienced the sharpest drop in demand in 2007 and in the first half of 2008. This was due to this sector’s heavy reliance on the builder market. New residential construction accounted for some 30.9% of total US ceramic tile dollar sales in 2007, compared to only 13.8% for all flooring sectors. As a result, US ceramic tile square foot sales declined by 19.5% in 2007, which is in line with the 24.1% drop in new US housing completions. This downward trend was 23.9% in the first half of 2008, due to the 27.3% decline in new housing completions. Import shipments dropped by 24.2% in the first half of 2008. Some of this drop was due to European-based manufactures shifting output to US plants. US floor coverings demand is expected to continue to decline at relatively sharp rates in the third quarter of 2008 based on monthly trends. The housing market remains sluggish, with new starts continuing to decline at 30.0% plus rate. The economic environment remains precarious with rising unemployment rates, slowing spending on commercial and other nonresidential building projects, and reduced world economic growth. As a result, it is estimated that US floor coverings square foot sales could decline by another 10.0% to 11.0% in the third quarter. There is hope that we are entering a bottom, and the decline in floor coverings square foot sales could drop to the single digits in the fourth quarter of 2008. This is primarily based on the flattening out of existing home resale. Existing home resales have remained in the 4.9 to 5.0 million range. The stabilization of the existing home resale market could reduce the inventory of unsold homes, which is required before home prices rise and builders start taking more building permits. 2009 has continued to decline and has hopefully reached a plateau.

According to the American Institute of Architects custom, luxury and move-up homes will decrease in 2000, but the number of kitchen and bath remodels, townhouses, condos and second homes will increase. The outdoor living space trends for improvement will fare well for tile too.

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.

Per Capita Consumption in 2008 dropped to 6.9 square-feet for the USA down from 8.8 square-feet in 2007 that was down from 11.1 square feet in 2005, compared to mature markets such as Spain, which had 102.3 square feet per capita, Italy, which had 35.6 square feet per capita, and Brazil, which had 25.9 square feet per capita. 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 16.5 square feet per capita, considering their 1.3 billion population that gives China 30.5% of the world consumption in 2005.

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