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K. SCHIPPER: Hi, I’m K. Schipper with the latest in hard surfaces industry news from Radio Stone Update.

00:30

The Natural Stone Institute is expanding its outreach into another key component of the natural stone market by endorsing the Hardscape North America – or HNA – trade show in October. The event is the leading U.S. tradeshow for hardscape contractors, dealers, and landscape professionals.

Held annually in Louisville, Ky., this year’s show is set for Oct. 19-21, and for the first time will feature a natural-stone pavilion. Additionally, the institute will jury the HNA natural-stone awards entries, and institute member will receive discounts on attendee education and/or exhibiting at the show.

By partnering with HNA, the show provides the Natural Stone Institute with an opportunity to network with hardscape distributors and share information about sourcing stone from members and training sales teams through online education.

Jim Hieb, NSI CEO says, “This partnership creates a great opportunity for natural stone quarriers and distributors to expand their network with an important customer base for natural stone.”

Hieb adds that the partnership is also built on the success of the Natural Stone Pavilion at this year’s StonExpo. North American quarrier members were particularly pleased and anxious for the organization to expand the concept to a new audience.

Although in past years, Hardscape North America has solely been a production of the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute – the ICPI – on July 1 that organization will unite with the National Concrete Masonry Association – the NCMA – to become the new producers of HNA.

ICPI Executive Director Charlie McGrath says the addition of NSI as an endorsing partner gives hardscape professionals direct access to the industry leaders for natural stone education and a larger supplier base from the institute’s membership. He says, “We are delighted to welcome NSI and their members to our event.”

The institute is already looking ahead to HNA 2023, when plans are to include a larger pavilion for natural stone exhibitors. NSI will also coordinate education seminars to provide hardscape professionals with more natural stone knowledge.

02:54

For those interested in investigating this new show, registration is now open for Hardscape North America. Held at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, it offers a combination of new products, technology, interactive exhibits and education. More than 35 new exhibiting companies are signed up for this year’s show.

Thanks to an early bird registration period, those interested in attending can do so for $20 if they register by Sept. 9. Along with a full complement of indoor exhibits and an outdoor demonstration area, the show also features education sessions and installer courses, the opportunity to test your ability on a flight simulator and fly a drone, and free concerts in downtown Louisville.

Access to the co-located Equip Exposition – formerly GIE+EXPO – is included with registration. For more info on Hardscape North America or to register, go to www.hardscapena.com

04:01

Entries for the 2022 HNA Awards are also now being accepted. The annual awards program honors outstanding residential and commercial hardscape projects and includes areas likely to use natural stone, including patios, outdoor kitchens and living spaces. The HNA natural-stone awards entries will be juried by representatives of the Natural Stone Institute.

Eligible projects include residential and commercial work in 10 different categories including a combination of hardscape projects, porcelain pavers, natural stone and outdoor living features. All entries must have been completed between Nov. 1, 2018 and June 30 of this year.

Judging is based on excellence in design, craftsmanship, construction and compatibility. The entry deadline is Sept. 2, 2022. Winners will be recognized during the 2022 HNA Awards Ceremony on Oct. 20, during the Hardscape North America tradeshow in Louisville. Winners and honorable mention recipients will also be featured on the HNA website and in several industry publications.

Entries are now being accepted at https://hnasecureplatform.com/a. The HNA Awards are endorsed by the Natural Stone Institute.

06:40

An industry trade show that’s a little closer in time but much farther in distance has revealed its plans. After several delays, the China Xiamen International Stone Fair will finally open its doors on July 30 and run through Aug. 2 at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center.

The dates were released earlier this month as China began to loosen its strict COVID-19 travel requirements, although entry is unlikely for any but the hardiest North American travelers. The show is actually five concurrent events: Global Master Architects Forum; Xiamen Habitat Design & Life Festival; Stone Infinite Product Design Show; Launch Out @XSF; and World Stone Congress.

As of mid-month, the Xiamen event website lists 796 on-site exhibitors for the expo area of 20 halls. However, only 30 are from outside China. An additional 300 foreign companies are participating in the year-round online Cloud Xiamen Stone Fair, including several from the United States and Canada. The online show has taken the place of the physical show since the outbreak of COVID more than two years ago.

Foreign-visitor regulations in China reflect some changes in response to that country’s battle against COVID-19, and are more restricted than when people were planning to attend the 2020 version of the Xiamen show, which was delayed and then canceled due to the virus.

Holders of visas issued before Jan. 2020, including long-term business visas, are still prohibited entry. Anyone with a work-invitation letter from a company can apply for a new visa, but the Xiamen event isn’t issuing those letters, at least currently.

For those lucky enough to get a new visa, they will still need two separate PCR tests from two different U.S. labs approved by China’s diplomatic services in the two days before departure and also pass a COVID test when arriving in China to avoid quarantine. Travelers also need to fly directly to China, and no airline is currently offering such flights from the United States or Canada.

8:51

EMERSON SCHWARTZKOPF: This is Emerson Schwartzkopf. U.S. hard-surface imports in April took yet another turn in its 2022 dipsy-doodle path – and we’ll get to that shortly – but the month also saw a rare change in the pecking order of natural stone.

April’s import data from the U.S. International Trade Commission showed marble overtaking granite as the top natural-stone import, at least in declared value at customs. Marble’s $60.3 million in April edged out granite’s $57.3 million.
 
How rare is that? The last time that happened was June 1990 – close to 32 years ago, when Total Recall dominated movie theaters, and the first President George Bush played host in Washington to Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union (back where there still was a Soviet Union.)
 
Back here in 2022, granite maintained its top status in U.S. natural-stone-import volume, with nearly three metric tons crossing ports-of-entry to marble’s two.

With imports of all hard surfaces, April provided another down in 2022’s up-and-down year, with the total value of $417.8 million sliding down 4.2% from March. It’s still 3.2% ahead of April 2021, although that’s not saying much with the month’s inflation rate of 6.2% (minus food and energy).

Quartz slabs led all sectors with $138.5 million in value in April 2022, and that’s 6.9% behind March. The 17.4-million ft² arriving in U.S. ports-of-entry in April trailed March totals by 5%
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Marble imports offered a good month in April, with that $60.3 million representing a 12.6% rise from March. The most-improved award, though, belonged to travertine. The long-suffering sector showed a 20% month-to-month hike in value with April’s shipments
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The Russia/Ukraine war seemed to take a double-digit bite out of porcelain imports from Italy and Spain, where the end of Ukrainian clay supplies and high natural-gas costs sent manufacturers scrambling. However, in an odd twist, the most-improved month-to-month performance by a major porcelain exporter to the United States in April turned out to be … Ukraine.

With inflation, interest-rate hikes and continued transport woes, it’s going to be hard to spot real hard-surface market trends in the next few months. We’ll keep looking.

11:36

K. SCHIPPER: The slogan from Cosentino may be “Changing the World from the Kitchen,” but the color is decidedly green. In the Spanish company’s largest Silestone® advertising campaign in nearly 20 years, Cosentino is celebrating how the brand has evolved and letting a new generation of consumers know about its sustainability innovations.

Debuting in 21 countries this spring, Silestone – which was introduced to the market in 1990 – stresses how it has been focused on maximizing nature’s resources from the beginning. Initially made from remnants of Paco Cosentino’s quarry, it has delivered new large-format surfacing options, with an initial emphasis on hygiene.

The company has also kept its eyes on environmental initiatives, such as its “Eco by Cosentino” line, which was introduced in 2012, and now its HybriQ by Silestone®, a new high-performance blend of premium minerals, quartz and recycled materials. HybriQ technology also marks an entirely new product composition and manufacturing method for Silestone that uses 99 percent reused water, 100 percent renewable electric energy, zero water waste and a minimum of 20 percent recycled raw materials.

In February of this year, the company reached its goal to have 100 percent of all Silestone colors produced with HybriQ.

Eduardo Cosentino, executive vice president of Global Sales and CEO of Cosentino North America, says, “Sustainability is absolutely at the core of everything we do at Cosentino Group. We want our customers to feel confident they are getting the best of the best.” That includes not only from the quality and design perspective, but also from the environmental standpoint, he adds.

Beyond digital content, Silestone continues to work as an activist-minded brand, committing to the evolution of its in-store displays through the use of 100 percent recycled and sustainably sourced materials. It will continue to embrace eco-friendly solutions at all levels.

HybriQ+ is just one of the many sustainability initiatives that Cosentino has committed to over the years. Silestone Sunlit Days®, is one of the first new collections that launched in 2021 that marked Silestone’s first-ever carbon neutral collection building on the “Carbon Neutral” declaration achieved for Cosentino’s entire Dekton® brand in 2020.


Remember, the latest issue of Hard Surface Report is now available at www.hardsurfacereport.com. Our online newsletter, Slab and Sheet, appears on alternate Wednesdays. For notes and a transcript of this podcast, go to www.radiostoneupdate.com

For Radio Stone Update, I’m K. Schipper and we’ll see you here again soon.