Final USITC Report on Chinese Quartz Imports June 2019 | Page 50
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there is a high degree of substitutability between domestically produced quartz surface
products and quartz surface products imported from China.
Lead times
Quartz surface products are primarily sold from inventory. U.S. producers reported that
88.7 percent of their commercial shipments came from inventories, with lead times averaging
10 days. The remaining 11.3 percent of U.S. producers’ commercial shipments were produced‐
to‐order, with lead times averaging 20 days. Importers reported that 83.9 percent of their
commercial shipments came from U.S. inventories, with lead times averaging 12 days.
Importers reported 14.4 percent of their commercial shipments were produced‐to‐order, with
lead times averaging 82 days. The remaining 1.7 percent of their commercial shipments came
from foreign inventories, with lead times averaging 57 days.
Knowledge of country sources
Twenty‐seven purchasers indicated they had marketing/pricing knowledge of domestic
product, 40 of Chinese product, 19 of Israeli product, 13 of Spanish product, and 18 of all other
nonsubject countries.
As shown in table II‐5, most purchasers and their customers never make purchasing
decisions based on the producer or country of origin. Of the five purchasers that reported that
they always make decisions based on the manufacturer, firms cited varying reasons including
II‐20