USITC Staff Report: Quartz Surfaces from India and Turkey staff report USITC | Page 141

Net sales Based on table VI-7, U.S. producers reported overall increasing net sales, by quantity and value, from 2017 to 2019. ***. 7 ***. Independent fabricators reported increasing net sales quantity with irregularly declining net sales value from 2017 to 2019. U.S. producers reported irregularly increasing unit net sales value while independent fabricators reported declining unit net sales value from 2017 to 2019. ***. 8 Cost of goods sold and gross profit or (loss) With respect to U.S. producers, the average COGS to net sales ratio ranged from *** percent in 2019 to *** percent in 2018. For independent fabricators, the average COGS to net sales ratio ranged from *** percent in 2017 to *** percent in interim 2018 (see table VI-7). Raw materials Raw material costs represented the largest component of COGS. With respect to U.S. producers, raw material accounted for between *** percent (in 2017) and *** percent (in 2018) of total COGS during the reporting period (see table VI-1). 9 For independent fabricators, 7 Email from ***, March 21, 2020. 8 Email from ***, March 20, 2020. 9 In regards to the final composition mixture of raw materials, Cambria testified that “You start out with general formulas, but {it takes} trial and error to get {an} esthetic you're looking for {along with} the resultant physical chemistry that ensures you still have the durability value in the product, i.e., resistance, sustain, hardness, this type of thing. . . So it does affect the pricing as you manipulate those raw materials, but the variances are disciplined and determined by the performance of the product and so there is a limit to that sway or that drift of raw material formulation.” Conference transcript, pp. 88 (Davis). VI-15