USITC Staff Report: Quartz Surfaces from India and Turkey staff report USITC | Page 31

Supply and demand considerations
U.S. supply
Table II-3 provides a summary of the supply factors regarding quartz surface products
from U.S. producers and from subject countries. Both U.S. and foreign producers have
increased capacity in response to growing demand for quartz surface products.
Table II-3
Quartz surface products: Supply factors that affect the ability to increase shipments to the U.S.
market
2017 2019 2017 2019 2017 2019
Inventories
as a ratio to
Capacity total
Capacity (1,000 utilization shipments
square feet) (percent) (percent)
Shipments by market
in 2019 (percent)
Home
market
shipments
Exports
to non-
U.S.
markets
Able to
shift to
alternate
products
No. of firms
reporting
“yes”
Item
United
States *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 4 of 6
India *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 0 of 22
Turkey *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 0 of 3
Note: Responding U.S. producers accounted for virtually all of U.S. production of quartz surface products
in 2019. Responding foreign producer/exporter firms accounted for virtually all of U.S. imports of quartz
surface products from India and Turkey during 2019. For additional data on the number of responding
firms and their share of U.S. production and of U.S. imports from each subject country, please refer to
Part I, “Summary Data and Data Sources.”
Source: Compiled from data submitted in response to Commission questionnaires.
Domestic production
Based on available information, U.S. producers of quartz surface products have the
ability to respond to changes in demand with large changes in the quantity of shipments of
U.S.-produced quartz surface products to the U.S. market. The main contributing factors to this
degree of responsiveness of supply are the increased availability of unused capacity, available
inventories, and some ability to shift shipments from alternate markets. Factors mitigating
responsiveness of supply include U.S. slab producers’ limited ability to shift shipments from
alternate products.
U.S. slab producers’ capacity and production of quartz slabs has increased since 2017,
and capacity utilization decreased during 2017-19 as a result of capacity increases outpacing
production increases. The moderate level of capacity utilization suggests that U.S. slab
II-5