Ceramic tile shipments of the United States 2010-2020

In 2020, the U.S. shipments of ceramic tile amounted to some 902 million square feet.

The ceramic manufacturing process

Ceramics are manufactured through the heating and cooling process of an inorganic, nonmetallic solid. This material originated over 37,000 years ago, often used as pottery or for decorative objects. Certain industrial waste materials such as sludge from crushing gneiss or from cutting and polishing varvite can be used in the manufacturing of ceramic tiles, instead of raw materials. Using waste to fabricate new materials can provide a new economic opportunity for the ceramic industry.

U.S. ceramic tile shipments

The volume of ceramic tile shipments in the United States has increased over the last years from 571 million square feet in 2009 to a high of 990 million square feet in 2017. Shipments have decreased somewhat in the past few years since then, but remain stable. An increase in demand for ceramic tiles is often tightly linked to increases in construction activities and construction of new homes. Indeed, similar to the slight fluctuations in ceramic tile shipments, U.S. consumption of ceramic tiles has decreased slightly over the past few years but remained stable.

U.S. imports of ceramic tiles

The United States imports a large majority of its ceramic tiles from Italy and Spain, and in 2020, the total value of tiles imported to the U.S. reached 629 million U.S. dollars and 469 million U.S. dollars, respectively from those two countries. The total value of U.S. ceramic tile imports that year was more than two billion U.S. dollars. By quantity, however, the U.S. imported the most ceramic tiles from Spain and Mexico, at 407 million square feet and 335 million square feet, respectively.