Each May, Stone World publishes the year-end import and export statistics for natural stone from the U.S. Department of Commerce. In an industry that does not record many statistics, these import totals are one of the best barometers of how the U.S. stone industry is doing. Up until 2006 or so, this report was more or less a “celebration” of the unprecedented growth in our industry. Each year during that Golden Era, I would eagerly plug the numbers into my calculator, compare them with the year before, and pronounce, “We grew another 20% (or more) last year, folks! Now go out and buy yourself a CNC. Expand your warehouse. Take more ads in Stone World.”
And then, of course, the second half of the decade came. In 2007, we saw a slight dip, and the decline became more pronounced in the years that followed. We ultimately hit