Stone Column

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Let’s face it - even in good times, it was tough to really get a firm handle on the growth (or, unfortunately, the decline) of the U.S. stone industry.

Prodim International, manufacturer of revolutionary 2D and 3D portable measurement solutions, presents its latest product, the Proliner 4.

A decade ago, I traveled to the famed Giallo Veneziano quarry in Brazil -- via helicopter -- and immediately counted it among the most interesting places I visited while doing this job. To see an entire mountain of granite being worked by nearly 100 people was a sight I will not forget. 

With fabrication shops working on tighter margins than ever before, many shop managers and owners are eliminating unnecessary cost by increasing efficiency. Recently, I conducted a roundtable on increasing shop efficiency with members of the Stone Fabricators Alliance (SFA), which can be found on page 62 of this issue.

As I walked around two of the major international trade fairs earlier this year - Coverings in the U.S. and the Vitória Stone Fair in Brazil - major exporters were telling me that sales to the American market had decidedly increased for the first quarter of 2010.

Over the past few months, my travels to international trade shows have given me the opportunity to sit down with some of the world’s major stone producers to gauge the current market conditions. Not surprisingly, many of these suppliers are based in Brazil. And for the first time in awhile, their mood is upbeat.

Each May, Stone World publishes the year-end summary of all stone imports into the U.S., which are recorded by the U.S. Department of Commerce. For comparative purposes, we also publish the year-end statistics from a year before. 

Each and every year, the number of deaths and serious injuries caused by improper slab handling is at a point where I am compelled to dedicate an entire column to the subject. Frankly, one death per year is too many, but it has been far more than that, and it appears that this is a subject that continually requires revisiting.

In this job, I spend a lot of time talking to stone industry members. These days, of course, much of the discussion is about the economy, and how soon it will be until we really see a difference out there. It is a tedious, but necessary chore - sort of like brushing your teeth. You do it every day because you need to, but it’s not all that remarkable.

For as long as three years now (depending on where you’re located in the U.S.), most conversations among stone industry members have begun and ended with a discussion of the economy - specifically how bad it is and whether or not it is ever going to recover. And while we have a long road ahead of us until we’re all the way back, all indications are that the worst is behind us.