The year 2021 was, for the United States, a year of strong growth and expansion, both in the construction market and in tile consumption and exports.
Wanting to give numbers, let's start withresidential construction.
U.S. GDP rebounded strongly last year (+5.7 percent after contracting in 2020), coupled with lower interest rates and lower unemployment.
All these factors have contributed to a growth in residential construction, despite supply problems and labor shortages on construction sites. By 2021, 1.6 million homes were built (up 15.6 percent from 2020), the highest level since 2006. Among the highest increases at the house type level are single-family dwellings (1.12 million units, +13.4 percent over 2020), accounting for 70.4 percent of the total number of new residential construction sites. Alongside single-family dwellings, there was also a +21.3% increase in multi-family units (472 thousand units).
Forecasts from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) are also positive for 2022 and confirm the growth trend: new residential construction sites are expected to become 1.63 million units in the current year, an increase of 2.5 percent over 2021.
Consumption and export of tiles
Positive data also for consumption and tile exports.
According to data from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and TCNA, 2021 saw a 9.9 percent increase in tile demand over 2020, amounting to 289.2 million sq m.
Positive sign also for domestic production, which reached 85.3 million sq m, +2.2 percent over 2020, of which 81.8 million sq m (+1.5 percent) was sold in the domestic market.
In absolute values, U.S. tile sales in the domestic market provided revenue of $1.36 billion (up 5 percent over 2020), or 35.2 percent of the total value of the U.S. ceramic market.
Relative to revenues generated from exports, these grew from $31.2 million to $40.4 million (+29.8 percent).
Tile imports to the U.S.
As for imports, again the positive sign returns. In 2021, tile imports to the United States reached the highest in 15 years, hitting 207.5 million sq m, up 13.6 percent over 2020.
Among the largest exporting countries to the US are Spain (+21.7 percent, 46 million sq m), Italy (+19.1 percent over 2020, 36 million sq m) and Mexico (+7.3 percent, 33.4 million sq m). Italy is the largest exporter to the US by value.
Other exporting countries are Turkey and Brazil.
