Radio Stone Update

U.S. Hard-Surface Imports Up; Caesarstone Adds Porcelain Producer; more.

September 08, 2020 Stone Update Season 1 Episode 9
Radio Stone Update
U.S. Hard-Surface Imports Up; Caesarstone Adds Porcelain Producer; more.
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

U.S. hard-surface imports make a major step up in their own COVID-19 recovery; Caesarstone buys a majority share in a porcelain-slab plant; NSF's new standards need your attention; and more.

Caesarstone Buys Lioli Majority Share
https://www.stoneupdate.com/news-info/company-insider/1919-caesarstone-buying-porcelain-slab-producer

Natural Stone Update Virtual Stone Summit
 
https://www.stoneworld.com/stone-industry-education/september

KBIS Moving Ahead, Opens Registration for February Show
https://kbis.com/

Marmomac Firms Up 2020 Online Event
https://www.marmomac.com/en/home-english/

NSF and “Solid Surface” Standards
http://magazine.stonemag.com/summer-2020/summer2019-perspectives/

Hurricane Laura Wrecks Repaired Marble
https://www.therecordlive.com/story/2020/09/02/news/laura-wrecks-courthouse-marble-again/29304.html

Radio Stone Update is presented on the first and third Wednesdays every month at 9 a.m. everywhere on Earth with the latest news and insights in hard surfaces. Check our archives at www.radiostoneupdate.com.

K. SCHIPPER: Hi, I’m K. Schipper with the latest from Radio Stone Update

 In news out of Israel, Caesarstone Limited announces it will augment its quartz-surfaces production by taking a majority-stake position in Lioli Ceramica Private Limited. The deal, for approximately $12 million in cash and assumption of debt of Lioli, represents a total value $34 million including a possible $10 million in additional considerations. 

 Lioli operates a fully automated slab-production factory in Morbi, India. Lioli incorporated in 2016 and opened its Morbi factory two years later following an investment of €30 million in a one-million square-meter plant. The facility utilizes Italian technology and the company claimed it can product more than 100,000 ft² of product a day. Annual revenue is reported to be approximately $18 million.

Operating under the TechnoSLAB brand name, products from Lioli come in 75 designs in sizes up to 10.5’ X 5.2’, and thicknesses from 4mm to 1.2cm. The company has been exporting to the Middle East, Brazil and Mexico. 

Caesarstone is traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol CSTE.

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The Natural Stone Institute will bring back its popular Stone Summit series next week – but instead of going on the road, the sessions are going online.

The first two-day summit starts on September Sixteenth, or a week from today. Eric Tryon, the retired CEO of Premier Surfaces, will head up the program entitled Key Pulse Points for Building a Successful Stone Fabrication Business: Bring Order to the Chaos. 

The first day, with the theme Building Your Shop and Efficiency, will focus on team building, benchmarking a business, and lean manufacturing. The second day, called Inspiring Your Team and Driving Growth, centers on sales and company growth, and how to evaluate and drive success.

The sessions will start at 11 a.m Eastern Daylight time on both days and end at approximately 12:25 p.m. 

After the program on Sept. 16, the Stone Summit Virtual Trade Show will begin, where attendees can click to visit online show booths and see virtual product demonstrations from 15 different vendors. Any attendee visiting at least one virtual booth will receive a $5 Starbucks gift card, with other prizes available for multiple-booth visits.

Registration for next week’s Virtual Stone Summit is free to all fabricators, suppliers and distributors and available in the URL that’s included in this broadcast’s notes. You’ll need to register separately for each day you plan to attend.

The National Stone Institute will hold Virtual Stone Summits monthly through next February. Check the Agenda page of the latest edition of Stone Update Magazine at magazine,stonemag.com. 

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Registration is now open for KBIS 2021, and the National Kitchen and Bath Association – NKBA --  would like to make you an offer you can’t refuse. 

 While KBIS – the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show – isn’t slated to open its doors until Feb 9-11, NKBA members registering this month can get into the expo for free. Non-members can register for the expo only for $50. And, you can bring your spouse or significant other at no cost.

 Of course, NKBA is offering much more than just its expo. The 2021 conference will feature VFTI 2.0, otherwise known as Voices from the Industry. The new format includes one-hour presentations, 90-minute workshops and two-hour professional development courses and featured speakers, all at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

 In all, a total of 60 education sessions in six different categories will be offered. And, you can save $100 when you register in September. Registration also includes access to the virtual experience. To register, or for more information go to www.kbis.com.

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Meanwhile, the virtual edition of one of the world’s leading stone industry trade fairs is gearing up to launch Sept. 30. Marmomac Restart Digital will welcome the international stone community to three days of meetings, networking, B2B and events – all within a shared online platform.  Initial previews of the schedule and the Marmomac Academy program will be available beginning Sept. 10.

Marmomac Restart Digital is designed to ensure immediate and intuitive interaction between exhibitors and visitors. The focus will be on networking with the possibility of organizing meetings, interviews or full-scale presentations. Companies taking part will be able to create their own profiles, activate sales forces and upload projects and products in detailed, virtual catalogues. After Sept. 10, registered visitors will also be able to request appointments and contacts with companies and take part in training sessions. 

 The platform will also welcome many events organized by the Marmomac Academy. The education project is expended this year and is intended for architects, designers and companies to improve their knowledge of natural stone products and related issues. For more information go to www.marmomac.com.

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EMERSON SCHWARTZKOPF: This is Emerson Schwarzkopf, editor of Stone Update. U. S. hard-surface imports stayed on the comeback trail in July, according to data from the federal International Trade Commission and analysis by Hard-Surface Report Magazine.

The $329.5 million of hard-surface shipments to the United States in July marked a 33.1% increase from the previous month, with every category of natural-stone and man-mate materials growing by double-digits. Marble made the best gain, moving up by slightly more than half to $43.8 million. The largest sector overall – quartz slab – tallied a month-to-month growth in July of 36.8% at $89.7 million.

The apparent recovery from the coronavirus slowdown, however, isn’t permanent. Fluctuating infection rates in major hard-surface exporting countries to the United States and changes in domestic demand for building and remodeling may slow the uptick in shipments. 

And, all hard-surface categories still run far behind last year’s pace. This July’s $329.5 million in imports trails totals from July 2019 by 18.5 %.

You’ll find out much more with the new edition of Hard-Surface Report that goes online at the end of the week. Watch your inbox at 9 a.m. on Friday for details.

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K. SCHIPPER: We’re going to be hearing a lot about industry standards in the years ahead as organizations representing both natural stone and quartz surfaces take part in worldwide efforts to develop standards in both categories through the International Standards Organization, or ISO.

However, the old adage of “buyer beware” has already fallen by the wayside as the evolution of product liability law is holding sellers substantially accountable, one organization has already developed standards and provides third-party certification that tests and certifies products. 

Paul “Max” Le Pera writes in the current issue of Stone Update Magazine about the efforts of NSF International – formerly the National Sanitation Foundation – to facilitate the development of standard while providing accredited third party certification that tests and certifies products.

With a main goal of protecting public health, N-S-F has verified a range of hard-surface products, including engineered stone and quartz/resin materials, are food safe and hygienically designed to raise the confidence level of buyers. 

For a more in-depth look at how NSF International is able to safeguard consumers with its standards, including improving public health, take a look at Le Pera’s perspective in the newest issue of Stone Update, available at magazine.stonemag.com

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And, if you think you’ve got problems, just talk to the people in Orange, Texas. The community is the county seat of Orange County, and bore the brunt of Hurricane Laura, which packed one of the strongest punches of any hurricane to roll onshore in recent years. 

One of the storm’s victims is the Orange County Courthouse, which had hunks of marble blown off its front façade. The danger of falling marble is nothing new to the community; the courthouse entrance was covered for four years by yellow caution tape and a three-story scaffold after marble first fell off the façade five years ago. 

The courthouse entrance is on the Register of Texas Historic Places and the county commissioners court spent more than three years trying to find someone else – such as FEMA or the Texas Historical Commission --to pay much of the two-hundred -thousand dollar bill for repairs after 2015. 

Red tape and restrictions on future alternations finally helped county officials decide to pay the tab themselves, and the work was completed just a little more than a year ago – in early August of twenty-nineteen. Now the county is back to square one with its courthouse entrance.

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I’m K. Schipper for Radio Stone Update, and we’ll see you here again soon.

 

Caesarstone Gets Majority Share of Porcelain-Slab Producer
Natural Stone Institute Virtual Stone Summit: Sept. 16
KBIS 2021 Registration Opens
U.S. Hard-Surface Imports Rise in July
Marmomac Restart 2020 Gears Up
New NSF Standards: A Perspective
Hurricane Laura Rips Repaired Marble