A look at the U.S. stone industry

The U.S. stone industry is not immune to the global economic downturn. A spot survey of Marble Institute members suggests that nearly all of our member companies have experienced a dip in their business, which has forced most companies to tighten their belts. In fact, nearly three out of four members surveyed told us they have delayed capital investments like new machinery purchases. Many have also been forced to reduce staff.Gary Distelhorst: Not surprisingly, nearly four out of 10 members we surveyed suggested that machinery manufacturers can help the industry by lowering costs of their equipment. But we thought it was interesting that 14 percent told us that machinery manufacturers could help the industry by providing financing for equipment purchases – and another 11 percent said machinery manufacturers should focus on making equipment more efficient.Gary Distelhorst: From the vantage point of the U.S. fabrication industry, it appears that the better machinery manufacturers are taking advantage of the downturn by improving machinery technology, offering better training, and are not flooding the market used heavy-handed sales tactics. Some U.S. manufacturers are aggressively trying to get the glut of used machinery out of the marketplace by actually trying to facilitate sales of such machinery.
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