USA NATURAL STONE MARKET TRENDS AND FORECAST

The paper presents results of the research about nowadays trends and forecasts in the USA natural stone market. After analyzing recent reports, articles and statistics in the natural stone and design industries, it was possible for me to find some essential drifts in the US’s, as one of the biggest importers, demand. The most significant one is the change of the number one market material from granite to quartz. Moreover, it is possible to use engineered quartz to replicate many other natural stone patterns, which leads to the greater request for quarts all over the world. Other reason of involving quartz more into the industry is the ability of using new textured surfaces like matte, honed, leathered, and cement-like and others – quartz fabricators are now providing a unique style of their products beside the traditional polished finish. As for color palette, homeowners prefer natural and realistic looks of the neutral colors often with a twist: sprawling thin white and light grey veins. Which is an inverse to the bold, dark veins, which are present in many of the quartz patterns, which flooded the market in past years. Stone integrated sinks are also a new fashion in countertops market. Popular in recent years subway tile backsplash kitchen is still in favor, though with a few added points such as multi-colored tiles or bigger size subway tiles. Although the countertop and the backsplash are quite different in styles, they are complementing each other surprisingly well in the newer designs. The key point is to put the countertop tones down to highlight the backsplash. Landscaping products market demand did not get many changes in styles. However, the request for the last year trend products keeps rising and is not expected to fall these years