Did the market share of the U.S. ceramic tile industry grow, relative to foreign manufacturers?
The market share of U.S. producers declined in recent years. Foreign manufacturers have added capacity and aggressively pursued the U.S. market due to their need for dollars and slow home-country market conditions. Q: How can U.S. ceramic tile companies take market share from foreign producers? A: They must produce desired products and maintain competitive production costs through automation. Trade barriers must also be reduced (generally non-tariff barriers). Q: Has DalTile’s partnership with Mohawk given them more marketing muscle to seize market share? If so, at whose expense was market share gained — foreign manufacturers or other U.S. producers? A: It is too early to tell how the effect of the Mohawk-DalTile merger will manifest itself. Certainly, they are very large and have multiple opportunities to exploit their size. Q: Who are currently the top U.S. producers of ceramic tile? How much of their sales volume is actually produced in the United States, as opposed to being made i
