Orlando, Fla.—Coverings 2025 was held here April 29-May 2 at the Orange County Convention center where it celebrated its 35th edition. This year, 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries converged on the show floor with high-fashion booth designs showcasing new, trend-forward product launches.
After 35 years, show management said the show still brews excitement. “We’re so lucky to be around for so many years, and it’s grown and flourished and that’s in part due to support not just from organizations that put it on but from the exhibitors and the long-time attendees,” Jamie Rich, Coverings show director, told FCNews. “And it’s so cool when you talk to an attendee who tells you about their first show in the 1990s and how they are still so energized and excited to come. So we’re very fortunate in that sense to have such loyal supporters of the show.”
While official counts are still pending Rich said attendance was strong for Coverings 2025. “I think people are really excited to get together and connect. My biggest indicator is when I go to the show floor and I have a hard time getting to a booth because there are crowds or I’m trying to check in with an exhibitor and I have to wait because they’re so busy—that’s always a great indicator to me. As well as when there’s that buzz on the show floor that’s hard to put into words, that feeling of the energy and excitement of people getting together and connecting.”
Rich also noted that signups for next year’s event is a great indicator of the success of the show as well as attendance, and signups (by day 2) were already well ahead of expectations. “If they weren’t happy with this year’s show, they wouldn’t be doing that, but the sales office has been busy, they’re signing up exhibitors for 2026, so that’s a really great sign,” she noted.
There were several new activations at Coverings 2025 that Rich said brought value to the 2025 event. One was the additional of new Spanish-language opportunities. “We’ve added some sessions and experiences in Spanish this year, which has been really well received,” Rich explained. “We want Coverings to be a place where everyone feels welcome and included. We have such a diverse group of people at Coverings, so we thought it was important to add Spanish language content. We’ve translated all of our audio tours into Spanish, we have Spanish sessions and one of our contractor tour is now in Spanish. We’re really trying to make sure everyone has access the important educational opportunities available here.”
Another newer activation was the Galvanized lounge, which was launched in 2024 and brought back for this year’s event. “It’s a gathering place for anyone in the industry that wants to connect, and it’s a great place for them to gather,” Rich explained. “We brought it back again this year and it’s so inspirational to go into that lounge and see those connections being made.”
TCNA discusses tile market
The Tile Council of North America (TCNA) held its annual press conference on Wednesday, April 30 at Coverings 2025 where TCNA executive director, Eric Astrachan, spoke to attendees about the state of the U.S. ceramic tile market.
According to Astrachan, the tile market contracted for the third consecutive year in 2024. “This is really largely due to issues in the residential market,” Ashtrachan said. “The tile industry is very tightly correlated with the residential housing market and as you know it is a problem today in America that there is a distinct shortage of housing.”
According to the TCNA, U.S. ceramic tile consumption in 2024 was 2.7 billion square feet, down 5.1% from the previous year. In terms of dollars it was $3.79 billion, which is down 6.6% from 2023. “What that means is that value of imported tile has continued to go down,” Ashtrachan explained.
By volume, imports also declined for the third straight year. There were almost 2 billion square feet of tile imported last year, down 3.5% from 2023. Imports comprised 71.5% of U.S. tile consumption. So more than two thirds of tile consumed in America comes from overseas, and this is slightly up from 70.2% the previous year.
In terms of ceramic imports from southeast Asia, Vietnam grew 37% while Malaysia grew almost 100%. “We are starting to see some movement of people who are looking to bring low-cost tile moving from India to places like Vietnam and Malaysia, though I think that trend will reverse itself in 2025 and 2026,” Ashtrachan said.
By value, imports in 2024 were $2.4 billion, which was down 5.6%. “In value, imports went down more than it did in square feet, which means that the prices of imports have gone down,” he noted.
In terms of U.S. shipments, U.S. manufacturers shipped 769 million square feet in 2024, 9.1% decrease from the prior year and the lowest total since 2013. By value, sales were 1.37 billion, an 8.4% decrease. U.S. tile went up very slightly in value. The cost went from $1.79 from $1.77.
“Even with this decline in U.S. shipments, the volume is still much higher than the shares of the other individual countries,” Ashtrachan explained. “The next highest share after the U.S. belongs to India with 14.6% of total consumption. Overall, domestic production declined more in square feet than in dollars, reflecting a small price increase in domestic shipments, which if you think about it makes sense given the inflation we have seen in the last few years. Imports have declined more in dollars than in square feet reflecting a decrease in selling price of imports. So this has put tremendous pressure on domestic producers from very, very low-priced imports. Hence the reason that the domestic industry launched an anti-dumping/anti-subsidy on imports from India, unfortunately the department of commerce did not agree with us.”
Another major announcement from Astrachan at Coverings 2025 was that the Trump Administration has frozen the $2.2 million awarded in grants to the organization for EPD development, improvement of standards and the development of data delivery software.
It still remains one of only 21 of the original 42 organizations awarded grants in this area, but no new information is forthcoming. “We haven’t been cut yet, but the EPA can’t tell us why we remain and others were cut,” Ashtrachan said. “They can’t tell us if it’s coming back. They can’t even tell us if the people we’re talking to today will have jobs tomorrow. Just that there are a lot of unhappiness and tears at the agency. But what that means for the tile industry is that without support for U.S. manufacturing they are at a competitive disadvantage. Also, this lack of federal funding, lack of oversight, lack of regulation means that state efforts are starting to develop. On one hand it’s good but also means 50 different initiatives for 50 different states and how does that possibly work for national manufacturers?”
(Look for more on Coverings 2025 in the May 19 print edition of FCNews.)
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