Granite war being waged on Bloor St.
Near the northwest corner of Bloor and Church Sts., there are wooden pallets laden with two types of granite, all of it precision-cut into sidewalk pavers, curbs and the parts needed to fashion planters and seats.
A little forklift ferries the occasional pallet further west, where workers are busy slathering the underside of pavers with cement, then laying them down on compacted sand, widening the sidewalk on this stretch of Bloor by several metres.
The granite – named Atlantic Black and Atlantic Grey – was quarried and finished in Quebec. But it nearly came from a seemingly unlikely source: China.
In what amounts to a coals-to-Newcastle yarn of astonishing proportions, granite cut and finished in China has recently taken the lion’s share of the Toronto construction market, whether it’s for pavers, tiles, wall cladding or the countertops in highrise condominiums.
Those in the Canadian industry like to joke that granite quarried in China comes in three colours – grey, grey and grey. But most of the granite materials produced by Chinese companies began as massive blocks of brightly coloured granite that were quarried elsewhere, in Brazil, South Africa and sometimes even Canada.
This stretch of Bloor might also have been paved in granite from China were it not for the pique of Radovan Kovacevic, whose Interex Marble Ltd. represents Quebec’s A. Lacroix et Fils Granit Ltee.
It’s not just that Kovacevic had already lost too many bidding wars to those supplying Chinese granite. He calls this neighbourhood home.
"I live here and I said, `I’m in this business and I’m not going to wake up in the morning and go on the street and see Chinese (granite),’" he says. "I wouldn’t even walk on Bloor St."
To win the contract, Kovacevic says he essentially surrendered all of his profit and relied on Lacroix’s reputation for quality and fast service. Forget that much of Canada sits on granite, not least the great Canadian Shield that’s never far from the surface in the eastern half of the country. It’s about cost, the hard place where "buy local" slogans collide with an unforgiving market, even in the unlikely realm of granite.
Production costs are so low, and Chinese government assistance so generous, that Chinese firms can afford to buy granite from halfway around the world, ship it home, cut it into finished pieces, ship it back around the globe and still sell the resulting product for at least 40 per cent less than comparable granite manufactured here.
"The Chinese are coming in and they’re cutting us here, there," says Kovacevic cheap payday loans. "I don’t know what the future is going to look like. Probably not very good."
Neither Statistics Canada nor the Terrazzo, Tile & Marble Association of Canada tracks the market for granite used in construction. But those in the industry say low-price granite finished in China has become increasingly dominant in the last couple of years.
"I’ve been around the block a few times and I’ve never seen it like this," says Carlo Onorati, vice-president and part owner of the Toronto installation firm, Terrazzo Mosaic & Tile Co. Ltd. (TMT).
His company recently redid the 5,000-square-foot floor of the concourse at the Royal Bank’s downtown Toronto headquarters. The granite was originally quarried in Sardinia but cut and finished in China. TMT bought it through Toronto’s Olympia Tile International Inc. for roughly $5 a square foot.
Had TMT used domestically produced granite, it would have cost about $8.25.
"Obviously, I would have preferred not to (buy from China), but economics dictates sometimes," says Onorati. "That’s the way it’s gotta go."
There are exceptions, often when the architects are insistent on their choice of stone – and get their way.
At the new municipal offices in Vaughan, for instance, TMT is installing Algonquin Limestone from the Bruce Peninsula along with Atlantic Black and Kodiak Brown granite from Quebec.
Such projects resonate with hope for the likes of Claude Lacroix, president of A. Lacroix et Fils, now in its third generation in the Quebec granite business.
"I think we will survive because we have an advantage," he says. "We are a local supplier and we can supply within 24 hours. Whenever there is a broken stone or anything, we can still give the best service to all of our customers.
"Where we lose more is in the tile and the thin work," he adds. "That’s where they are really strong."
Onorati can see the attraction of Chinese granite for developers installing hundreds of, say, countertops. "If I’m doing a thousand condos a year and I can pick up $300 (in cost savings per unit)? It’s money.
"Stone is stone," he says. "(The developer) doesn’t care if it’s manufactured in Toronto or Timbuktu. At the end of the day, he’s got a budget to work to."
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