Those of you who have known me for a while know that when I'm not playing piano I'm an attorney practicing customs law and international trade regulation. Today I had to update my account that gets me access to import trade data from the government, and I needed to make sure it was working, so as my donation to the forum (as I have done in the past) I will answer the question on everyone's mind:

How many pianos longer than 195.58 cm (6' 5") have been imported into the U.S. so far this year, and what countries did they come from? Here you go ...

Japan 15
Austria 11
China 10
Italy 9
Estonia 5
Germany 5
Poland 4
Indonesia 2

Sorting by value would, of course, shuffle these rankings. Only four months of data, so the results depend heavily on who shipped what when. I should have gone back and done a 2018 complete year, but that'll have to wait for another time. Gotta get back to work.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Larry.

That seems unbelievable small to me. Between Yamaha and Kawai only 15 grands larger than 6'5" were imported to the U.S. so far? If that rate continued that's only about 240 pianos that size per year. I would have guessed that Yamaha alone would have imported 500-1000 per year, not that I have anything to base that number on.

Can any dealers verify that these figures seem reasonable?

+1. It makes me wonder if there's any seasonality involved. Do concert venues have an off-season in the summer when they do their capex? Do residential buyers wait for good weather? So, another question for the dealers: Is your business at all seasonal? If so, when are the busy and slow times of year?

Do these (seemingly low) statistics include dealer imports, or do these figures indicate private, individual imports only?

Regards,

OK, I had to know, and pianoloverus does too. So here are the numbers reported for all of 2018. Note that a few of the listings remind us that sometimes people do not correctly report the country of origin:

Japan 188
Italy 86
Germany 72
Poland 62
China 47
Austria 30
Czech Rep 12
Estonia 12
Indonesia 9
Spain 9
Gabon 6
UK 3
Hong Kong 1
Total 537

All imports.

Larry.

Thanks, is it too much trouble to get the figures for all size grands for 2018?

Poland? UK?

This must include restored pianos, right?

That's my assumption as well. There's actually a separate subcategory for used grands, but I can see how there could be a difference of opinion as to whether a rebuilt piano should be categorized as a new or a used piano. I don't have a piano manufacturer, rebuilder, or importer as a client, so I've never had to look further into the question.

Larry.

Some thoughts:

1. I think vast majority of grands sold in the US are less than 6.5". A dealer near me received many Samick and Weber pianos (from Korea), but none of them would appear on this list.

2. Who knew Fazioli's were so popular in the US?

3. Poland? Maybe these are the rumored "Polish restored Steinways" mentioned here at PW.

One number per country isn't too much trouble:

Japan 3,159
Indonesia 3,044
China 2,323
Germany 442
Italy 211
Estonia 80
Poland 62
Austria 47
Czech Rep 30
Hong Kong 15
UK 11
Spain 9
Gabon 6
France 4
Luxembourg 2
Mexico 1
Total 9,446

The statistics are actually kept by size category:

less than 152.40 (5' 0")
152.40 or more but less than 167.64 (5' 6")
167.64 or more but less than 180.34 (5' 11")
180.34 or more but less than 195.58 (6' 5")
195.58 or more

But that's enough for today!

Larry.

Who knew Indonesian pianos were so popular. Listening to some members here, Indonesian pianos are no better than the worst Chinese. Guess not!

And clearly Boesendorfer sells more large pianos than small ones. Wonder why

No Korean pianos on the numbers provided by iLaw either. Weird.

Schulze Pollmann is Italian too.

Or Irmlers. Irmler is to Blüthner what Hoffmann is to Bechstein: A cheaper brand made in eastern central Europe. Irmlers are made in Poland AFAIK.

How are Hamburg Steinways treatened in that statistic?

1- Import, because coming from Germany?

2- US, because coming from an US comp?

I would imagine it would be a German import.

AFAIK, there are very few Hamburg Steinways in the US.

What would be a rough estimate for the average price of a 6'5"+ piano? I'd guess somewhere in the $50,000-$100,000 range. Depending on where it lands that's somewhere between 1/2 billion and a billion dollars of piano. Not too shabby.

I think Schulze Pollman and Irmler are pretty rare in the states, at least where I am. During my shopping, I must have seen more than a hundred pianos, and zero Schulz Pollman and Irmler. Plenty of Checkerings, though

Is Boesendorfer the only Austrian piano company (that makes grands)? When we bought ours in 1985, they made several times as many grands as uprights. Also according to their website, they make 5 models larger than 6' 5" and only three models smaller, including the very new 155. Again according to their website they make fewer than 300 instruments a year.

The import value would be the invoice price to the dealer, not the sticker price to the end consumer.

Both Feurich and Brodmann are Austrian companies, and both make grand pianos. But I believe Feurich only makes one upright model in Austria, and their grand pianos are made in China, and Brodmann make pianos in China and Germany, but not in Austria.