W. Christopher Wellborn
President and Chief Operating Officer at Mohawk Industries
Thank you, Jim. In Global Ceramic, competition in our markets remains intense as decreased industry utilization continues to impact prices. During the quarter, the segment's margins expanded due to increased productivity, while lower material and energy costs offset labor and freight inflation. In addition to our restructuring projects, we are executing many cost containment initiatives across the segment including product reformulations, process enhancements, and improved administrative efficiencies.
To grow sales and enhance our mix, we are leveraging industry-leading printing, polishing, and rectifying technology to deliver floor and wall tile collections with differentiated visuals. The U.S. Department of Commerce expects the preliminary anti-dumping decision relative to ceramic tile from India to be rendered in November '24, with tariffs potentially retroactive to August '24. Other ceramic markets are at various stages of pursuing similar anti-dumping actions against Indian manufacturers. In the U.S., we increased our partnership with builders by providing a complete product offering with superior service.
As the commercial sector has begun to slow, we are focusing on the education, healthcare, and hospitality channels which were expected to be more active in 2025. Our domestically produced quartz countertops are outperforming other work surfaces, and we will start up our new production line next year as the market strengthens.
In Europe, our volumes exceeded the prior year even as market demand remained soft. Pricing pressures remained a headwind partially offset by product mix from advanced technologies and expanded participation in the commercial channel.
In Latin America, the Mexican central bank lowered rates in September and is expected to make further cuts this year. In Brazil, the central bank has cut rates multiple times and is monitoring inflation to determine its next step. We have announced targeted price increases in Mexico and volume in Brazil has begun to strengthen. In both markets, we are implementing sales and operational improvements, introducing updated collections and expanding our distribution to improve our results.
This year, our Flooring Rest of the World segment did not see its usual sales improvement in Europe after the summer holidays due to continued weakness in the economy. After six quarters of declines, European building permits have recently increased and the job market remained strong with record employment levels. Last month, the European central bank reduced its key interest rate by an additional 25 basis points to 3.25% as inflation further slowed.
In response to current conditions, we are reducing operational and administrative costs, simplifying SKU complexity, and enhancing logistics operations. To optimize volumes, we executed promotional activities which pressured both our pricing and mix partially offset by lower input costs. We are increasing consumer advertising for our premium laminate products to boost traffic for our retail customers.
In slowing markets, our insulation and panels business faced increased competition as new industry capacity came online impacting pricing. In Australia and New Zealand, we improved pricing and mix in our carpet collections, though volumes remained under pressure. Our operations delivered productivity gains with improved efficiencies across the business. The New Zealand central bank recently cut rates 50 basis points to stimulate their economy.
In our Flooring North America segment, we believe we're outperforming the overall market in a difficult environment with sales and margins improving over the prior year and increased volume partially offset by lower pricing and mix. Our margins benefited from lower raw material costs, restructuring projects, and productivity gains in our manufacturing, administrative, and sales operations. With existing home sales at multi-decade lows, residential remodeling remains under significant pressure. We are retiring high-cost equipment and exiting underperforming product categories, while investing in capital projects that have short paybacks. We continue to improve our participation in the homebuilder channel with our comprehensive product offering.
We are supporting our residential product launches with marketing initiatives to connect consumers with our retail partners. While overall U.S. home sales are down, higher-income consumers are purchasing our premium products. Sales of our value-oriented carpet collections are also improving, building on the success of our leading polyester offering. Our LVT and laminate collections delivered sales growth as consumers embraced our new introductions with enhanced performance features. We continue to deliver product innovation with a new resilient plank flooring technology that is environmentally-friendly and provides greater stability and performance.
Our commercial sales were led by our carpet tile collections that offer industry-leading sustainability and award-winning designs inspired by nature. Our results also benefited from increased sales of flooring accessories that coordinate with our hard surface products. We continue to pursue additional opportunities in the hospitality channel, which has shown more resilience in the current environment.
Now I'll return the call to Jeff for closing remarks.
