Paul Berger of The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. manufacturers say Chinese sellers are dumping cheap bedding in the country, sometimes by shipping through third countries. He writes:
Trade conflicts between the U.S. and China are heading to the bedroom.
Retailers and manufacturers say Chinese companies are flooding American homes with cheap mattresses despite repeated U.S. government efforts to stop them.
They say the mattresses, which can sell in a Queen size for less than $175, are forcing some domestic companies to abandon the entry-level mattress market and to cut jobs. […]
“It’s not possible for us to sell a mattress at retail at that low price” in the U.S., said Frank Chen, chief executive of Sinomax USA, a Chinese mattress company that opened a subsidiary in the U.S. in 2017. The company makes mattresses and sleep accessories at factories in Tennessee and Arizona for retailers including Walmart and Amazon.
Chen said Sinomax focuses on midmarket and upper-tier mattresses because it too can’t compete with the lower-priced, entry-level imports. “The import of cheap mattresses is still happening, but how, I just don’t know exactly,” he said.
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