The U.S. Commerce Department is scheduled to announce its final determinations in the duty investigation of imported mattresses from seven countries targeted under antidumping duties this week.

In October, the Commerce Department announced affirmative preliminary determinations in the antidumping duty investigation on mattresses from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Serbia, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam, and it said those countries had dumped mattresses into the U.S. They accounted for about 90% of total mattress imports in October 2020, a month before the duties went into effect.

If the Commerce Department’s final determinations are affirmative, the U.S. International Trade Commission will be scheduled to make its final injury determinations on or about April 26. If DOC makes affirmative final determinations of dumping and the U.S. ITC makes affirmative final injury determinations, the DOC will issue antidumping orders. And if the Department of Commerce makes negative final determinations of dumping or the U.S. ITC makes negative final determinations of injury, the investigations will be terminated and no orders will be issued.

The petitioners are: Corsicana Mattress Co.; Elite Comfort Solutions; Future Foam;  FXI Inc.; Innocor; Kolcraft Enterprises; Leggett & Platt; International Brotherhood of Teamsters; and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO.

The most recent data from the U.S. ITC show that mattress total mattress imports declined 50% in January. The year-over-year unit decline for January from the seven countries was 69.5% from 890,451 mattresses imported in January 2020 to 271,488 imported in the same month this year. The preliminary antidumping duties went into effect in November, and mattress imports dropped 46% during the month.

In its latest report on mattress imports, Raymond James said, “While we still need a few more months of data before we feel confident that the antidumping duties are working on a permanent basis, the size of year-over-year declines in each of the past three months is very encouraging for the U.S. industry. Furthermore, the fact that all seven countries targeted under the antidumping case showed year-over-year declines in mattresses should indicate production and supply chains are shifting.”

U.S. manufacturers say the antidumping case has had a positive impact on the domestic mattress manufacturing business.

“The bottom line is: We need to have a level playing field. We can’t allow foreign companies to unfairly compete with American manufacturers because they have a price advantage because of government subsidies,” said Robert Naboicheck, president of Gold Bond Mattress Co. “When the playing field is level, American producers do extraordinarily well, and we need to look to the government, which has the power, to regulate that.”

That level playing field is a welcome respite for companies like Mlily USA that has invested heavily in U.S. manufacturing facilities.

“Our U.S.-made products are now more competitively priced compared with imports, partly due to the tariffs and the antidumping duties that recently were enacted,” said Stephen Chen, president of Mlily. “This has made us an even more important vendor to our U.S. dealers, who can still make healthy margins on our products at all price points.”

Segments of the industry — imported roll-pack program and options — have been impacted by the antidumping case, according to Bryan Smith, president and CEO of Southerland.

“The ports are backed up, and delays in shipping continue to complicate that distribution channel,” Smith said. “We have experienced many dealers who have moved to domestically produced alternatives, which creates an advantage for us in the industry.”

As the number of imported mattresses continues to slide, some domestic manufacturers are gearing up for additional growth.

Independent West Coast manufacturer Pleasant Mattress has a number of factory efficiency initiatives underway to boost capacity to meet the needs of retailers looking for alternatives to imported products. CEO Rion Morgenstern said the company will expand capacity by 300 units per shift by summer with modest increases in factory employees

“Importers are in the midst of a perfect storm. They are facing anti-dumping pressure from Washington, seeing the same hikes in raw material pricing like everyone else, and atop that are the logistical challenges and delays in shipping,” Morgenstern said. “On shoring has helped some of them, but generally speaking, the challenges they are facing has slowed their growth in the market. We are preparing for increased domestic demand.”

Gerry Borreggine, president of Therapedic International, said the shift in the sourcing has pushed retailers to find new mattress sources.

“The antidumping case is a good thing for the domestic industry; it just happened at a bad time,” Borreggine said. “Under normal circumstances, U.S. manufacturers have more than sufficient capacity to meet the demand. The case helps eliminate the sub-standard product in the marketplace. Anything that eliminates the $199 queen mattress from the market is a good thing.”

Richard Diamonstein, managing partner of Paramount Sleep, takes it beyond the pricing argument and said the antidumping duties allow U.S. manufacturers to compete more effectively, and when those factories are successful, so, too, are the communities in which they are located.

“Domestic manufacturers have a significant impact on the communities where they are located,” he said. “There’s job creation and growth that allows companies to employ more people that then turn around and invest in the community.”

Source: Furrniture Today