Chinese producer eyes U.S. market
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, February 16, 2003
Shanghai, China — The Eurasia Mattress & Furniture Co., the largest producer of bedding in China, would like to ship its Western-style bedding to the United States.
The company currently devotes 90% of its production to meeting the needs of the Chinese market. Shipments to other countries account for the remainder, with Australia its biggest export market. Eurasia Mattress has been exporting for the past 10 years.
At the Furniture China 2002 show here last fall, the company displayed a number of Western-style beds that officials said would be suitable for American consumers.
Lilian Lai, a member of the company's foreign trade section, sat on a bed she estimated would retail for $699 in the United States. "This mattress is very suitable for the U.S.," she said. "It would be popular."
Whether that turns out to be true is an open question. U.S. bedding producers and veteran observers of the international bedding scene say Chinese bedding producers face a number of challenges in successfully selling finished bedding — probably just mattresses at this point — in the United States (see accompanying story below).
Shipping costs are a big issue. Finished beds are bulky and thus relatively expensive to ship.
A small number of beds made in China are shipped to the United States now, mostly for Asian-American consumers who want to stick with Chinese-style bedding, which is much firmer than the bedding most Americans want.
Lai said she would be interested in finding an agent to distribute her company's products in the United States.
Some of the beds produced by Eurasia Mattress feature such Western-style elements as wool cushioning, Belgian damasks, conventional innerspring units and pillowtop construction. But some of the beds it exhibited at the Shanghai show would be too firm for U.S. consumers, Lai said.
Eurasia operates under the name of the Symbol Group (no relation to Symbol Mattress in the United States). That group said it's devoted to expanding its mattress market "at home and overseas."
While finished beds from China have yet to make inroads in the U.S. market, bedding components are a different story. Chinese-made innersprings already are being shipped to the United States, a development that concerns members of American Innerspring Manufacturers, an industry group.
Arthur Grehan, AIM's executive director, said his members are concerned about the "rapid increase" in imports of Chinese springs, and feel that has resulted in an uneven playing field.
Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri introduced legislation in Congress last year that would add tariffs to certain helical spring products and mattress supports. No action was taken on the bill in the last Congress, so the bill will have to be reintroduced for consideration this year, Grehan said. It's expected the legislation will apply to finished beds made in China.
Imports of Chinese mattress ticking also could be on the way.
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