The U.S. International Trade Commission has concluded that mattress imports from seven countries, including Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam, have injured U.S. manufacturers. The case also opens up countervailing duty investigations against Chinese mattress exports. 

This investigation comes after the Oct. 18, 2019, conclusion of an antidumping case regarding Chinese mattresses, as discussed in Panjiva research of Oct. 22, 2019. The case now moves to the Commerce Department to determine the dumping and subsidy margins.

The case has likely been launched as supplies from the target countries have more than exceeded imports from China after the previous antidumping case. 

U.S. imports by value from the target countries surged 1,393.0% year over year in the first quarter of 2020, while Chinese imports dropped 99.0% year over year in the same period. For comparison, imports from NAFTA partners fell by 3.4% while European sources saw some success with a 101.3% year-over-year first-quarter increase in imports.

Panjiva data shows importers that source from the target countries includes Zinus Inc. and Americanstar. Imports associated with Zinus started in the last year, and year-over-year growth in April was 634.7%. That indicates a swift shift away from China, Panjiva's data for imports linked to the firm shows. 

Americanstar is associated with a longer history of imports but still saw a 179.3% year-over-year uptick in imports from the listed countries in the three months to April 30.

Eric Oak is a researcher at Panjiva, which is a business line of S&P Global Market Intelligence, a division of S&P Global Inc. This content does not constitute investment advice, and the views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Links are current at the time of publication. S&P Global Market Intelligence is not responsible if those links are unavailable later.