US mattress imports surge almost 40% in H1 2020

Washington, DC – In the first six months of 2020, the US imported 8.8m mattresses, up by 39% on 2019. In June 2020, the monthly import figure flipped firmly back into positive territory, with a 63% increase on the same month in the previous year.

Figures from the US International Trade Commission show the number of imports was down 11% in May, when the US imported 131,000 fewer mattresses than in the same month in 2019.

There has been a considerable change in the origins of imports to the US in the past year, with the share of imports more widely spread among the top-10 exporting nations.

In the first six months of 2019, the top five nations sending mattresses to the US were China, Mexico, Vietnam, Turkey and Indonesia. They accounted for 86% of all imports. 

In the first six months of 2020, not only had the mix changed, with Malaysia and Cambodia replacing China and Mexico in the top five, but only 71% of imports came from this group of countries. 

In 2020, the next five exporting nations made up 23% of 88m mattresses. In contrast, in 2019, the next five exporting nations accounted for 9% of the 6.5m mattresses imported. 

Exports have moved out of China and spread into neighbouring countries. In 2019, Canada, Mexico and Turkey were in the top 10. Now the only non-SEA nations in the top ten exporters are Turkey and Mexico. Thailand has replaced Canada in the list. 

Looking at the most recent month's figures, the largest source of imports to the US in June was Indonesia which provided 326,000 mattresses. Vietnam was second with 304,000 units, Turkey third at 144,000 and Cambodia 135,000. The top five exporting nations to the US sourced 1.03m units of the June total.

In June 2019, the largest sources of mattress imports was China which generated 850,000. Mexico was second with 168,000 units. Poland was third and accounted for 31,500 units. In total, the five largest sources of imports accounted for 1.08m units of imports out of a total of 3.47 m. 

Data is supplied by the US International Trade Commission.