2024 Top 100 Importers & Exporters

Toy importers returning to pre-pandemic ordering patterns

By Eric Johnson

Toy importers are resuming more normal seasonal ordering patterns this year after a brutal inventory surplus in 2023 caused ocean-borne volumes to fall at a much faster rate than sales .

Bellwether toy manufacturers Hasbro and Mattel said in first-quarter earnings reports that inventories have turned a corner from the dark days of 2023 , when retailers struggled to sell excess stock

Toys and games

IMPORTS

983,702 TEUs

↓21.6 %

Change from 2022

↓0.8 %

5-year compound annual growth rate

Mattel ordered during and just after the COVID-19 pandemic , resulting in a significant decline in imports .

Containerized imports of toys and games to the US dropped 21.6 % year over year to 983,702 TEUs in 2023 , bringing volumes 3.9 % below 2019 levels , according to PIERS , a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S & P Global .

By contrast , US retail toy sales generated $ 28 billion last year , an 8 % decrease from 2022 but a 26 % increase from 2019 , according to data from Circana ’ s US Retail Tracking Service , a clear signal that retailers were overstocked for much of 2023 .

“ We began Q1 with inventories at multiyear lows , down over 50 % from the prior year ,” Christian Cocks , CEO of Hasbro , said during the company ’ s first-quarter earnings call April 24 .

Hasbro CFO Gina Goetter added that though the company expects “ inventory days to increase over the next couple of quarters in line with normal business seasonality , we are still planning for total owned inventory levels to finish the year relatively flat versus 2023 .”

Toy imports trending higher following deep 2023 decline

Monthly containerized US toy imports , in laden TEUs , with year-over-year percentage change

TEU volume

Source : PIERS , S & P Global

A steep rise and fall in toy imports the past three years has done little to change China ’ s position as the dominant source . Shutterstock . com

40 %

20 %

0 % -100% -20%

-40 %

-60 %

-80 %

Ynon Kreiz , CEO of Mattel , said market conditions have improved , but he noted that the company still had inventory to work through coming into 2024 .

“ We came into 2023 with levels elevated , and we guided a three- to four-point impact ,” Kreiz said during an April 4 first-quarter earnings call . “ We made great progress in 2023 , but we still ended the year with retail inventory slightly elevated . So , the impact in 2024 is significantly less of a negative and , therefore , a tailwind with respect to gross billings .” Kreiz said Mattel ’ s orders would fall into a more normal pattern in 2024 , with roughly one-third coming in the first half of the year and the remaining two-thirds in the second half . In the first quarter , toy and game imports jumped 24.3 % from the same three-month period of 2023 , according to PIERS .

Volatility in toy import volumes over the past three years — shipments surged 23.8 % year over year in 2021 before falling 3.8 % and 21.6 %, respectively , in 2022 and

Year-over-year % change

© 2024 S & P Global

“ We made great progress in 2023 , but we still ended the year with retail inventory slightly elevated .”

36 Journal of Commerce | May 20 , 2024 www . joc . com