Importers & Exporters Top 100 2024

2023 — has done little to encourage retailers and manufacturers to diversify their sourcing away from China , which produced 84.7 % of imported toys and games last year , a number that has remained virtually unchanged since 2018 .

But Kreiz said Mattel has moved a significant portion of its sourcing outside of mainland China . “ We are now at 50 % [ sourced from China ] and declining ,” he said . “ It ’ s on the way down . It ’ s not so much about geopolitical risk as such , but more about diversifying our footprint and working in different countries and continuing to optimize our footprint in terms of cost , fulfillment [ and ] services by different suppliers .”

email : eric . johnson @ spglobal . com

US HHG imports await housing recovery after two-year tumble

By William B . Cassidy

A housing market collapse , spurred by inflation and high interest and mortgage rates , hit US household goods ( HHG ) imports like a wrecking ball last year , turning a decline that began in 2022 into a freefall .

Continued inflation and lower turnover rates in the housing market collided with shifting consumer spending patterns as remaining stimulus funds from the COVID-19 containerized imports last year , and underlying demand remaining soft in early 2024 .

“ We ’ ve put processes in place to much better manage the inventories across the whole company ,” Paul A . Huckfeldt , CFO and senior vice president of finance and accounting at Hooker Furnishings , said during the earnings call . “ If sales go up , we ’ ll need more inventory , but I think it ’ s going to be a pretty modest inventory build .”

Slower sales , remodeling activity

Manufacturers and retailers of household items and furnishings had hoped for a recovery in new home construction and sales — a major driver of HHG demand — in

“ If sales go up , we ’ ll need more inventory , but I think it ’ s going to be a pretty modest inventory build .”

pandemic ran dry and Americans spent more on services and entertainment and less on durable goods .

Containerized imports of HHG — a category that includes furniture , appliances and cookware — fell 15.9 % year over year to 4.4 million TEUs in 2023 after a 5.7 % decline in 2022 , according to PIERS , a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S & P Global .

Although that left HHG imports 20.8 % below their 2021 peak of nearly 5.6 million TEUs , volumes were still 13.3 % higher than in pre-pandemic 2019 . The waves of imports that hit US shores during the pandemic pushed HHG imports up 43 % from 2019 through 2021 .

The crash that followed continued to reverberate in 2023 , reshaping the household goods and home furnishings market as supply chain disruptions abated and inventory shortages gave way to gluts , Jeremy Hoff , CEO of Hooker Furnishings , told Wall Street analysts during an April 11 earnings call . The Martinsville , Va . -based furniture manufacturer reduced its inventory by 36 % ($ 35 million ) in 2023 as it adjusted to the sluggish housing market and a shift of discretionary consumer spending away from household goods and home furnishings .

That trend played out across the HHG sector , with slower sales and inventory cutbacks reducing the need for

US HHG imports jumped 27.9 % in Q1 2024 after falling 15.9 % for the year in 2023 and 5.7 % in 2022 . Shutterstock . com

www . joc . com May 20 , 2024 | Journal of Commerce 37