2025 Top 100 Importers & Exporters
“ High home values and other strong economic indicators have supported an uptick in homeowner improvement spending,” Chris Herbert, managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, said in an April 17 statement announcing the latest LIRA reading.
“ However, economic volatility due to the uncertainty surrounding foreign tariffs and falling consumer confidence could well dampen this expected growth,” Herbert acknowledged.
Furniture and furnishings sales flattened in the first three months of this year after climbing in the previous two quarters, reaching a plateau of $ 11.7 billion to $ 11.8 billion, according to monthly US Census Bureau data. Those levels were up between 4 % and 8 % from a year ago, however.
In another sign of demand, the inventory-to-sales ratio in furniture, household furnishings, electronics and appliance stores fell to 1.51 in February, down from 1.61 a year earlier.
That implies goods are moving more quickly through those stores than at any time since 2021, following painful inventory corrections as demand fell in 2022 and 2023.
Mortgage, tariff headwinds
Although existing home sales are still below year-ago levels, the month-to-month gains point toward stronger home sales. How strong depends on mortgage rates, according to the NAR.
The NAR expects mortgage rates to slide moderately lower, but not to the 4 % or 5 % range home buyers enjoyed before the COVID-19 pandemic.
HHG imports and sales also depend on US tariffs
Household goods imports increase for 18 straight months
Containerized US household goods( HHG) imports, in laden TEUs, with year-over-year change
TEU volume
500,000
400,000
300,000 100,000
200,000
100,000
Source: PIERS, S & P Global
60 %
40 %
-100 20 %%
0 |
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-40% |
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Apr
L
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Jul |
Oct |
Jan 2024 |
Apr |
Jul |
Oct |
Jan 2025 |
Apr |
TEU Year-over-year % change
0 %
-20 %
Year-over-year % change
© 2025 S & P Global
imposed on products not just from China, but other countries including Vietnam, the second-largest source of US HHG imports.
China still accounts for most US HHG imports— 55.3 % in 2024, according to PIERS. But that percentage is down 4.2 percentage points from 2019, PIERS data shows.
“ Tariffs add tremendous complexity and uncertainty.”
Import growth in 2024 showed that HHG demand doesn’ t move in lockstep with the housing market. Shutterstock. com
Vietnam for the first time captured more than 20 % of US HHG imports in 2024, with its market share rising from 17.93 % in 2023 to 20.34 % last year, according to PIERS.
Vietnam has been the biggest beneficiary of the long, slow US disconnection from China, but its market share is threatened by the 46 % duty the Trump administration said it would impose on its products— a duty delayed until July 9. Until then, Vietnamese goods face the across-the-board baseline 10 % US tariff on imports.
Many US furniture importers have been shifting sourcing toward Vietnam, including Hooker Furnishings, a Martinsville, Va., designer, manufacturer and importer of furniture. Hooker plans to open a new leased warehouse in Vietnam in May.
“ When fully operational, we believe the Vietnam warehouse will reduce domestic safety stock needs, improve product flow, enable container mixing and support margin expansion,” Jeremy R. Hoff, Hooker’ s CEO and director, said during an April 17 earnings call.
But Hoff acknowledged the potential impact of tariffs on the HHG business.
“ Tariffs add tremendous complexity and uncertainty that require us to look at our cost structure more aggressively, particularly on the lower-margin, direct container side of our business,” he said.
email: bill. cassidy @ spglobal. com
36 Journal of Commerce | May 5, 2025 www. joc. com