FOSHAN, Sept 26 — In China's "Furniture Kingdom" of Lecong, home to a strip of cavernous malls, vendors shrugged off the latest round of tariffs from Washington, saying they've long given up on the United States (US) market.
As part of his latest tariff onslaught, US President Donald Trump announced a 50 per cent levy on imported kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities on Thursday, as well as a 30 per cent tariff on upholstered furniture, to take effect on October 1.
But in one of dozens of malls along the strip in southern China, Hansen Outdoor Furniture sales manager Feng Junyuan, whose company makes upholstered chairs, said they had already reduced their reliance on the once-lucrative US market.
Alternative markets and weak domestic demand
"We have not really bothered with the US market since last November, when it was clear the tariffs were coming in. No one visits us from there, and we do not try to sell.
"It is just too expensive," she told Reuters.
Lecong, like other factory towns in China's "workshop of the world" in the Pearl River Delta, with large manufacturing clusters, features more than 180 furniture malls crammed with retailers, wholesalers, and distributors selling products ranging from plywood tables to plush leather sofas.
According to the Lecong's Chamber of Commerce's website, the town became the earliest furniture market in China over 30 years ago, when it catered to international customers, including those in the more lucrative and higher margin European and North American markets.
But in recent years, geopolitical tensions, tariffs, and rising labour and production costs have hurt Chinese manufacturers who have had to adapt to survive. Meanwhile, the domestic Chinese market has also been hurt by weak consumption amid an economic downturn and property market slump.
Feng has downsized her workforce to 10-20 workers, around a quarter of its peak. She now sells around 60 per cent of her products domestically and 40 per cent overseas, mostly to India and Africa.
Hanfei Furniture boss Jin Yun, whose company is a mid- to high-end sofa maker in a mall featuring slogans like "your one-stop home furniture partner", said business this year had been average, with most of his clients in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
"Last year's tariff increase had a big impact. We still had two American customers at that time, but they ended up cancelling an order when the tariffs came, and there was no sale.
"There are a lot of problems for manufacturers in every industry, not just furniture. The market is smaller and there is a lot of competition, but we will survive," he told Reuters.
Trump vows to rebuild US furniture business
The latest tariffs come after Trump promised in August to help "bring the Furniture Business back" to North Carolina, South Carolina, and Michigan.
Furniture and wood products manufacturing employment in the US has halved since 2000 to around 340,000 today, according to government statistics.
Trump has made tariffs a core policy of his second term, with sweeping duties levied on dozens of trading partners, including China and Vietnam — two major furniture makers — that have then been sometimes adjusted amid a flurry of negotiations.
"It is not that we do not sell to America, we would be happy to. It is just I have not seen an American customer here since the pandemic," said Ling, a sales manager who sat in her nearly deserted showroom scrolling on her phone.
