Washington, DC – US mattress imports fell for the fourth straight month in September to 1.37m units, compared with 1.47m units in the same month last year.

But the fall appears to be slowing. In June imports at 907,000 units were down 29.2% on the same month in 2018. In July the fall was 241,000 units or 17.5% to 1.13m. In this August, the US imported 1.25m units down 8.4% on August 2018.

Vietnam was the largest exporting nation in September. A total of 286,000 units were exported. Indonesia at 235,000 units was second and Malaysia at 156,000 units was third.

This is a marked shift in the rankings. Last year China’s 1.2m units put them in the first place of exporters to the US, with Mexico’s 130,000 units much further behind. Mexico was followed in third place by Poland with 26,000 units.

In the first nine months of 2019 the US imported 10.3m mattresses. This is down by 1.2% on the 10.4 m imported in the same period in 2018. Despite the fall, the US has already imported more mattresses than it did in the whole of 2015 (7.7m) and 2017 (9.4m).

Over the first nine months of 2019, China imported a shade under 4m mattresses into the US, followed by Vietnam with 1.4 m and Mexico with 1.2m. In the first nine months of 2018, Chinese companies imported 7.7m mattresses. Mexico was responsible for imports of 1.3 m and Canada 264,000.