Speaking of Won Ton Mart(has a ring to it), this time it's furniture:
Thursday, January 1, 2004
Furniture makers fight to survive Moosehead Manufacturing, 30 others sign national anti-dumping petition
By DARLA L PICKETT
Staff Writer
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
E-mail this story to a friend
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADVERTISEMENT
Stay informed and sign-up for MaineGeneral's e-tips.
Name:
Email:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Top Headlines
A family's separation anxiety Mother heading to Iraq, leaving 3-month-old with father
State greases skids for sled bill House OKs plan to protect snowmobile clubs from lawsuits
SAD 48, state in gray area after latest budget rejection
Farmington skating on hold -- for now Hippach Field icemakers hope cold snap will allow them to open rink
Wilton man was shot, police say
Regional plan will cost jobs, dispatchers say
Regional dispatch jobs mulled
Residents oppose jail on Norridgewock Ave.
All of today's: News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel
MONSON -- Moosehead Manufacturing, a Maine furniture manufacturer, is one of more than 30 furniture makers who have signed an anti-dumping petition calling for an end to illegally-priced Chinese imports.
Chinese imports "dumped" in the United States at market prices far below those of American-made products are devastating to furniture-making manufacturers nationwide, John Wentworth, president of Moosehead Manufacturing explained this week.
"They need to bring prices more in line with ours," Wentworth said. "We can compete with 10 to 15 below market, but when it is 80 to 90 percent cheaper, we can't."
Moosehead Manufacturing, a small independently owned company with facilities in Monson and Dover-Foxcroft, employs about 190 people, down from 250 three years ago, according to Wentworth. He said the downsizing has been the result of a combination of the economy and imports. The company makes Shaker and Mission-style furniture for dining rooms, bedroom and youth which it sells nationwide.
"What we make today probably won't be offered in two to three or four years -- If there are (copies) by the Chinese and ours are $100 and people can buy theirs for $35," Wentworth said. "We use solid hardwood maple, ash and yellow birch, all native to 150 to 200 miles of the local area, supporting the local Maine wood cutter. It's all solid wood."
Wentworth said Moosehead Manufacturing furniture is sold to smaller, independently owned furniture retail stores nationwide. "We don't sell to companies like JC Penney or Haverty's, the larger mass merchandisers," he said. "We're actually a very small percentage of the total pie."
Companies who signed the petition have actually been threatened by larger retailers, Wentworth said: "They've told manufacturers if they sign the petition, they won't do business with them anymore."
Wentworth, too, has heard from retailers displeased with the petition.
"I got a letter from a large retailer in Colorado scolding me for signing and upsetting our Chinese friends. The company had American in the name and the American flag on top of his letterhead. I told him my 250 employees were my first obligation."
Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, has called for the U.S. Commerce Department to support the petition, filed by the American Furniture Manufacturers' Committee for Legal Trade, a coalition of American furniture manufacturers seeking duties on wood bedroom furniture imported from China.
"The American residential wood furniture industry, including numerous small and mid-sized companies across the United States, is being devastated by the surge of unfairly priced imports from China," Snowe wrote to Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and International Trade Commission Chair Deanna Tanner Okun. "The result: Massive furniture job losses. The Chinese government is leading this assault on American companies and jobs by subsidizing investments in furniture manufacturing facilities."
Citing U.S. Department of Labor statistics, Snowe said that, nationwide, 34,700 wood furniture workers -- 28 percent of the work force -- have lost their jobs in the last 2 1/2 years. From 2000 to 2002, imports of wooden bedroom furniture from China increased in value 121 percent, she said. The petitioning companies estimate that during that same period, their sales dropped over 20 percent and their operating income plunged by almost 50 percent.
Wentworth said that the petition is not seeking new restrictive tariffs, but only to have existing duty laws enforced.
By dumping their products into the marketplace at way below cost, "the net effect is they end up owning the market."
The International Trade Commission and Department of Commerce already have agreed to review the petition, Wentworth said. "That's the first hurdle." The International Trade Commission has scheduled its preliminary vote on the issue at 11 a.m. Jan. 9, he said.
"If they vote affirmative, then it goes to the next step, to solicit information from Chinese manufacturers on their cost and pricing of furniture and, if dumping has occurred, to set appropriate duties."
Snowe said Maine can compete on a level playing field.
"We know that our manufacturers can compete with anyone from any country, so long as everyone adheres to the rules of the game. I urged the Department of Commerce to find in favor of the petitioners," Snowe said.
Darla L. Pickett 474-9534
dpickett@centralmaine.com |
