Upholstery imports into Britain have been weak so far this year, as we reported yesterday (see related).

But there have been successes.

None more so than Singapore. While Chinese sofa imports are down 17 percent this year, goods shipped in from Singapore have almost trebled year-on-year.

Between January to June, £19.5 million of sofas and sofabeds arrived from Singapore, up from just £6.6 million in the first half of 2017.

To put that in context, this time last year Singapore barely registered among the leading sources of upholstery sold in British shops.

Now, it ranks comfortably in fourth place, behind only China, Italy and Poland. It would be easy to assume that Singapore is picking up some of China's lost business, but there is evidence that it is eating into the market share of other countries.

This time last year, we were reporting Romanian half-year sofa imports of nearly £10 million. By the first half of 2018, Romanian upholstery imports totalled under £4 million, more than halving in a year, and less than a quarter of the total arriving from Singapore.

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