Foshan Furniture Market Guide: Buying in Lecong and Shipping to the USA

Foshan, in Guangdong, is where much of the furniture sold in America is made. Lecong, in Foshan’s Shunde District, is one of the largest furniture wholesale markets in the world. Longjiang, next door, builds much of the upholstered, office and hotel furniture behind it. And Foshan’s own industrial belt is the heart of China’s ceramic tile industry.

Buyers come for the range and the prices. Many go home with orders that cost more than expected once US duties, a half-empty container and a mismatched invoice are added. This guide covers how buying in Foshan works, how to get goods from several suppliers into one container, and the US rules to check before you pay a deposit.

AGF runs its own office in Shunde District, the district Lecong is in. What follows is how our team sees buyers succeed — and stumble.

Where to Buy: Foshan’s Markets and Clusters

Lecong (Shunde District) — furniture showrooms. Kilometres of furniture malls line the main road through Lecong, from mass-market sofas and dining sets to contract seating and high-end pieces. Most showrooms are sales fronts for factories elsewhere in the cluster. You can buy what is on the floor, but most orders are made to order from the showroom sample.

Longjiang (Shunde District) — the factories. Many of the upholstered, office and hotel furniture makers whose products fill Lecong’s showrooms are here. So is the supply chain behind them: fabric, foam and hardware. Buying direct from a Longjiang factory usually means larger minimums and better control over specifications.

Chancheng and Nanzhuang — ceramic tile and sanitaryware. Foshan’s tile makers and their showrooms cluster here: porcelain and ceramic tile, large-format slabs, and bathroom fixtures.

Nearby clusters. Guzhen, in neighbouring Zhongshan, is China’s lighting town. The wider Pearl River Delta — Guangzhou, Dongguan, Shenzhen — is within a two-hour drive.

How Buying Works

• Showroom versus factory. A showroom quotes for the factory and adds a margin. Going to the factory gives you better prices and specifications, but expect higher minimum orders.
• Samples and specifications. Agree the materials, dimensions, finish, fabric code, foam density and packing in writing, ideally on a pro forma invoice with photos. “Same as the sample” is not a specification.
• Lead times. Made-to-order furniture typically takes several weeks to produce. Peak seasons and Chinese New Year stretch that, and factories close for two to three weeks around the holiday.
• Payment. A deposit up front and the balance before shipment is common. Hold back the balance until the goods have been checked and counted.
• Language. Factories work in Chinese and on WeChat. Misunderstandings about finish, colour and packing are the most common reason a container disappoints.

One Container From Many Suppliers

Most small and mid-sized importers buy from several factories: sofas from one, tables from another, lighting from a third. Shipped separately, each order becomes a part-container (LCL) shipment with its own fees. Consolidated, they share one container:

1. Each supplier delivers to one consolidation warehouse in Foshan by an agreed date.
2. The goods are checked against the packing lists, and any damage or missing cartons are flagged while the supplier can still fix them.
3. A loading plan is built for the cube. Furniture is light for its size, so it usually fills a 40ft high-cube by volume. Tile is the opposite: it fills a container by weight long before the box is full, so it often ships in 20ft containers.
4. Loading is supervised and photographed, cartons are counted, and the seal number is recorded — so what lands in Long Beach matches what left Foshan.

That is the service our Foshan office runs every week, led by Tracy C., our China Branch Manager.

If you do need a quality inspection of the product itself, book it before you pay the balance, through an independent inspection company or your buying agent.

Check US Duties and Rules Before You Order

Chinese furniture and tile are heavily tariffed, not banned — but some product lines carry duties large enough to wipe out the price advantage. Check the exact 10-digit HTS line before you order. The mechanisms that apply in 2026:

Product	What applies
Upholstered sofas and chairs with wooden frames	Section 232 tariff on upholstered wooden furniture, plus the China Section 301 tariffs where they apply
Kitchen cabinets and vanities	Section 232, plus antidumping and countervailing duty orders on wooden cabinets and vanities from China — very heavily tariffed
Wooden bedroom furniture	A long-standing antidumping order on Chinese wooden bedroom furniture
Mattresses	Antidumping duties on mattresses from China
Ceramic and porcelain tile	Antidumping and countervailing duty orders on ceramic tile from China
Quartz countertops	Antidumping and countervailing duty orders on quartz surface products from China
Dining, office and outdoor furniture	Normal duty plus Section 301 for most lines; aluminum outdoor furniture shipped as parts or kits can fall under the aluminum extrusions orders

Rates change and depend on the exact product and the exporter, so we confirm them at quoting. Our post on Section 232 wood tariffs explains that action in more detail.

Beyond duty, US rules apply:

• TSCA Title VI — plywood, MDF and particleboard in furniture must be certified to EPA’s formaldehyde standard and labeled.
• Lacey Act — wood products may need a declaration of the species and country of harvest, so your supplier must know what the furniture is made of.
• Flammability — upholstered furniture must meet the federal standard (16 CFR Part 1640). Ask for the test report before production.
• Children’s furniture — children’s products need CPSC certification and tracking labels.
• California — products sold in California may need Proposition 65 warnings.

Our guides on importing furniture from China, restaurant furniture, outdoor furniture and natural stone go deeper on each product. The furniture import hub compares China with Vietnam, Malaysia, India and Europe.

Shipping From Foshan to the USA

• Ports: Foshan cargo ships out of Nansha (Guangzhou), Shekou and Yantian (Shenzhen), within roughly one to three hours of the Shunde factories by road.
• Transit: Nansha to Los Angeles/Long Beach typically takes about 15–18 days on the water. The US East Coast takes roughly four to five weeks. See how long shipping from China takes for the port-by-port table.
• Customs: file the ISF at least 24 hours before loading. Our licensed customs brokers file the entry before arrival.
• Delivery: from the Ports of LA and Long Beach by truck to your door, or transloaded into 53ft trailers for distribution across the country.

A Buyer’s Checklist

• HTS line, duty and any AD/CVD checked before the deposit
• Written specifications and packing requirements on the pro forma
• TSCA, Lacey and flammability documents requested from the supplier
• One consolidation date agreed with every supplier
• Goods checked and counted before the balance is paid
• ISF data ready before the container is loaded

Buying in Foshan works best when the origin end is handled by someone on the ground. Send us your supplier list and we will plan the consolidation, the container and the US clearance together.