The American kitchen cabinet industry has lost billions in market share to foreign imports over the past decade.
HIGH POINT, N.C.—U.S. kitchen cabinetmakers are sounding a hopeful note for the future of domestic production as new tariffs on cabinets take effect.
“We look forward to rejuvenating this venerable old cabinet industry that we’re so proud of,” Edwin Underwood, president and chief operating officer of Marsh Cabinets, told The Epoch Times. The family-owned business in High Point, North Carolina, has been in operation for almost 120 years.
President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on imported kitchen cabinets and vanities took effect on Oct. 14. In January 2026, the tariff rate will increase to 50 percent. The new tariffs top existing duties or fees, such as transshipment, antidumping, countervailing, and reciprocal tariffs.
Trump had “the fortitude to poke the bee’s nest,” addressing a challenge that has affected countless industries for decades, Underwood said.
That challenge is posed by imported products that flood the U.S. market at prices that domestic manufacturers cannot afford to match. Marsh Cabinets has been losing business to imported products on a daily basis, according to Underwood.
Like Marsh, Wellborn Cabinet, headquartered in Ashland, Alabama, has been buffeted by the flood of imports. The resulting decline in demand for U.S.-made cabinets forced Wellborn to freeze hiring several years ago. And a large investment in a new factory near Ashland has become a major concern for the company.
The company is now struggling to use the plant and fill its production capacity, Wellborn co-owner Stephen Wellborn told The Epoch Times.
“If this tariff situation doesn’t work, that is going to end up being a very bad investment for us,” he said.
Surging imports of kitchen cabinets grabbed more than $4 billion in market share from U.S. producers in 2022, according to a report from the Coalition for a Prosperous America. The trade deficit in kitchen cabinets alone grew to $3.7 billion in 2024.
While Underwood, Wellborn, and other U.S. cabinet manufacturers are hopeful that new tariffs will level the playing field for the largely family-owned industry, they suggest that even higher tariffs may be needed.
“We need to see the 25 percent stick … and ultimately, to level the playing field, it needs to be more than 50 percent,” Underwood said.
Wellborn said, “We were actually asking for 100 percent, and that would have made a significant difference.”
By Sylvia Xu
