Europe’s coffin-makers warn Chinese imports could be death knell for industry
BRUSSELS — European coffin manufacturers are joining forces to ask Brussels to investigate Chinese imports, warning that low prices and potential customs loopholes are threatening an industry built around one of the continent’s most predictable markets: death.
A group of manufacturers — which until now had no dedicated lobby representation — has formed a coalition and met with European Commission officials, including from its trade department, the initiative’s organizers told POLITICO. The group is preparing an anti-dumping complaint — a request for the EU to investigate whether Chinese coffin makers are selling their products in Europe at unfairly low prices.
The industry says the damage is already being felt. Over the past five years roughly a quarter of European coffin manufacturers have shut down, their numbers falling from about 120 to 90, according to Folco Ciulli, a consultant helping coordinate the complaint.
“Smaller companies were unable to withstand competition from non-European importers,” Ciulli said, adding those that survived have absorbed only half the production previously handled by the businesses that closed.
The push follows an appeal by a group of EU lawmakers to Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič last year. The MEPs raised concerns about Chinese competition, and were told the industry could submit a formal trade complaint.
“The EU takes robust action to protect its industries from unfairly traded imports and at present has over 200 measures in place,” a Commission spokesperson said. They declined to confirm meetings with the manufacturers, saying contacts with industry over potential trade defense complaints are confidential.
At the heart of the industry’s case is a stark price difference.
According to manufacturers’ estimates, producing a coffin in China costs roughly one-third as much as an equivalent product in Italy, even when the same type of wood is used.
The coalition — which has yet to agree on a name for itself — flags several factors it believes give Chinese producers an advantage, including state subsidies, export-related tax benefits, lower labor costs and cheaper timber. It also argues that Chinese manufacturers benefit from preferential raw-material supply chains, and that higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods have helped redirect production toward Europe.
But cheap prices alone don’t constitute dumping under EU trade rules.
To secure anti-dumping duties, European manufacturers must provide evidence that Chinese producers are selling coffins in the EU below their established normal value, that the EU industry is suffering material injury, and that dumped imports are responsible for that injury.
The coalition is therefore collecting detailed information on production costs, raw materials, labor and factory-gate prices to compare equivalent coffins manufactured in China and Europe.
European coffin manufacturers are also examining a hypothesis that some coffins entering the EU from China are not being categorized as such by customs authorities.
Emiliano Inguscio, a mathematician hired by the industry to analyze trade and production data, said his calculations had identified an unexplained discrepancy equivalent to around 30,000 coffins a year in Italy.
“In theory, the number of coffins available for consumption should broadly correspond to domestic production plus imports, minus exports and adjusted for changes in inventories,” Inguscio explained.
Because demand for coffins is relatively predictable and closely linked to mortality, he argues, significant discrepancies could indicate that some imports are not being properly recorded.
The coalition is concerned that such shipments could escape accurate recording in import statistics, obscuring the true extent of Chinese competition.
This has led to a hypothesis that manufacturers have dubbed the “IKEA loophole,” by which some Chinese coffins arrive in Europe flat-packed, with their components declared to customs as wooden parts rather than finished funeral products. Once inside the EU, the pieces are assembled and sold as coffins, the theory goes.
The Commission confirmed that unassembled goods can still be classified as finished products under international customs rules, provided they retain the essential characteristics of the completed item. That means a flat-packed coffin cannot necessarily be treated simply as wooden components for customs purposes.
The industry has also raised a second hypothetical loophole: coffins being imported as packaging for other merchandise, rather than declared as commercial products in their own right.
The coffin-makers’ campaign reflects a broader shift in Europe’s trade disputes with China, as complaints about low-cost competition spread beyond strategic sectors such as electric vehicles, steel and chemicals to more traditional manufactured goods.
According to the Commission’s latest annual trade defense report, published in September, the EU launched 32 new trade defense investigations in 2025, nearly matching the previous year’s record.
Coffin-makers would not be the first relatively small, traditional European industry to win protection.
In January, the Commission imposed anti-dumping duties of between 56% and 60% on Chinese candles following an investigation into damage to an EU industry employing around 9,000 people across 80 companies.
