On Monday, Bloomberg reported that lots of Chinese toy suppliers went out of business in 2008.  Not surprising, given the various product safety incidents of the last few years, as well as the general economic downturn.  The real question is, what lies ahead  for toy suppliers, and the companies that work with them?

To answer this question, the Panjiva research team took a look at shipments whose commodity description included the word “toys.”

• From October of 2007 to October of 2008, we saw a 10% decline in the number of companies sending “toys” shipments to American customers.
• From November of 2007 to November of 2008, we saw a 13% decline in the number of companies sending “toys” shipments to American customers.
• From December of 2007 to December of 2008, we saw a 25% decline in the number of companies sending “toys” shipments to American customers.

Obviously, this is not an encouraging trend.  In the months ahead, we’ll be keeping an eye on those companies that are still active.

In the meantime, if you want to browse through the 13,000+ companies that have shipped toys to the United States, check out Panjiva’s search results for “toys.”