funeral & interment

The funeral & interment service industry in China has begun providing new cremation bone-ash burial services, for example, burial under a tree or burial at sea, to make the funeral & interment industry more environment friendly.
Add another item to the growing list of cheaper goods China is cranking out for U.S. consumers: coffins.
China's entry comes as the U.S. funeral & interment industry fights four federal lawsuits alleging that leading funeral home chains and a top casket maker are conspiring to fix coffin prices. They did so, the lawsuits claim, to crush independent sellers — including Costco Wholesale, the big retailer that started selling coffins last year.
The growing popularity of cremation adds to funeral & interment industry woes, because cremation does not require an expensive casket. U.S. cremation rates are expected to soar to 43 percent in 2025 from about 29 percent today. Underscoring the industry's angst: Just last week, California funeral-home owners attended a seminar at their annual meeting here on the challenge posed by China and Costco.