Furniture factory orders decline by 6% in May
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, August 11, 2008
HIGH POINT — U.S. furniture factory orders in May were down 6% from the same month a year earlier while shipments declined 10%, Smith Leonard reported.
For the year to date, orders were down 8% and shipments were off 7% from the comparable period in 2007, the accounting and consulting firm said.
Smith Leonard said 67% of the participants in its monthly factory survey reported that their orders were down for the month, a bit better than the 71% reporting declines in April, but “the changes by participant were all over the place.”
Some companies reported double-digit gains and others reported declines just as large, the firm said.
Ken Smith, managing partner of Smith Leonard, noted in his monthly Furniture Insights newsletter that the 7% downtrend in shipments this year followed the same course as in the first five months of 2007, when they also were down 7% from the previous year.
In 2006, shipments for the period were even with the comparable five months of 2005.
Smith said this year's negative comparisons seem to be “across the board in price points. Some we have talked with in the higher end have noted that they have not seen that end of the market hit this hard in recent memory.”
He added that not all reports were gloomy, however.
“We have talked to a few manufacturers and distributors who have noted a bit of an uptick in orders recently,” said Smith. “Even one of our fabric friends noted some improvement.”
| Factory orders, shipments in May | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| In billions of dollars | |||
| Source: Smith Leonard | |||
| Change from | |||
| April '08 | May '07 | ||
| Orders | $1.869 | -9% | -6% |
| Shipments | 1.925 | -2% | -10% |
| Order backlog | 1.618 | -2% | -6% |
| Jan.-May | Change from 2007 | ||
| Orders | $9.840 | -8% | |
| Shipments | 9.827 | -7% | |
