Ailing West no longer takes Romanian furniture in

The domestic furniture industry is going through times of decline due to the recession on the Western market, which takes in more than three quarters of the Romanian furniture production, industry operators told Ziarul Financiar.
“The furniture makers are not doing well because of the recession on the Western market. Except for Great Britain, the German, French and Italian markets have been experiencing a drop-off ever since last year, ” said Aurel Rizea, executive manger of the Romanian Furniture Makers Association (APMR).
“In addition to the decline last year, we’ve had less orders this year because of the war in the Middle East, as well. The development of the contracts is somewhat alarming after the first quarter,” Andrei Menhardt, APMR chairman and Silvarom general manager says. “The German market, which absorbs about 90% of Silvarom’s exports has seriously declined over the last three months,” Menhardt adds.
The most serious decline in furniture demand is registered by the German market, which is also the number one importer, according to Menhardt. The entire German economy is actually making very little progress, which has caused the IMF to revise its growth forecast from 2% to only 0.5% this year.
“The talks I’ve had with the association members, since we have no statistical data yet, reveal their sales have dropped compared with last year,” Rizea says.
The leading furniture makers in Romania, Elvila and Mobexpert, say they have not been hit by the slowdown of the Western markets yet. “I have only a handful of contracts for the German market and have not had any problems on the other markets, yet,” Dan Viorel Sucu, Mobexpert chairman said.
“Elvila has not experienced a drop in the number of orders, because it cut deals with its business partners. The market is difficult, but you have to manage  – you cut margins and conduct promotion campaigns,” Viorel Catarama, Elvila chairman said.
In order to compensate for the decline of the West, the companies will try to boost sales on the domestic market or look for other export destinations.