Furniture industry faces difficulties

The furniture makers are saying the European market decline is seriously hurting their business, in spite of the Q1 31% export growth in dollars, and 7% in euros respectively. “The business is slow, because the European market, and Germany especially, is weak now,” says Aurel Rizea, executive chairman of the Association of Furniture Makers in Romania (APMR). “Many producers are complaining about the lack of orders, so that the export growth is surprising,” he added. The furniture industry relies almost exclusively on exports to survive, considering 80% of the total output is exported, and the European Union is the main outlet for the domestic producers. “We must be very cautious, because stocks are growing larger due to the drop in the number of orders, and the solution would be finding new outlets, such as those in the Eastern Europe,” Violeta Anton, economic manager of Pitesti-based Alprom in her turn says. Hard times are just beginning, though. “The furniture market is disastrous. The exports may have gone up over the first three months, but the sharp decline started in April. The furniture industry usually goes well in the first quarter; the nightmare starts in the second and goes on through the third,” Viorel Catarama, chairman of Elvila, one of the leading domestic furniture makers, feels. ZF