BRAZIL – As representatives for the country’s leading furniture producing state, the Bento Gonçalves Furniture Industry Syndicate (Sindmoveis) and the Furniture Industry Association of Rio Grand Do Sul (Movergs) are publicly expressing their concern regarding the new wave of price increases by wooden panel manufacturers. 

Some of the largest panel manufacturers have already communicated to the furniture industry price increases between 8 to 15 percent that Movergs and Sindmoveis consider absolutely incoherent considering the severe recession faced by the furniture industry in all measured indicators: sales, jobs, production and exports.

Only in the Bento Gonçalves furniture cluster, the losses reach 18% in revenues in 2016 and the lowest level of jobs in the last 10 years. Furniture manufacturers are struggling through the crisis in an attempt to avoid further layoffs. There is a forecast for a slight improvement in sales by the end of the year, but there is still a complex period ahead which will become even more difficult with the announced wooden panel price increases.