ITALY - Covid-19 has severely impacted global furniture trade growth in 2020 – yet recovery is imminent, according to CSIL (Centre for Industrial Studies) in its latest World Furniture Outlook.
2020 has been a challenging year for the furniture sector, hit by the pandemic both on the demand and supply side. The closings policies and their length varied across countries, segments of production and retail activities.
World furniture consumption is estimated to decrease by 10% in 2020. For the first time, all regions are projected to experience negative growth in 2020, with differences across countries reflecting different economic structures and containment reactions facing the pandemic’s evolution.
Some trends that were already present across the sector accelerated during the year, impacting companies’ strategies. On the consumption side, the role of the online channel increased at unprecedented growth rates, while leading manufacturers entered the market directly.
The main furniture producer is China, with 41% of world furniture production. Other major furniture manufacturing countries are the US, Germany and Italy. From 2011 to 2020, the furniture production share of Asia and Pacific increased by about 11 percentage points. As a consequence, in 2020, more than half of the world’s furniture production took place in Asia and the Pacific.
The leading importers of furniture are the US, Germany, France, the UK and Japan. Until 2018, the increase in imports in the US was the main engine of growth in the international trade of furniture. The decrease in US furniture imports in 2019 was mainly due to trade restrictions. Because of trade tensions between the US and China, total US furniture imports from Asia saw China’s share decrease, in favor of other import sources (Vietnam). Preliminary data for 2020 shows substantial decreases in furniture imports for all major countries.
In the last 10 years, the international trade of furniture has consistently amounted to about 1% of the international trade of manufactures. After the major contraction in 2020, growth will resume in 2021, and the pre-crisis level, in current USD, is expected to be attained in 2022.
