Furniture market report

In 1999 the world production of furniture amounted to 62.4 billion dollars.

At the top of the list of leading producers are Italy and Germany, closely followed by the USA, Japan, the UK, France, Sweden, Canada and other Asian countries near the Pacific.
China can be considered by itself: it is estimated that by the end of the 21st century, that China will become the second leading producer of furniture in the world and currently the Peoples Republic of China is one of the five most desired markets.
Canadian furniture producers play a significant role from an international point of view: growth in production has in fact, gone from $500 million US dollars in 1994 to $1400 million in 1999.

The Market
World sales in furniture amount to about 3 billion US dollars. On the other hand, the market is somewhat varied: with consumers preferring a wide variety of styles, designs, quality and prices.
In terms of consumption, the most important market has surely got to be the US (representing 27% of the market),followed by Japan (15%) and Germany (11%). Canada with its 2.3% can count on its neighbor, the US as nearby market.

Import/ Export
Italy and Germany are the biggest exporters in the world but some countries in Asia such as China and Taiwan, by taking advantage of low labour costs, mean a strong growth prospects.

The furniture sector in the US has been able to reap the benefits of the boom in the economy in the last few years. The statistics indicate that sales dropped in the early 90's, while they picked up in the second half of the decade.

China
Furniture sales in China in the last 6 years have increased to 8.5%. This accounts mainly for low cost, unrecognized brands and often buyers in the West are unaware of where the product was made.

In 1996, the Chinese purchased furniture, to the value of 8.2 billion US dollars. 3% of this figure were products that were imported and 90% accounts for low quality furniture made by local craftsmen (only 7% of purchases were local industrial production) In all, China seems to be a market that has yet to be discovered !