BDO: Orders up 4%, shipments 2.5% in '02
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, March 9, 2003
High Point — A flat December left U.S. residential furniture manufacturers with modest gains for 2002, with orders up 4% for the year and shipments up 2.5% over 2001, according to BDO Seidman.
There was a wide range of results among participants in BDO's factory survey, with slightly more than 55% experiencing increases in orders and 40% seeing shipments rise.
BDO estimated orders at $24.6 billion and shipments at $25.1 billion in 2002. Shipments had declined almost 10% in 2001, so last year's modest gain brought the industry only partway back to its sales volume in 2000, the accounting and consulting firm said.
Orders in December were down 3% from the same month a year earlier, while shipments were up 1%. Order backlogs were 10% higher than last December, but Ken Smith, national director of BDO's Furniture Industry Services, said in the firm's Furniture Insights newsletter he suspects part of the increase was caused by longer lead times on imports.
U.S. furniture factory payrolls in December were down 5% from a year earlier and the number of employees declined 6%, according to BDO's survey.
Smith said that except for continued strength in the housing market and some segments of retail, most of the economic news so far this year has been negative.
"Retail is very sluggish. Consumers, concerned over the potential for war and worried about their jobs, are not spending on bigger-ticket items," he said. "The comments from most economists seem to indicate that we will continue a bumpy ride for a few months."
He said there are signs the worst may be over, but economists generally aren't predicting a sharp recovery this year.
| Factory orders, shipments in Dec. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| In billions of dollars | |||
| Change from | |||
| Nov. '02 | Dec. '01 | ||
|
Source: BDO Seidman
|
|||
| Orders | $1.763 | -15% | -3% |
| Shipments | 1.960 | -2% | 1% |
| Order backlog | 1.932 | -6% | 10% |
| January-December | Change from 2001 | ||
| Orders | $24.641 | 4% | |
| Shipments | 25.110 | 2.5% | |
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