BDO: Orders down 3% in Oct.
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, January 9, 2005
High Point — U.S. furniture factories posted weaker numbers in October, with orders down 3% from the same month a year ago and shipments nearly flat, according to BDO Seidman.
On the plus side, the accounting and consulting firm said the October comparisons came against a strong month in 2003, when orders were up 9%. This means that October 2004 orders still were up 6% from October 2002.
The October slowdown still left orders at residential furniture factories for the first 10 months of 2004 up 7% from the same period a year earlier. Shipments were up 6%.
BDO said that for October, only 37% of the participants in its factory survey reported gains in orders from a year ago, with the majority logging declines. For the year to date, the response was just the opposite — 63% posted order gains.
Shipments in October were up less than half a percentage point from a year earlier.
Ken Smith, national director of BDO's Furniture Industry Services, said in the firm's Furniture Insights newsletter that the second half of 2003 was stronger than the first half, so it was harder to beat the previous-year numbers in the latter part of 2004.
"Accordingly, we are expecting the fourth quarter (of 2004) to report increased shipments of about 3% to 4%," Smith said. "While not as exciting as the 7% increase in the first half of the year, when looking at the real numbers, the increases as a percentage will be much tougher to achieve in the second half."
| Factory orders, shipments in October | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| In billions of dollars | |||
| Change from | |||
| Sept. '04 | Oct. '03 | ||
|
Source: BDO Seidman |
|||
| Orders | $2.236 | 7% | -3% |
| Shipments | 2.274 | -3% | — |
| Order backlog | 2.379 | — | 3% |
| January–October | Change from 2003 | ||
| Orders | $21.498 | 7% | |
| Shipments | 21.713 | 6% | |
-
BDO says Oct. furniture shipments down 3%
Jan 5, 2005 -
Jan. orders up 6%, BDO says
Apr 23, 2006 -
August factory orders up 1%
Nov 27, 2005 -
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Sep 18, 2005 -
BDO: Orders rise 3 months in row
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