Apparent furniture, bedding market up 14.8% in 2004
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, June 27, 2005
Ottawa — The Canadian apparent market for furniture and bedding grew 14.8% in 2004, hitting an all-time high of C$5.66 billion, according to preliminary data published by Statistics Canada.
It was the first time that the apparent market broke the C$5 billion barrier and the seventh consecutive year of growth.
The apparent market is the value of total manufacturing shipments, minus exports, plus imports, valued at wholesale prices — that is, before retail mark-ups and national sales taxes, which in Canada average 15%.
After suffering a 3% drop in total factory shipments in 2003, Canadian manufacturers bounced back in 2004 as their volume advanced 6.3% to C$5.74 billion, beating the C$5.57 billion record set in 2002.
Although they lost ground on the export front — sales to American retailers sagged due to swings in the exchange rate and soaring competition from Asia — sales to Canadian retailers jumped a more than healthy 11.8% in 2004 to C$3.88 billion.
The industry's fastest-growing segment was case goods — which saw shipments jump 10.2% to C$3.52 billion in 2004 after a slight setback of 1.5% the prior year, when volume dropped to C$3.2 billion. While exports sagged 2.9%, sales to Canadian retailers in 2004 advanced more than 19.1% to C$2.27 billion, from C$1.9 billion in 2003.
Upholstery shipments still haven't regained the record levels posted in 2002. After slipping 2.9% in 2003 to C$1.1 billion, the segment inched forward a tiny 0.6% to C$1.11 billion last year. However, shipments to Canadian retailers advanced by a healthy rate of 8.9% to C$723.8 million after dropping 2.8% to C$664.8 million in 2003.
Bedding shipments advanced 3.5% to C$809 million in 2004 after losing ground the previous year. Most of this growth was export-driven, as domestic shipments remained static at C$743.5 million, a 0.6% gain over the C$738.8 million in 2003. Although the category remains relatively unaffected by the ebbs and flows of cross-border trade, imports advanced by 67.3% to C$49 million. But they were balanced by a 53.6% uptick in exports, which set new highs of C$65.5 million last year.
Canadian bedding manufacturers remain the dominant force in their market with an overall apparent share of 93.8%, although that's down slightly from 2003's 96.2%.
Manufacturers of furniture made of metal, wicker, rattan and other materials saw their shipments decline for the fifth straight year in 2004, falling 6.8% to C$288.2 million.
Most of the growth in the apparent market was driven by increased imports. Canadian retailers sourced a record-setting C$1.78 billion worth of imported furniture in 2004, up 21.9% over the previous year — more than two-thirds of which came from China and the United States.
| Canadian apparent market for residential furniture | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000–2004 | |||||
| In millions of current Canadian dollars | |||||
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | |
| Product categories: 337910 (mattresses); 337123 (wooden household furniture); 337121 (upholstery); 337126 (other). The apparent market is total shipments, less total exports, plus total imports, all measured in wholesale prices. Sources: Statistics Canada, Industry Canada, Windsor Bay Communications Inc. |
|||||
| Total Canadian factory shipments | $4,720.1 | $4,881.7 | $5,566.3 | $5,397.2 | $5,735.3 |
| % change | 3.4% | 14.0% | -3.0% | 6.3% | |
| Exports | 1,924.2 | 2,018.2 | 2,153.0 | 1,926.0 | 1,855.5 |
| % change | 4.9% | 6.7% | -10.5% | -3.7% | |
| Exports to the U.S. | 1,843.6 | 1,911.4 | 2,034.4 | 1,820.5 | 1,752.8 |
| % change | 3.7% | 6.4% | -10.5% | -3.7% | |
| Domestic shipments | 2,795.9 | 2,863.4 | 3,413.3 | 3,471.2 | 3,879.8 |
| % change | 2.4% | 19.2% | 1.7% | 11.8% | |
| Imports | 1,130.2 | 1,242.4 | 1,411.4 | 1,462.7 | 1,782.4 |
| % change | 9.9% | 13.6% | 3.6% | 21.9% | |
| Imports from China | 252.1 | 323.7 | 451.5 | 520.2 | 731.0 |
| % change | 28.4% | 39.5% | 15.2% | 40.5% | |
| Imports from U.S. | 521.1 | 508.2 | 489.4 | 439.0 | 480.9 |
| % change | -2.5% | -3.7% | -10.3% | 9.6% | |
| Apparent market | 3,926.1 | 4,105.8 | 4,824.6 | 4,933.9 | 5,662.1 |
| % change | 4.6% | 17.5% | 2.3% | 14.8% | |
| Canadian industry share of apparent market | 71.2% | 69.7% | 70.7% | 70.4% | 68.5% |
| China product share of apparent market | 6.4% | 7.9% | 9.4% | 10.5% | 12.9% |
| U.S. product share of apparent market | 13.3% | 12.4% | 10.1% | 8.9% | 8.5% |
| China product share of all imports | 22.3% | 26.1% | 32.0% | 35.6% | 41.0% |
| U.S. product share of all imports | 46.1% | 40.9% | 34.7% | 30.0% | 27.0% |
