Jan. orders up 6%, BDO says
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, April 9, 2006
High Point — This year started on a positive note for U.S. residential furniture factories, with January orders up 6% from the same month a year earlier, said BDO Seidman.
Shipments, however, were flat in the month as backlogs rose 10% from December and slightly from January 2005, the accounting and consulting firm said.
Some 58% of participants in BDO's factory survey reported better orders, with some reporting "healthy double-digit increases," BDO said in its monthly Furniture Insights newsletter. Thirty-five percent of participants reported increases in December.
About 46% said January shipments were up from a year ago.
"The results for new orders were good in January," said Ken Smith, national director of BDO's Furniture Industry Services, in the newsletter. "Based on our conversations, February was not necessarily great for many, while March has picked up a little. It seems the industry is back to the mode of a good week or so, then a tail-off, then a pick-up again."
BDO forecasts that furniture factory shipments will be up about 1% this year, with business flat to slightly down in the first half and up 2% in the second half.
"With most companies putting in price increases, this seems to indicate that units will likely be down somewhat," Smith said.
He attributed the softness to more retailers buying imports directly, bypassing U.S. producers and importers, and to a U.S. economy slowed by rising interest rates and gasoline prices.
| Factory orders, shipments in January | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| In billions of dollars | |||
| Change from | |||
| December '05 | January '05 | ||
|
Source: BDO Seidman |
|||
| Orders | $2.175 | 9% | 6% |
| Shipments | 2.002 | -9 | — |
| Order backlog | 2.053 | 10 | — |
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Factory orders flat in May, BDO says
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