Furniture factory orders drop 4% in Feb.
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, May 7, 2007
High Point — U.S. residential furniture factory orders in February were down 4% from the same month a year earlier, according to accounting and consulting firm Smith Leonard.
It was the latest in a string of down months for the industry, but was a better performance than January's 7% decline in orders.
"Year to date, new orders have decreased 5% compared to the first two months of last year," said Ken Smith, managing partner of the firm, in his monthly Furniture Insights newsletter. He noted, however, that comparisons are up against a good start for the industry in 2006, when new orders in the first two months rose 6% from the previous year.
Shipments were down 3% from a year earlier in February, and down 5% for the first two months, Smith Leonard said. Shipments in the first two months of 2006 had been up 1% from the same period in 2005.
Smith said the February results were "in line with expectations, though certainly not very impressive. We continue to hear that business is showing some signs of perking up, but most of that is in certain segments and not widespread."
| Factory orders, shipments in February | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| In billions of dollars | |||
| Change from | |||
| Jan. '07 | Feb. '06 | ||
| Source: Smith Leonard | |||
| Orders | $2.150 | 8% | -4% |
| Shipments | 2.130 | 13% | -3% |
| Order backlog | 1.747 | 4% | -8% |
| Jan.–Feb. | Change from 2006 | ||
| Orders | $4.173 | -5% | |
| Shipments | 3.999 | -5% | |
