Factory orders stop slide
By Jay McIntosh -- Furniture Today, January 4, 2010
HIGH POINT — U.S. residential furniture factories hit a milestone in October, with orders flat compared with the same month a year ago, according to Smith Leonard.
It was the first month since October 2007 that there was no year-to-year decline, the accounting and consulting firm reported. The other good news was that 41% of the participants in Smith Leonard's survey reported gains in orders, compared with 33% in September.
Factory shipments in October, however, were down 10% from the comparable month a year earlier.
For the year to date, orders were running 16% behind the 2008 pace and shipments were down18%.
Despite the end of the long string of monthly declines, orders in October were still 28% below the October 2007 level and shipments were down 20% from two years ago, the firm said.
“October 2008 was the first month last year to start the 20-plus percent declines in orders,” Ken Smith, managing partner of Smith Leonard, wrote in his monthly Furniture Insights newsletter. “If we had seen further declines in those numbers, there would have been more cause for concern. Yet keep in mind that 59% of our participants continued to report declines, so we are not out of the woods yet.”
He added that the timing of the High Point Market can affect factory orders, and that the combined October and November orders should be a good indicator of how the fall went.
“We do not expect major improvements over the next few months, but we believe that many companies have adjusted their business to current volume levels and hopefully stopped the bleeding,” Smith added. “If that is the case, any decent improvement in volume should return companies to decent profitability.”
Factory orders, shipments in October
In billions of dollars
| Change from | |||
| Sept. '09 | Oct. '08 | ||
| Source: Smith Leonard |
|||
| Orders | $1.641 | -3% | — |
| Shipments | 1.535 | -4% | -10% |
| Order backlog | 1.396 | 5% | 1% |
| Jan. - Oct. | Change from 2008 | ||
| Orders | $15.529 | -16% | |
| Shipments | 15.474 | -18% | |
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Factory orders fall 10%
Dec 7, 2009 -
August orders down 12%
Nov 9, 2009 -
July factory orders down 16%
Oct 12, 2009 -
June factory orders down 16% from '08
Sep 7, 2009
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