China storms shouldn’t disrupt furniture shipments
Most plants were closed for New Year holiday
Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, February 7, 2008
SHANGHAI, China — Logistics and furniture industry experts don’t expect significant delays from the massive late January snowstorms that put parts of China at a standstill.
The storms hit much of eastern, central and southern China just as people were starting to head home for the Lunar New Year. The holiday starts Feb. 7 and most companies are closed between Feb. 1 and 15.
The storms stranded tens of thousands of workers trying to get home to celebrate with their families.
However, furniture importers and logistics companies said they don’t expect major delays because of the storms’ timing — the last of the shipments occurred before the plant shutdowns and before there was any big impact from the storms. While some factories have limited production in the first half of February, most are closed until later in the month.
By that point, officials believe that transportation backups will have eased.
“Port operations have remained largely intact throughout central and eastern China,” Antonio Leung, a senior vice president of Asian operations for Golden Gate Logistics, the parent company of furniture logistics specialist Global Link Logistics, wrote in a Feb. 5 e-mail.
“Land transportation has been hit the hardest — some power lines have been snapped by heavy snow causing severe congestions, but for GLL the impact has been minimal,” he continued. “Our volume from the area has remained on target, i.e. bookings versus actual turnout.”
Ron Ainsworth, senior vice president of procurement for Leggett & Platt, said his company has had no interruptions in production or shipments due to the storms. He said none of Leggett’s Chinese source factories had contacted the company to warn of any extended delivery times after the New Year holiday.
Joe Elmore, president of case goods importer American Dream Rooms, said the Dream Rooms factory operations in the Shanghai area were hit with the heavy snows, but that no employees on the premises at the time were injured. He said the heaviest damage was to a building that stores old samples, and said the factory does not expect significant shipping delays.
Don Essenberg, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Magnussen Home, said he had not heard word of any production or shipping delays from its source factories in southern China. The company mainly sources occasional and accent furniture in China, and ships dining room and bedroom from Vietnam.
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