Factory orders up 4% in Jan.
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, April 12, 2010
HIGH POINT —
New orders at U.S. residential furniture factories in January were up 4% from the same month a year earlier, a smaller gain than in the past two months, Smith Leonard reported.
“While the results were not all that great, the 4% increase followed a 12% increase in December and 10% in November and a flat October in year-over-year comparisons,” Ken Smith, managing partner of Smith Leonard, said in his monthly Furniture Insights newsletter. “We believe January results were negatively impacted by bad weather … and we expect February results to also be affected.”
Moreover, the January 2009 orders were down 24% from the January 2008 numbers, so the industry still has a ways to climb to get back to its levels of two years ago, the accounting and consulting firm said.
Smith Leonard said 59% of the participants in its factory survey said their January orders were up from the same month a year earlier.
Factory shipments were up 6% from January 2009, following a 3% year-over-year gain in December.
Backlogs were up 4% from December and up 26% from January 2009. “We realize that some of this relates to imports and the time it takes to get through the system, but it is good to see backlogs increasing at least somewhat,” Smith said.
Factory orders, shipments in January
In billions of dollars
| Dec '09 | Jan '09 | ||
| Change from | |||
| Source: Smith Leonard |
|||
| New Orders | $1.520 | -4% | 4% |
| Shipments | 1.470 | -10% | 6% |
| Order backlog | 1.501 | 4% | 26% |
He added that the third month of factory order gains is good news after two years of significantly declining order rates.
“Certainly, we are not making up much ground, but with some stabilization, this is allowing companies to at least attempt to adjust to current levels versus wondering how low it can go,” said Smith.
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Furniture factory orders rise 4% in January
Apr 2, 2010 -
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