The Cutting Edge™ - May 2004International Business DevelopmentWood Furniture Import Trends By Harold Zassenhaus, WMMAŽ Export Director, zemg@erols.comWood Furniture import statistics have been broken down into 11 component parts: bedroom furniture, wood frame upholstered furniture, chairs, furniture parts, office furniture, kitchen cabinets, furniture and parts of rattan, cane or bamboo, chair parts, kitchen furniture (excluding cabinets), furniture for vehicles and other wood furniture. Members can click here to view a series of tables showing 3-6 year trends by type, by country and imports from China. Members will need their user name and password to log onto the site. Contact Karen Boyle, WMMAŽ Headquarters, (215) 564-3484, for forgotten user name and password. Wood furniture imports topped $12 billion in 2003, growing 11.5% over 2002. Wood frame upholstered furniture and bedroom furniture continued to be the fastest growing segments, increasing 22% and 18%, respectively. 
Imports from China continued to increase by more than twice the average, growing by 26% to $4.8 billion. Other than the basket category of "other wood furniture" the largest types of furniture imported from China were bedrooms, upholstered furniture and chairs. Shipments of bedroom furniture increased 42% to reach $1.1 billion. Although some of the increase could have resulted from the countervailing duty rate petition by a group of US furniture manufacturers, most of the growth likely was the result of increased demand and continued outsourcing by US furniture producers. Although kitchen cabinet imports are still rather small ($56 million), they grew an impressive 48% over 2002. Total wood furniture imports increased by $1.3 billion in 2003 and imports from China increased $983 million. It would be superficial to directly link the two figures and state that over 75% of the increase in US demand was satisfied by Chinese produced wood furniture. However, it is no understatement that China is having a profound effect on the US woodworking industry and the industry's suppliers. The combination of China's low labor costs, significant and increasing flows of foreign capital, local incentives, a lax banking system and an undervalued currency make for a potent brew for manufacturing and exporting wood products and capturing US market share. The importance of traditional suppliers such as Italy, Canada and even Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand is decreasing in the face of China's advantage. Nonetheless, or perhaps because the US wood furniture market is increasing, other supplier nations are carving out and/or increasing their niche in the US. The fastest growing suppliers (i.e., 2003 imports were more than $10 million and country import growth rate was greater than the average for all nations) included:
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