The Romanian furniture market could drop by 30% this year, after recording a 25% decline in the first six months of the year, according to estimates of the Romanian Furniture Manufacturers Association (APMR).
"We are preserving our decline estimate, by 30% for the domestic market and by 18-20% for exports for this year," said Viorica Rabocea, an APMR representative.
In the first six months of the year, the domestic furniture market amounted to 431.2 million euros, 26.2% less against the similar time in 2008. Among indicators of furniture trade, imports saw the biggest decline, by 35.6%, to 155.7 million euros in the first half. On the other hand, exports fell by 17.4%, to 492.3 million euros.
"The situation started to deteriorate in November-December 2008, when companies began to face difficulties, such as the gradual decline in orders on the domestic and the foreign market, the rise in interests charged on loans, and the lack of cash," added APMR representatives.
The measures taken included product price cuts, layoffs, reducing the working week to four days and scrapping employee bonuses. The first signs of the crisis in the furniture sector emerged in the fourth quarter of last year, according to APMR.
The furniture industry had already been working with very low profit margins in the last few years, with the first declines occurring for some of the indicators in 2008. Last year, the domestic market, for instance, lost 53 million euros of its value, i.e. 4.5%. Losses recorded on the domestic market could not be offset by exports, which saw a 1.4% decline.
As for the number of employees, the furniture industry lost 9% of its personnel in 2008, a trend that continued into the first half of this year, when furniture manufacturers lost 16,300 employees. There are 3,800 companies operating in the industry.
According to Romania's Business Yearbook, the leading players are Mobexpert, Elvila, IKEA, Italsofa, Sortilemn, Staer, Lemet, Plimob, Silvarom, and Alprom.
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