2017 China's imported furniture market hot traditional industries need to break through the development bottleneck

On December 8, the Customs released the import and export data of foreign trade in November. According to customs statistics, in the first 11 months of this year, China's total import and export value of goods trade was 25.14 trillion yuan, an increase of 15.6% over the same period last year. Exports reached 13.85 trillion yuan, up by 11.6 percent; Imports reached 11.29 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.9%; The trade surplus narrowed by 16.7 percent to 2.56 trillion yuan. Among them, furniture exports 306.29 billion yuan, an increase of 9%.The market for imported furniture is booming.

According to the data released by the China Furniture Association, from January to September 2017, enterprises above designated size in China's furniture industry completed the main business income of 674.766 billion yuan, an increase of 11.14%; The total profit reached 40.434 billion yuan, an increase of 11.19%; The total output of 605,166,200 pieces was completed, an increase of 3.21%. Furniture industry exports of 37.494 billion US dollars, an increase of 4.88%; Cumulative imports reached 2.209 billion US dollars, up 15.98% year on year.

With the upgrading of consumption and the change of consumption concept, people's requirements for furniture have changed from basic functions to high quality and high quality, and the demand for imported furniture has been increasing. Demand drove the market, and the number of imported furniture rose sharply.

In addition, the data show that from January to October this year, China's log imports accumulated 44,888,200 cubic meters, an increase of 4.752 million cubic meters over last year, an increase of 11.84%, China's previous October imports of chipboard 851,900 cubic meters, an increase of 35.33%, the rise is obvious. It can be seen from this set of data that the domestic market has increased demand for wood and wood products this year, and imports have increased significantly, which can not be underestimated the role of furniture manufacturing.

Reporters randomly interviewed consumers in furniture stores, they told reporters that compared with the past, in the purchase of furniture will consider imported furniture to a certain extent. At present, the proportion of imported furniture in the market is gradually increasing, and consumers can easily include it in the purchase list.

Exports suffer from the data point of view, furniture exports are still growing, but relative to imports, the increase is small. In this regard, relevant experts said that if we look for reasons from the international market environment, there are mainly two aspects, one is that the industry environmental standards are becoming stricter, and the second is that the low-cost competitive advantage of home furnishing enterprises in our country is gradually disappearing.

Specifically, China's traditional furniture export markets are mainly in the European Union, the United States, Japan and other countries, as consumers pay more and more attention to the environmental protection of furniture, the quality of furniture requirements increase, and the standards of furniture are constantly strict.

It is understood that as the international market furniture standardization maker ISO/TC136 International furniture standards Committee has developed a total of 29 furniture standards, mainly including lockers, tables, chairs, stools, beds, kitchen equipment and children's furniture and other furniture product standards and furniture surface performance, flame retardant performance and other performance standards and furniture casters and other accessories standards. The United States recently formulated the "Composite Wood Products Formaldehyde Standards Act", and will be formally implemented on December 12, which applies to all composite wood products sold, supplied, manufactured and imported in the United States, including furniture, wood cabinets, flooring, picture frames, toys and building materials, requiring formaldehyde emission must meet its strict standards. It must be certified by a third party certification body (CARB certification) and must be accompanied by a label indicating the name of the product manufacturer, the lot number, the third party certification body number and the declaration of conformity.

In addition, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has recently passed environmental amendments to prohibit the sale of upholstered furniture and youth products containing flame retardants. The bill, which will be formally implemented on January 1, 2019, requires that the products involved shall not be sold and that soft materials containing more than 0.1% flame retardants shall not be sold to refurbish upholstered furniture or furniture. Strict standards mean that the furniture exported not only meets the standards of our country but also meets the standards of the exporting country.

Extended reading: Furniture export enterprises continue to grow in line with The Times of innovation and integration

In addition to the shrinking of the international furniture market environment, the emergence of furniture companies in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Cambodia and other places to seize the market with low-cost advantages is also one of the reasons. According to relevant statistics, the amount of wooden furniture exported to the United States in a year is about 3 billion US dollars, which has reached 70% of the amount of China's exports to the United States, which has a great impact on China's furniture exports.

For the severe export situation, many enterprises said that the decline in exports is partly because of the price increase of raw materials, environmental protection costs, etc., the other part is because the furniture industry is currently facing a transition stage, and many enterprises are difficult to take into account foreign markets in the process of transformation.

Experts pointed out that nowadays, the improvement of international environmental standards is a test for enterprises, environmentally friendly furniture is a general trend both at home and abroad, strengthen environmental protection, quality control, it is possible to occupy a place in the future domestic and foreign markets.

(Reporter: Wang Yue original title: Import growth far exceeds exports traditional furniture industry needs to break through the bottleneck of development)