— Furniture Today,
Forecast predicts factory shipments will be up 1% this year

HIGH POINT — This year started on a positive note for U.S. residential furniture factories, with orders up 6% from the same month a year earlier, said BDO Seidman.

Shipments, however, were flat for the month as backlogs increased 10% from December and slightly from January 2012, the accounting and consulting firm said.

Some 58% of participants in BDO’s factory survey reported better orders, with some reporting “healthy double-digit increases,” the firm said in its monthly Furniture Insights newsletter. That’s up from just 35% of participants reporting increases in December.

About 46% said their January shipments were up from a year ago.

“The results for new orders were good in January,” said Ken Smith, national director of BDO’s Furniture Industry Services, in the newsletter. “Based on our conversations, February was not necessarily great for many, while March has picked up a little. It seems that the industry is back to the mode of a good week or so, then a tail-off, then a pick back up again.”

BDO is forecasting that furniture factory shipments will be up about 1% this year, with business flat to slightly down in the first half and up 2% in the second half.

“With most companies putting in price increases, this seems to indicate that units will likely be down somewhat,” Smith said.

He attributed the softness to an increasing number of retailers buying imports directly, bypassing U.S. producers and importers, and to a U.S. economy slowed by rising interest rates and gasoline prices.