Many companies in the wood-furniture supply chain are struggling with high energy bills; the continuous increase in gas and energy costs is risking the collapse of many Italian companies in the sector.

Claudio Feltrin, president of FederlegnoArredo, launches a cry of alarm: "If Europe and / or the Italian government do not act quickly to implement measures aimed at blocking the now unsustainable increases in gas and energy, they must be aware that they will slow down entire production chains, including that of wood-furniture, which will be forced to stop production, to put workers on layoffs and to lose competitiveness on the markets ".

 

The risk of blackout in the wood-furniture supply chain

The situation precipitated within a few days for the wood-furniture supply chain, starting with the most energy-intensive sectors, such as those of panels producers who represent the first link in the supply chain. With the price of the panels increased by about 40% in the last six months and by 220% in 18 months, for the vice president Paolo Fantoni, “We have entered an area of ​​negative margins”.

"Our entrepreneurs - said Feltrin - have no choice but to stop production in the coming weeks and ask for the redundancy fund for their employees".

Serious situation confirmed by Giacomo Badagnani, head of the plant of SAIB SPA, a manufacturer of panels, who a few days ago to the microphones of Tg3 said: “We are working below cost. The increases in gas and electricity do not allow us to continue with production. We have opened the layoffs and what we call a production lockdown is already foreseen ”.

 

FederlegnoArredo's requests

"I believe it is in the interest of the entire political class to prevent the many supply chains on which the Italian GDP rests from stopping, otherwise the future government will have to deal, first of all, with reviving a country with zero heartbeats. For this reason - concludes Feltrin - we ask, in addition to a European and / or Italian ceiling on the price of gas, the doubling of the tax credit for companies that have lost margins and turnover and the protection of the use of wood, in order to avoid it being cheaper to burn it than to process it and produce added value. The recent openings that seem to come from Germany to a European roof are an important signal, an opening so that we can act quickly and in a determined manner. Businesses can no longer wait ".

 

Positive first quarter 2022 data

It is interesting to note that the data for the first quarter of 2022 for the sector were encouraging. The export of the regions was in fact more than positive according to the data elaborated by the FederlegnoArredo Study Center.

Analyzing the overall trend of the Italian regions for the wood-furniture sector, exports are almost all growing with Lombardy which, with a share of 28%, confirms itself as the first region for exported value for the wood-furniture sector, increasing by 22.8% on the first quarter of 2021.

Lombardy is followed by Veneto (+ 14.6%), Friuli Venezia-Giulia (+ 26.4%), Emilia-Romagna (+ 14.1%) and Tuscany (+ 28.1%).