The woodworking technology and furniture industry sees the long season of order contraction, which has now lasted for no less than nine quarters, continue for the second quarter of 2024. It must be said that this situation is certainly the consequence on the one hand of the high growth put in place by the sector and the economy in general in the two-year post-Covid period and on the other hand is determined by the highly unstable international scenario.

Second quarter 2024: a contraction of 2.8 percent

According to data for the April-June 2024 period from the quarterly survey conducted by the Acimall Study Office, the association that brings together Italian manufacturers of wood technology and the furniture industry, there is an overall contraction in orders of 2.8 percent compared to the same period in 2023. Orders from abroad remain unchanged, while domestic orders mark a further decline of 5.9 percent compared to 12 months ago. The order book falls to 2.9 months of assured production; prices since Jan. 1, 2024, have increased by 0.9 percent.

Dario Corbetta, director of Acimall, comments on these data as follows, “We must not indulge in easy pessimism, because values continue to remain at important levels. Certainly the international scenario does not induce companies toward a feeling of optimism that would allow everyone to return to a concrete focus on investment in capital goods, but the Made in Italy sector continues to be one of the excellences of national supply.”

Sentiment of companies surveyed: cautious optimism

Sentiment of companies surveyed: cautious optimism. The qualitative survey reveals that 45 percent of the companies surveyed, which belong to a representative sample of the entire wood and furniture technology sector, expect substantial stability in production, while 50 percent expect a further decrease and only 5 percent lean toward growth. On the subject of employment, 80 percent of respondents favor stability, while the remaining 20 percent expect a contraction. Stocks stable for 55 percent of respondents, increasing for 20 percent and decreasing for the remaining 25 percent.

Forecast survey: more optimism for foreign markets

This atmosphere of cautious optimism is confirmed by the data on the forecast survey: regarding the domestic market, 50 percent of the sample is leaning toward a substantially stable medium- to short-term future, 5 percent imagine a time of growth, and 45 percent expect a downturn. We also find the same opinions regarding the foreign market: 50 percent believe in a stable trend, the situation will worsen for 35 percent of respondents, and 15 percent count on demand from the rest of the world to become more sustained. Here we find 10 percent “more optimism” on the foreign side than on the domestic market.

Pictured is Bravo 2 robot from Superfici, a brand of SCM Group.