On April 18, 2018, the CSIL World Furniture Outlook seminar took place at the Salone del Mobile furniture fair in Milan. During this meeting eight qualified speakers from different countries provided market insights to an audience of over 100 furniture manufacturers, suppliers and sector related companies and institutions.

One of the speakers represented China. Linda Tu, Vice Secretary General of CNFA (China National Furniture Association) provided figures on the Chinese furniture industry

According to the data provided by Linda Tu, in 2017, the Chinese furniture companies' income came up to 905.597 billion yuan, an increase of 10.11% year-on-year. The largest share of the total income was drawn by the wooden furniture producers — 581.444 billion yuan. That is 11.1% more than in 2016. 

Besides, last year the Chinese furniture production volume increased as well — by 3.64% up to 807 million pieces. As to production leaders by Chinese regions, the Eastern China accounted for the largest share of the furniture produced in China in 2017. 606 pieces of furniture were produced in Eastern China last year. That is 75.13% out of the total furniture production volume in China. 

Top-10 provinces producing furniture in China included (from 1st ranked down): Zhejian, Guangdong, Fujian, He'nan, Jiangxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Sichuan, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. 701 million pieces of furniture were produced in these 10 provinces, accounting for 90,64% of the total production volume. 

Moreover, in 2017, the Chinese furniture export volume came up to $51.424 billion in value terms, having increased by 4.54% year-on-year. The key export destinations were USA, Japan, UK, Australia and Germany, with the US having bought the Chinese furniture valued at $18.76 billion. The figure grew by 12% year-on-year. 

At the same time, the Chinese furniture grew as well last year. The country imported furniture whose total value came up to $3.052 billion. That is 15.65% more than in 2016. The key suppliers were Italy, Germany, Vietnam, USA, and Poland. In 2017, Italy supplied to China $508.98 million worth of furniture.

Linda Tu also reported on the main issues the Chinese furniture industry is facing. Among them: competition from other Asian suppliers, increasing production and logistic costs and technical barriers, as the enhancement on environmental requirements, on export markets. It was mentioned that the national association is working on reinforcing cooperation with partners worldwide both by boosting an extreme powerful fair system in China and by carrying out several bilateral initiatives abroad.

(Source：fordaqfurniture.com）