by Shipments fall 13% during same period, consistent with 14% annual decline in December and 17% decline for calendar year 2023
HIGH POINT — New furniture orders were down 1% in January compared to January 2023, while shipments were down 13% over the same period, according to the latest Furniture Insights report from Smith Leonard.
The monthly tracking of industry activity said the slight drop in new orders broke eight consecutive months of increases, although new orders were up 7% over December.
January shipments fell 13% from January 2023, which it said was consistent with a 14% year-over-year decline in December and the 17% annual decline in calendar year 2023 compared to calendar year 2022. Meanwhile January shipments were up 2% over December.
New orders in January totaled $2.11 billion, compared to $2.13 billion in January 2023 and $1.97 billion in December. The report said that half the survey participants reported increased orders in January compared to January 2023.
Shipments totaled $2.15 billion in January, compared to $2.47 billion in January 2023 and $2.12 billion in December. They were down for about three-quarters of the survey participants compared to January 2023.
“So despite recent improvement in new orders overall, trends continue to be affected by many companies shipping from their historically high backlogs through much of 2022 into early 2023,” the report said.
The report added that with month-over-month orders declining and shipments up slightly, January backlogs were down 27% from January 2023 and 1% from December 2023.
January backlogs totaled $2.61 billion, compared to $3.6 billion in January 2023 and $2.61 billion in December 2023.
Receivable levels rose 6% from December, which the report said is likely tied to timing around the holidays. They were down 12% from January 2023, which it said is in line with the decline in shipments.
Other highlights of the report were as follows:
+ Inventories were down 28% from January 2023 and were down slightly from December. It noted that this is an indication that most companies have rebalanced their inventory levels to match current operations.
+ The number of factory and warehouse workers was down 7% from January 2023 and level with December 2023, which it said is another indication that most companies have right-sized their teams, “though most are still eager to add good people when available.”
