The furniture industry, one of the hardest hit at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, has raised its head since last summer. This was revealed by a focus of Intesa Sanpaolo's Studies and Research Departments, which followed the evolution of both the sector in general and the districts during 2020. Meanwhile, the piece of furniture came from an excellent pre-Covid period: it represented the fourth Italian sector for trade balance, which amounted to 7,6 billion euros in 2019, and showed a positive trend in turnover, which in 2018 was set at 23 billion, with around 18.600 operating companies for a total of over 130.000 employees in our country.
The virus containment measures initially had a significant negative impact: first of all due to the consequent collapse in household consumption, and then due to the contraction in furniture purchases by Italian companies, in particular those related to the Hospitality sector, one of the sectors most affected by Covid. Therefore, the business of supplies for hotels, bars and restaurants, offices, shops, the naval and hospital sector went into crisis. In the summer months, with the reopening of businesses, however, the mobile sector began to show signs of recovery and is one of the few sectors record the positive return on turnover (+1,9% the trend change in July, -8,2% for manufacturing).
The recovery of the sector became even more intense in August (+51%) and September (+16.5%), bringing the third quarter to close with a growth in turnover of 16%, a much better figure than the manufacturing average, still down. The recovery continued in October highlighting a trend change of 8,3% (-4,9% for manufacturing), and again in November, with growth in both turnover and exports (respectively +11,7% and +3,1% the trend change , although retail sales decreased again due to the autumn restrictions).
There was a recovery both on the domestic market (+4,6% in October), and above all on the export front, which according to data released by Intesa Sanpaolo began to grow again (August +4,6% and September +11,5 .2%), with the overall figure for the third quarter registering an increase of XNUMX%. In October, however, it highlights a contraction in foreign sales (-4,7%), despite a positive return of exports in many countries
European and non-European (including the United States and France, important outlet markets for the sector). Finally, even at the district level, after the difficulties of the first half of the year, there was a recovery in sectoral exports in the third quarter of 2020, with the positive return of most of the sector's production hubs.
Overall, district exports experienced a growth of 4,5% in the third quarter, a double pace compared to the national one. Among these are the main districts of the sector (Treviso, Pordenone and Brianza), the kitchens of Pesaro, the Upholstery of Murgia and, above all, the Upholstery of Forlì, which, supported by a strong sales boom in the third quarter of the year (+45,5%) especially in France and China , brought the balance sheet for the first nine months of the year into positive territory (+8,7%). The recovery concerns almost all the main furniture export destinations but, in general, the furniture districts have returned to growth in their main commercial outlets (France, United States and Germany).
