Furniture industry 'in a slump': Report

The slumping furniture industry will find it hard to recover next year amid the sluggish macro-economic situation and weak awareness of brands, the Guangzhou Daily reported on Tuesday.

A comprehensive boom may appear if the property industry recovers, the newspaper quoted experts as saying.

Hong Kong Royal Furniture Holding Ltd, one of the biggest furniture companies by production and sale, was reported to be cutting back on the acquisition of goods and closing stores last month. The company also announced recently that its sales in October had were worse than sales in the third quarter.

Royal Furniture's business turnover declined 30 percent to HK$498.3 million ($64 million) in the first half of the year, according to its half-year report.

Royal Furniture has very large inventories this year, so if you go to its factory, you can buy its furniture at factory prices, an industry insider said.

The company's inventory in the first half of the year reached HK$347 million, 36 percent higher than that at the end of last year, accounting for 40 percent of its current assets at that time.

The A-share listed Suofeiya Home Collection Co Ltd had 83.3 million yuan of inventories at the end of the third quarter, an increased of more than half the figure in the previous quarter.

The export-oriented and listed Markor International Furniture Co Ltd reported losses of 40 million yuan, with net profit down 197.33 percent, in the third quarter.

mengfanbin@chinadaily.com.cn