News From Europe
Insolvencies in European hardwood industry The unfavorable
situation on the international markets for temperate hardwood logs and sawn hardwoods has
resulted in a high number of insolvencies in the European hardwood sawmilling industry.
This development is reported as mainly the result of the slump in prices for sawn beech
and beech logs.
Within the industry those companies who, over the past years, concentrated on exports
of beech to China and who had signed early contracts with forest owners for large
quantities of logs at fixed prices have been hard hit.
The bankruptcy application filed by Westpfälzische Holzindustrie Hinterweidenthal
(WPH) at end of August was one more example of the difficult situation faced by the German
hardwood sawing industry. At WPH, it was mainly bad debts of around US$1mil. from business
in China that had weakened the company's position. The indications are that a similar
development is emerging in the French hardwood timber industry.
Danish parquet flooring for Marco Polo Airport
Marco Polo Airport, Venice, Italy, has ordered 10,000 sq. metres of massive parquet
flooring for a new terminal from the Danish company Hørning Parket Fabrik. Among
the reference clients of the Danish plant are Copenhagen Airport, Arlanda Airport
(Stockholm) and Bergen Airport.
Danish Furniture to enter Sweden
Danish furniture producer Ilva A/S is to challenge the dominance of Swedish Ikea in
Sweden. Ilva is to set up a store in Southern Sweden somewhere between Malmö and
Helsingborg. The construction of the store is scheduled to start this autumn. Ilva is in
the final stages of talks with a Swedish building contractor to set up a 15,000 sq m store
at the cost of between DKr90mn (US$10.6mn) and DKr130mn.
Lutz on expansion course
The insolvent furniture chain Möbel Krügel of Stein near Nuremberg, Bavaria,
will sell its main store in Stein to Austrian Lutz of Wels. The latter will also acquire
the K-1 discount and the Hin-und-Mit furniture markets. Lutz already had taken over Krügel
stores in Stuttgart and Kempten. The Austrian group, which is also running Möbel
Neubert stores in Würzburg and Hirschaid, intends to increase its turnover generated
on the German market from EUR 400mn (US$ 369.11mn) to more than EUR 500mn by 2010. Möbel
Krügel's main furniture store in Stein is to be renamed XXX-Lutz, the discount market
is to be operated under Möblix.
Ikea, a store in every major city
Swedish furniture chain Ikea, is planning the construction of a further 13 stores in
Russia, one in every city with over a million inhabitants. The company currently has seven
opened or planned in St Petersburg and Moscow. The cities in Ikea's sights include:
Nizjnij Novgorod, Jekaterinburg, Samara, Novosibirsk, Krasnojarsk, Saratov, Omsk,
Tjeljabinsk, Perm, Kazan, Ufa, Rostov-na-Donu and Volgograd. Ikea also plans to increase
the proportion of furniture manufactured in Russia from a current 10% to a proposed 30%.
Timber floor market in 2001
The European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP) reports that timber floor sales
in its long-term member countries have decreased by 1.2% to below 80 million m2 in 2001
and the production has decreased by 1.3% to 62.1 million m2. Output from new members of
the organisation - Hungary, Poland and Romania - brought total production to 75.6 million
m2, and consumption in non-FEP member countries in the EU and European Free Trade
Association pushed total sales to 95 million m2. The European wide annual growth in
consumption was 4.4%, and timber had a 5.1% share of the total floorcoverings market. The
organisation expects the demand to remain at the same level in 2002.
Nearly 80% of furniture exported
According to the Romanian Association of Furniture Manufacturers (APMR) the country's
furniture exports in 2001 totalled US$ 500mil., accounting for 78% of total furniture
production, while export growth of around 5% is expected for 2002. The domestic furniture
market, meanwhile, was worth US$ 224mil. in 2001, slightly down on the 2000 level of US$
235mil., with imports accounting for about a third of the market. Imports are forecast to
drop in the future as local manufacturers improve quality and variety, while overall
production is expected to increase by around 75% by 2010, by which time exports will be
worth US$ 800mn. There are currently 2,900 furniture factories in Romania but this is
expected to decrease in the future as a result of consolidation in the industry.
Source:Itto & Europe Timber |
