Japan: Latest trends in office, kitchen and bedroom furniture imports

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ITTO
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After the positive start to the new year Japan's imports of office, kitchen and bedroom furniture are struggling to recover. The value of imports of all three categories of furniture in April 2015 was around 11% below that in April 2014 despite the burst in bedroom furniure imports in February this year.

April 2015 office furniture imports (HS 9403.30)

  Imports
  April 2015
  Unit 1,000 Yen
S. Korea  -
China 86110
Taiwan P.o.C. 4485
Vietnam -
Thailand 1731
Malaysia 4119
Indonesia 5605
Lebanon 241
Sweden -
Denmark 1959
UK -
Netherlands -
France 611
Germany 218
Switzerland 15834
Portugal 41719
Italy 21882
Poland 21784
Lithuania 3053
Slovakia 4875
USA 3062
Total 227166

Source: Ministry of Finance, Japan

Office furniture imports (HS 940330)

The top four suppliers of office furniture; China, Portugal, Poland and Italy maintained their dominance of the market in Japan accounting for over 75% of all office furniture imports in April, up 5% from March.

Office furniture imports continued to fall in April (down almost 17% from March) marking the fourth straight monthly decline. The big losers in April were South Korea, Taiwan P.o.C, France and Germany. Of note was the significant value of April office furniture supplied by manufacturers in Switzerland

Kitchen furniture imports (HS 940340)

April Kitchen furniture imports were slightly higher (3.5%) in April partially making up for the 16% decline recorded in March.

The top four suppliers, accounting for 93% of total kitchen furniture imports, were Vietnam (up 30% compared to March), Philippines, China (-30%) and Indonesia (23%).

With Vietnam alone accounting for around 44% of Japan's kitchen furniture imports it will come as no surprise that when imports from Thailand, Malaysia Philippines and Indonesia are included, SE Asian suppliers are capturing the lion's share of the market for imported Kitchen furniture.

April 2015 kitchen furniture imports

 

Imports
April 2015

Unit 1,000 Yen

China 159131
Taiwan P.O.C. 1285
Vietnam 459788
Thailand 13833
Malaysia 12265
Philippines 217493
Indonesia 141443
UK 438
Germany 15914
Italy 6830
Poland 6324
Romania 2124
Canada 3527
USA 15062
Total  1055457

Source: Ministry of Finance, Japan

Bedroom furniture imports (HS 9403.50)

Imports of bedroom furniture remain dominated by two suppliers; China and Vietnam which together accounted for 86% of April imports by Japan. The latest data from the Ministry of Finance in Japan shows that bedroom furniture imports from China surged almost 45% in April 2015 but were still below levels recorded in April 2014.

The number three and number four suppliers of bedroom furniture in April 2015 were Thailand and Indonesia, together adding a further 6% of overall imports.

Of non-Asian suppliers Poland, Slovakia, Romania and the US emerged as serious suppliers in April with all three achieving better sales to Japan compared to those in March this year

April 2015 bedroom furniture imports

  Imports
2015 April
  Unit 1,000 Yen
S. Korea 419
China 1221160
Taiwan P.o.C. 16770
Vietnam 564573
Thailand 74169
Malaysia 39811
Philippines 229
Indonesia 44164
Denmark 5501
UK 250
Belgium 227
Switzerland 1612
Spain 371
Italy 7884
Poland 39981
Austria 339
Romania 12550
Latvia 215
Lithuania 6447
Croatia 204
Slovakia 15580
USA 21479
Total 2073935

Source: Ministry of Finance, Japan

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