Furniture, exports to the Opec area slumped in March. USA -18.3%, Europe holds

The March export figures of the wood-furniture industry confirm the fears of companies about the effects of US tariffs and the war in Iran.

In fact, the US market recorded a heavy drop in furniture sales (-18.3% compared to the same month in 2025), which brings the cumulative figure for the first three months of the year to -16.1%, equal to 151 million euro less in revenues. And the Middle East, which for many companies should have been an alternative to the US slowdown, saw an even deeper setback, with exports to the Opec area down 66% year-on-year.

The first quantifiable sign of the war in Iran. The first, but not the only one, as explained by the president of FederlegnoArredo Claudio Feltrin, who will present these data today at the assembly of the federation, which represents a 52.2 billion euro supply chain, with over 62 thousand companies and 292 thousand employees (Fla 2025 data). "Our companies are also weighed down by the already significant increase in production costs due to the conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, particularly with regard to the prices of energy, transport and some materials, including wood," says Feltrin. He sees no relief in the short term: 'Even if an agreement is reached in the coming weeks, it will take months before the situation normalises. I fear that 2026 will be a very difficult year for companies.

In addition to the direct effects of the war, there are indirect ones: the rise in inflation, the ECB's announced increase in interest rates, the collapse in consumer confidence and the consequent drop in demand, with effects also on the domestic market, which had instead supported industrial production in recent months. Already in March there is evidence of all this, with industrial production falling by 3.4% for the wood sector and 8.4% for furniture, according to ISTAT, while Italian manufacturing increased by 2%. The data on redundancy funds confirm the difficulties faced by companies, especially small ones: in the first quarter there was a demand for CIG over 7 million hours (+30%) compared to the same period in 2025, with an increase in extraordinary CIG (+70%).

In this picture, however, a positive element emerges: the recovery of Europe. After the downturn in the first two months of the year (-6.7% for furniture), in March the European Union grew by 1.4%, reaching 486 million euros in exports and reducing the cumulative drop in the quarter to -3.8%, thanks above all to the good performance of France, the leading market for Italian furniture, which grew by 3.8% compared to March 2025, but also Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland. Non-EU European countries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Turkey also performed well, bringing the figure for Europe as a whole to +2.8%, compared to the drop in the first two months. This reduced the drop in exports in March to -5.1% (against -13% in January) and the cumulative drop in the January-March period to -7.4%, against -8.8% in January-February. On the other hand, non-EU countries recorded a sharp drop of 17.4%.