KUCHING: Malaysia’s wood furniture exports to Europe has continued its uptrend this year following a strong recovery in 2024.
Malaysia’s wood furniture shipments to European Union 27 member countries + United Kingdom (EU27+UK) increased by 22 per cent to 24,000 tonnes in the January-March 2025 quarter (1Q2025) after recording a 20 per cent hike to 87,000 tonnes in 2024 from that of 2023.
Malaysia is the second largest supplier of wood furniture to Europe.
“Following a steep decline in 2023, European imports of wood furniture from the three largest tropical supplying countries — Vietnam, Malaysia and India — recovered some lost ground in 2024, a trend which continued in the first quarter of 2025.
“EU27+UK imports of wood furniture from Vietnam increased 8 per cent to 161,000 tonnes in 2024 and were up 23 per cent to 58,000 tonnes in the first quarter of this year. Imporets from Malaysia increased 20 per cent to 87,000 tonnes in 2024 and were up 22 per cent to 24,000 tonnes in the first quarter of this year. Imports from India increased 10 per cent to 81,000 tonnes in 2024 and were up 19 per cent to 19,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2025,” according to International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) Tropical Timber Market Report (June 16-30, 2025) based on its analysis of Eurostat COMEXT and UK Customs data.
On the other hand, EU27+UK imports of wood furniture from both Indonesia and Brazil fell last year, respectively by 7 per cent to 68,000 tonnes and 5 per cent to 46,000 tonnes.
However, imports from both countries started strongly this year, up 11% to 17,000 tonnes from Indonesia and up 13 per cent to 13,000 tonnes from Brazil in 1Q2025 as compared to 1Q2024.
After most European destinations for tropical wood furniture recorded a large downturn in 2023, there was slow recovery in all the main markets in 2024, a trend which continued into 1Q2025.
In 1Q2025, imports of tropical wood furniture increased in the UK (+23% to 41,200 tonnes), France (+13% to 21,300 tonnes), Germany (+11% to 16,800 tonnes), Netherlands (+5% to 12,400 tonnes), Spain (+48% to 10,400 tonnes), Belgium (+13% to 6,800 tonnes), Poland (+59% to 3,500 tonnes), Ireland (+28% to 3,000 tonnes) and Italy (+22% to 2,800 tonnes). Imports in Denmark were stable at 3,600 tonnes.
“Despite recent challenging market conditions, Europe continues to hold a crucial position in the global furniture industry, acting as a pivotal hub for production, consumption and world trade. Valued at nearly US$125 billion in 2024, the European market accounts for more than one-quarter of the global world furniture market.
“A key feature of the European furniture sector is that it is characterised by an exceptionally high level of business-to-business trade concentration and integration. Unlike in the US where a large share of furniture production has been relocated to China, Southeast Asia and Mexico, 80 per cent of current demand in Europe continues to be met by European manufacturers.
“Considering just wood furniture, around 35 per cent (US$22 billion) of total value of world trade in 2024 (US$65.8 billion) involved EU countries where there is a robust intra-regional trade network,” said ITTO.
In 2024, the total value of wood furniture imports into the EU from outside the region jumped by 17 per cent to US$6.64 billion. Imports of wood furniture into four other major global markets also rebounded last year: the US (+7% to US$21.3 billion), UK (+5% to US$4.4 billion), Australia (+15% to US$1.7 billion) and Canada (+2% to US$2.3 billion).
These positive trends were, however, partly offset by a 3.2 per cent fall in the value of EU internal wood furniture trade to US$15.3 billion, alongside a 2 per cent fall in Japan’s imports to US$1.9 billion, and a 3 per cent fall in Swiss imports, also to US$1.9 billion.
“China and Vietnam, and to a lesser extent Malaysia, were the principal beneficiaries of the overall recovery in global wood furniture trade in 2024. The value of China’s exports increased by nearly 17 per cent to US$15.6 billion while exports from Vietnam increased by nearly 18 per cent to US$11.2 billion. Exports from Malaysia increased by nearly 8 per cent to US$2 billion during the period.
“Considering longer term trends, the clear winner in the global wood furniture trade is Vietnam for which the value of exports increased by over 40 per cent between 2019 and 2024. This gain was largely at the expense of China for which the value of wood furniture exports declined 6 per cent during the same period.
“Nevertheless, last year China was still the world’s leading exporter of wood furniture by a significant margin. Overall, the data implies that the widely anticipated trend towards “reshoring” of production back to historical production centres, such as the US, Europe and Japan, has yet to gain any real momentum, at least in the wood furniture manufacturing sector.
“This trend is expected to be driven by the closing gap between Chinese and US/European production costs, the reduction of labour intensity due to the progressive advent of technology, the development of regional value chains, and increasing demand for product customisation and shorter time to market favouring proximity of manufacturers to clients,” said the ITTO report.
