Federlegnoarredo: first quarter exports stable at 4.7 billion euros

The UK and the United Arab Emirates also confirm their dynamism in the first months of 2025, while on the EU market Spain and Portugal stand out with growing data.

On the import front, the data from China stands out, reaching +25% (March '25 over March '24), while the cumulative figure for the quarter even reaches +38.2%.

These are the main findings that emerge from the data processed by the FederlegnoArredo Study Center on Istat data and that photograph the exports of the first quarter of a sector that, like many others, is "forced to sit on the sidelines" waiting to really understand what will happen in terms of duties and what path Trump intends to take.

“ As has been happening for almost a year now, for different reasons, but all highly complex – comments Claudio Feltrin ( PHOTO ), president of FederlegnoArredo – being able to imagine even the immediate future is truly impossible, but the clear fact is that while we are at the mercy of the declarations of the US president, the negative trend of the main countries that import our products continues. In the Top 10, France and Germany continue to decline (-4.2% and -2.6% respectively), while the UK and Spain record a +3.3% and a +7.4%; the United Arab Emirates record the best percentage variation with a +11.1% for a total exported value of 108 million euros.

An alarm bell also comes from the data on imports of Chinese products into Italy, which we saw in March reach + 25%, even if the Istat data for April 2025 report a 3.5% drop in imports for furniture. A small positive signal? We will understand in the coming months, but the advance of the Chinese giant should not make us feel too reassured. It is no coincidence that, due to the climate of confidence expressed by companies in May , the balance of opinions on orders (difference between high and low opinions on orders) stands at -24.1%, worse than the -20.2% of April.

It should be noted, at the same time, that 61.7% of companies still declare that orders are "normal", therefore in line with expectations: data that is also confirmed by the industrial production of furniture, which in the period January-April 2025 recorded a +5.4%".

Considering the five countries ( INFOGRAPHIC) that in absolute terms are growing the most in January-March 2025, in addition to Spain, the USA and the UAE, we find Morocco +55.6% (26th destination) and Portugal +25% (21st destination). Among the five countries with the worst negative trend we find France and Germany, which in the Top 10 lose 35.5 million euros and 13.5 million euros respectively; China (12th destination) records a decline of 16.4% and Saudi Arabia of 13.5% (16th destination).