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Heating property market an opportunity for wood products
Vietnamese wood product makers should take advantage of the warming local property market to spark growth as export demand dwindles, said industry insiders at a meeting last week.
Though the global economic slump has cut into international sales, domestic demand for wood construction products has been rising as the property market heats up and more people buy new homes and property, said members of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association at the Ho Chi Minh City gathering.
Dang Thi Mai, Director of the Research Center for Business and Consumers, said wood companies should tap into the market growth being created by the construction of many new apartment and office buildings in need of wood products.
She also said that local buyers had turned their back on furniture products from China, providing still more opportunities for local makers to expand.
But Dang Quoc Hung, Vice Chairman of the association, said local firms needed to improve operations in order to expand. He said less than 20 out of the group’s 311 members had achieved steady sales growth on the domestic market.
Experts at the event said domestic furniture makers would have to set up better sales and distribution networks on the local market.
Export slide
While the possibilities for domestic growth were lauded, the prospects for exports were grim.
Vietnam’s furniture exports were expected to shrink by 30 percent to US$1.3 billion in the first half of this year due to declining global demand, an industry representative said.
Vietnam exported $940 million worth of furniture and wood products in the first five months of the year, nearly a 20 percent decrease year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office.
Vietnam’s furniture exports to European markets would continue to slow as the region’s economic recovery is expected to take longer than the expected US rebound, according to Vo Truong Thanh, Chairman of the Truong Thanh Furniture Corporation.
thanhnien, TBKTSG Online
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