GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Assn. said U.S. office furniture orders rose 2% in May compared with a year earlier, to $990 million, but a slump is likely later this year, according to Reuters. BIFMA said May shipments rose 1% to $945 million.
However, BIFMA said it expects full-year orders and shipments to fall 4.7% and 6.8%, respectively.
“The industry’s primary macroeconomic drivers are either negative (business confidence, corporate profits) or deteriorating (service sector employment, new office construction),” Raymond James analyst Budd Bugatch wrote in a note to clients commenting on the BIFMA data.
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