Wood Kitchen Cabinets Review — 2006

• Shipments
• Exports
• Exports to the United States
• Offshore Trade
• Special Feature: Foreign Competition in the U.S. Market
• Exports by Province
• Imports
• Construction in Canada
• Construction in Japan
• Construction in United States
• Links to Useful Websites

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2006 — Year in Review

Shipments

After a pause in growth in 2005, wood kitchen cabinet¹ shipments grew moderately in 2006 reaching $2.63 billion, a growth of 2.2 percent. Kitchen cabinets account for an increasing share of the wood industry in Canada.  In 2006 they accounted for 9 percent of wood product shipments compared to 5 percent in 1997. This is coherent with the general trend in the forest products industry to shift to more value-added production.

The overall growth in kitchen cabinet shipments was a result of strong domestic demand. Domestic shipments increased by 5.8 percent from 2005 to 2006, while exports declined by 2.6 percent. In fact, the Canadian market has accounted for an increasing share of kitchen cabinet shipments since 2001, when 44 percent were sold domestically (against 56 percent exported). In 2006, 59 percent of total shipments were sold in the domestic market

Figure 1: Wood Kitchen Cabinet Total Shipments

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Exports

Total exports of Canadian wood kitchen cabinets were $1.08 billion in 2006, compared to $1.11 billion in 2005. Exports are highly dependent on the American market, as the United States (U.S.) accounts for 98 percent of total Canadian kitchen cabinet exports.

Figure 2: Wood Kitchen Cabinet Domestic Shipments and Exports, 1997–2006

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Exports to the United States

Canadian wood kitchen cabinet exports to the U.S. reached their peak in 2002, and since then they have been declining at an average of 3.5 percent per year. In 2006, they decreased by 2.6 percent to $1.06 billion. Nevertheless, the U.S. market still represents 98 percent of the total Canadian kitchen cabinet exports.

The U.S. Northeast is the largest regional market for exports of Canadian kitchen cabinets. However, exports to that region declined by 2.2 percent to $323 million in 2006 compared to 2005. New York remains the main market in the Northeast, although the $91 million exported there represents a 15.5 percent drop from 2005 to 2006. This was partly offset by strong growth rates in exports to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, the other important Northeast markets.

Figure 3: Wood Kitchen Cabinet Exports to the U.S. by Region

The second most important U.S. regional market for Canada is the U.S. South, and it was the only region to import more Canadian kitchen cabinets in 2006 compared to the previous year. Exports to that region increased by 3.2 percent, to reach $316 million. The Southern State of Florida is the largest U.S. importer of Canadian wood kitchen cabinets at $138 million in 2006. Georgia and North Carolina are also major markets in the region with $35 million and $31 million imports in 2006. It is worth noticing the strength of the Virginian market in 2006: after a significant drop in 2005, exports to that destination increased by 43 percent in 2006 to $28 million.

In 2006, the U.S. Midwest imported 8.8 percent less Canadian kitchen cabinets. Wisconsin was one of the few growing markets of the region. It also became the most important one, with $78 million, a 21.5 percent increase from 2005. This is 5 times bigger than Wisconsin's 2004 imports of Canadian wood kitchen cabinets. Other important markets in the region are Illinois ($45 million) and Michigan ($34 million).

Finally, Canadian kitchen cabinet exports to the U.S. West were down 4.4 percent in 2006, to $209 million. The major market in this region is California with $99 million in 2006. Other major markets in the region are Washington and Colorado which each grew by 6 percent. 

Canadian Exports of Kitchen Cabinets to the Top 20 U.S. Market
(Canadian Thousands of Dollars)

Rank	State	2005	2006	% Change
Source: Statistics Canada
1	Florida	136 394	138 018	1.2
2	California	109 595	98 798	-9.9
3	New York	108 179	91 390	-15.5
4	Wisconsin	64 094	77 854	21.5
5	New Jersey	62 482	70 119	12.2
6	Pennsylvania	53 880	61 577	14.3
7	Massachusetts	48 203	54 968	14.0
8	Illinois	64 170	45 380	-29.3
9	Washington	34 738	36 695	5.6
10	Georgia	37 942	34 800	-8.3
11	Michigan	37 320	34 302	-8.1
12	North Carolina	32 483	31 419	-3.3
13	Virginia	19 957	28 489	42.8
14	Colorado	25 909	27 509	6.2
15	Texas	21 994	25 910	17.8
16	Maryland	24 390	21 197	-13.1
17	Ohio	30 896	20 124	-34.9
18	Connecticut	17 936	14 061	-21.6
19	New Hampshire	20 436	13 163	-35.6
20	Nevada	12 676	11 640	-8.2

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Offshore Trade

Overseas exports of Canadian kitchen cabinets surged by 20 percent to $18.3 million in 2005. Bermuda has been the number one offshore market destination since 2003, ahead of Japan. In 2005, Bermuda accounted for $3.9 million of offshore exports, while Japan accounted for $2.3 million. A few countries like Switzerland, Ireland, Bahamas and Cayman Islands have experienced three-digit growth in their imports of Canadian products, becoming important offshore markets. However, total overseas exports of Canadian kitchen cabinets account for only 1.6 percent of total exports.

Canadian Exports of Kitchen Cabinets To the Top 10 Offshore Markets
(Canadian Thousands of Dollars)

Rank	Country	2005	2006	% Change
Source: Statistics Canada
1	Bermuda	3 880	4 900	26.3
2	Japan	2 326	1 465	-37.0
3	Bahamas	946	1 034	9.3
4	Switzerland	1 040	1 000	-3.8
5	Cayman Islands	889	917	3.1
6	United Arab Emirates	278	781	180.8
7	United Kingdom	820	691	-15.7
8	Turks and Caicos Islands	416	551	32.3
9	Saudi Arabia	404	532	31.5
10	Jamaica	265	430	62.6

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Special Feature: Foreign Competition in the U.S. Market

Since the U.S. consumes almost all of Canada's kitchen cabinet exports, it is interesting to examine the provenance of U.S. imports and Canada's relative share of those imports. To look at this we need to use a slightly different definition of the wood kitchen cabinet industry.²

The figure below shows that Canada's share of U.S. wooden kitchen furniture imports has been diminishing since 2000, when it reached 73 percent. In 2006, this percentage went down to 52 percent. China is now the second largest foreign exporter to the U.S. market, representing 25 percent of U.S. imports in 2006. Over the last 10 years China's share quintupled. The European Union (with Italy and Germany as leaders) has also managed to capture a growing percentage of U.S. imports, from around 8 percent in 2002 to 13 percent in 2006.

Figure 4: Shares of U.S. Wooden Kitchen Furniture Imports

However, this data does not tell us how U.S. producers are performing and what share of the domestic market they account for.

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Exports by Province

Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba accounted for 89 percent of the total Canadian kitchen cabinet exports in 2006. Ontario is the only province where wood kitchen cabinet exports increased from 2005 to 2006, at a 6.2 percent rate. The Prairies and the Atlantic Provinces exports declined the most.

Figure 5: Wood Kitchen Cabinet Exports by Province, 2006

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¹Throughout this document, both ‚wood kitchen cabinets‛ and ‚kitchen cabinets‛ refer to code 33711 from the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), "Wood Kitchen Cabinet and Counter Top Manufacturing". return

²The data presented in this section is based on the HS code 940340: Wooden furniture for kitchen use. The data comes from the World Trade Atlas. return