“If Europe and/or the Italian government do not put in place measures to stop the now unsustainable increases in gas and energy very soon, they must be aware that they will pull the handbrake on entire production chains, including the wood-furniture sector, which will be forced to stop production, put workers on layoffs and lose competitiveness in the markets.” Claudio Feltrin, the president of FederlegnoArredo, doesn’t mince words when it comes to the recent (and unsustainable) cost increases, with price hikes hitting 300 percent these days, and the future of wood-furniture companies.
A future that, after an excellent 2021, looks increasingly complicated and that risks turning a period of growth into a “blackout” as early as next month. “Unfortunately,” explains Feltrin, “within a few days the situation has precipitated, the costs for our energy-intensive companies, that is, those of panels that represent the first link in the chain, are now out of control and excluding to pass on these increases to the final consumer, our entrepreneurs have no choice but to stop production already from the next few weeks and ask for layoffs for their employees. A truly bleak scenario that will quickly involve the entire wood-furniture supply chain, which will only be able to fulfill orders based on warehouse stocks that, to be optimistic, can last a month and a half at most. Translated as early as October there will be a blackout of our supply chain.“
“I believe it is in the interest of the entire political class to prevent the many supply chains on which Italy’s GDP rests from coming to a standstill, otherwise the future government will have to deal, first and foremost, with resuscitating a country with a zero pulse. For this reason,” Feltrin concludes, “we are calling not only for a European and/or Italian cap on the price of gas, but also for a doubling of the tax credit for companies that have lost marginality and turnover, and for the safeguarding of the cascading use of wood, so that it is not cheaper to burn it than to process it and produce added value. The recent openings that seem to be coming from Germany to a European ceiling are an important signal, a glimmer so that we can act quickly and decisively. Businesses cannot wait any longer“.
