Till writing this editorial, the market scenario is seemingly better and looks promising. Demand for plywood, Film faced plywood, decorative laminates, PB and MDF are better in flow than the last two quarters. The sales in decorative veneers and highlighters have seen flatness that may be due to steep pressure on consumers due to economic slowdown. The panel manufacturing industry and the wholesale community have been under tremendous stress since a couple of years but there is an optimism building up of for the year 2020.
The raw material prices have eased a little that has extended the spark among manufacturers. But, the fall back for decorative laminate manufacturers is very much visible because the volume biggies are pushing their material in the markets, leading to a race of price cut. The decorative laminate players from mid-segment are desperate to sell their capacities and on the way to faster growth, they are compromising with margins, payment terms and hurriedly including new folders of lesser thicknesses.
if the situation on corona improves in March-April, hopefully, it will take another two months to come to normalcy else there is no certainty till some breakthrough is achieved. There are hopes from rise in temperature during March that will help to curb and destroy the virus, till then there will be significant impact. The working in offices, factories are first hit if corona virus fear grip any country. So far India has been escaping the spread, let's pray for blessings, nature support and lets adopt to hygiene and prevention.
The outcome of present scenario in HPL points towards a scattered and fragmented decorative laminate trade in coming future where lot of stock build-up is happening with slowing payment cycle. How oversupply can distort beauty and add to struggle in a fine product, one can gauge from decorative laminate category? The only suggestion to manufacturers is, DO NOT CET TRAPPED in PUSH SALES, MONEY Won't COME...
On the other side, the impact of coronavirus epidemic is visible on industrial sectors across the products including wood panel, decorative and raw materials for surfacing needs. The entire industry and trade transactions and transport is expected to be hit badly, which may jeopardize many companies supply chain and businesses. The related machinery where raw material and equipments, parts are coming from China is feeling a great hit and will derail or delay many of the businesses that are directly related to them.
The economic implications of coronavirus in India are yet unknown because the infection cases are very few in proportion to other countries with no death reported till date. But, if the scenario become serious due to virus and spreading with pace in India, there would be a direct hit to businesses, trade, industry and economy. If any corona fear grips India in coming few weeks, there will be certainly a direct effect on demand for wood panel and decorative products. its not yet known but certainly worrying for India markets.
If the situation on corona improves in March-April, hopefully, it will take another two months to come to normalcy else there is no certainty till some breakthrough is achieved. There are hopes from rise in temperature during March that will help to curb and destroy the virus, till then there will be significant impact The working in offices, factories are first hit if corona virus fear grip any country. So far India has been escaping the spread, lets pray for blessings, nature support and lets adopt to hygiene and prevention. Enjoy reading the India wood related news and trade reports..