World Trade in Consumer Goods Recovering: The Case of the Household industry

As documented in a recent article of this e-magazine, the pre-estimates of the 4th quarter of 2024 of world trade, available in ExportPlanning in the World Trade Datamart, highlight a Year-over-Year improvement for sales of consumer goods.

Among the consumer goods sectors in acceleration is noted in the case of the household products¹. Analyzing the data on world exports, in the most recent quarter there was a significant Year-over-Year increase (+8.1% at constant prices), which strengthens the recovery already glimpsed in the first part of the year and which allows the finished home products sector to close 2024 with an average annual increase of +4.1% (pre-estimate).

World Exports of Household Products:
% Year-over-Year changes at constant prices

The acceleration is generalized
to all the main sectors of the Household industry

The recent world trade data highlight a context in a phase of generalized improvement for household products.
In particular, the following sectors are accelerating and in positive territory:

• Home Appliances²: thanks to the +17.1% Year-over-Year in the fourth quarter of the year (constant prices), it is by far the sector with the greatest positive contributions to the Year-over-Year growth of world exports of household products;
• Home Textiles³: further strengthening of Year-over-Year growth in the most recent quarter (+11.6% at constant prices, after the over 8 percentage points of the first part of the year), leading to a 2024 result (+9.1% in the pre-estimate of the end of the year) of full recovery after the weak decline in 2023;
• Carpets, Tapestries, Wallpaper⁴: the last quarter of last year showed a double-digit percentage Year-over-Year growth (+10.1% at constant prices), allowing global sales of the sector to close 2024 with a large positive result (+7.5% in the pre-estimate at constant prices);
• Glasses and Tableware⁵: the Year-over-Year growth of global sales in the sector continued in the fourth quarter of 2024 (+9.8% at constant prices), leading to a cumulative annual increase (pre-estimates for 2024) of close to 7 percentage points (constant prices);
• Pots and Pans⁶: in the fourth quarter of 2024, global sales in the sector showed a Year-over-Year growth of close to 10 percentage points when measured at constant prices, leading to a year-end result of an increase in the order of 8 percentage points (pre-estimates at constant prices), largely recovering the decline recorded the previous year;
• Cutlery⁷: the fourth quarter of 2024 confirmed the recovery phase of global sales in the sector (+9.6% Year-over-Year at constant prices), determining an estimated year-end result of 8.5 percentage points (however, only partially recovering from the heavy fall in 2023 [-14%]);
• Lighting Technology⁸: the fourth quarter of 2024 showed a positive reversal of the trend in global sales of the sector (+6.8% Year-over-Year at constant prices, after the declining phase of the first 9 months of the year), not allowing, however, to achieve a positive result at the end of the year (-1.5% in the pre-estimate 2024), after the already heavy fall of 2023 (-13.8%);
• Consumer Electronics⁹: in this case too, the most recent quarter led to a change in sign of global sales of the sector, with a +4.3% Year-over-Year (constant prices); this performance was not, however, able to ensure a growth result at the end of the year (-1.1% in the 2024 pre-estimate, at constant prices), confirming the weak dynamics of 2023 (-1.7%);
• General items for the home¹⁰: the most recent quarter recorded an improving result (+4.4% Year-over-Year at constant prices) compared to the first part of the year, allowing 2024 to close with a "plus sign" (+2.6%), not enough, however, to recover the negative performance of 2023 (-8.8%).

In some cases, however, recent improvements have not allowed recovery from the penalties of 2023 and the first part of 2024

Despite improving, however, in some cases recent performance has been still inadequate to fill the decline seen in global sales in the 2023 average: the most relevant cases are those of Lighting Technology and Consumer Electronics (also declining in the 2024 average); furthermore, the cases of Cutlery, Glasses and Tableware and General items for the home are reported.

The still uncertain evolution of the sector framework therefore suggests to an exporting company the strategic utility of continuous monitoring of market conditions, in terms of demand and dynamics of the main competitors for the product/strategic business area of reference, in order to allow it to best support its international positioning.

The importance of monitoring market conditions
at a "product-specific" level

With the aim of allowing constant monitoring of the foreign markets of reference at a "product-specific" level, ExportPlanning makes available Market Insights, a new series of information services aimed at specifically supporting the market intelligence and budgeting processes of exporting companies.