ANALYSIS: Present and future for a wayward industrial sector

In a traditional way, at the end of each year there shall be a brief overview of the major events that occurred in the windows and doors field, which must be completed with a short/medium outlook. If we were speaking about a market other than the Romanian one, the approach would be simple and would have resulted in presenting an increase of about 4% - 5%, with prospects of strengthening this positive trend. Unfortunately, for the local market, the assessments are not so easy to do, even though this fact must not necessarily be considered as a downward trend. It is true that the local branch of windows registered also in 2013, as in the last five years, a large enough contraction (around 10%). This led to a total turnover not exceeding 300 million EUR. A comparison with the peak of the sector indicates that in the last 12 months, the revenues were around 25% from the level recorded in 2008. Is this the limit of affordability or the situation could become worse? Nobody knows the answer to that question. A pragmatic analysis can demonstrate that, in terms of supply systems, things have improved compared to the state recorded at the beginning of the recession, when the market was "suffocated" with dubious products. Currently, the manufacturers of windows are using almost exclusively West European materials, in theory this being one of the positive effects of the economic crisis. However, the extent to which this reality can help the improvement of the quality of finished products available on the market remains debatable. One can say that, on the contrary, the thermal insulating joinery performance decreased significantly, and this negative effect is exclusively the consequence of the customer orientation towards the low price criterion. The blame cannot be attributed to system providers, who need to adapt dynamically to the specific request and make compromises often unthinkable in other regions of the world. Such consumer behavior is not caused solely by the lack of financial resources, but represents rather a consequence of certain local customs.