Sales of parquet flooring have risen further in Europe during the last year. Above all, customers like the warmth and cosiness generated by parquet
The overall market for floor coverings in Europe (EU and EFTA) is reckoned to have grown by two per cent in 1999 to a volume of 1.8 bn m², of which parquet enjoys a share of 4.8 to 5 per cent, according to FEP estimates.
Parquet offers a wide range of colours, shapes and types of wood.
The trend during the first quarter of 2000 points to further growth in the demand for parquet flooring throughout Europe, continuing the trend observed in recent years, with the share of mosaic parquet increasing. A rise in production is reported at the same time.
Parquet production in the FEP countries attained a volume of 60 774 mio m² by the end of 1999, thus passing the 60 mio m² milestone for the first time. Compared to 1998, this equates to an increase of 4.2 per cent.
The growth in production is attributable primarily to the very high increase in production in Austria, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. In Finland, France, Germany and Sweden, a slight decline in production was recorded compared with 1998.
As far as the various types of parquet are concerned, the production of mosaic parquet continued to decline (-17per cent) to a volume of less than 4 mio m². In the lamellar parquet (strip parquet) sector, an increase of four per cent partly made up for the losses which occurred in 1998, while growth of 16 per cent was achieved for solid parquet in thicknesses from 14 to 23 mm. The increase in production of multilayer parquet was more modest, at five per cent. Multilayer parquet accounted for 69 per cent of overall production, with solid parquet accounting for 14 per cent, lamellar parquet for 10 per cent and mosaic parquet for 7 per cent.
On the whole, Sweden remains the principal manufacturer of parquet in the FEP (23 per cent), followed by Germany (16 per cent), France (12 per cent), Norway/Denmark (9.2 per cent) and Italy (8.2 per cent), which has overtaken Finland. At 1.57 m² and 0.93 m² per capita respectively, Sweden and Finland are the main producing countries if reckoned per head of population. Austria with a volume of 0.53 m² is gaining ground on Norway/Denmark with a volume of 0.57 m² per capita, while Switzerland is now up to 0.39 m². Average production in the FEP countries amounted to 0.20 m² per head of population.