Poland Maintained Its Position as Europe's Leader of Parquet Floor Production in 2011

New figures show that Poland maintained its position as Europe’s leader of parquet floor production in 2011. The European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP) said Poland's production share of the FEP area was 17.6%, followed by Germany at 14.63% and Sweden on 13.26%. Multiplayer wooden flooring made of 78% of products, solid wood 20% and mosaic 2%. The FEP member parquet production in 2011 was 70.1 million m2, a 0.58% increase on the previous year, while consumption declined by 1.65%. FEP said the production figures have to be seen in light of the decision by several producers to relocate their production outside the FEP area. Without these moves, FEP said total production would have grown by an additional 2-3%. "The 2011 results therefore confirm the stabilisation trend already initiated in 2010, which came after two difficult years during which the parquet industry faced challenging times which led to a downfall in both consumption and production, " it said. Oak was the top species with 66.7% of wood flooring, followed by tropical timber at 7.4% and ash with 6.5%. FEP said it hoped the second quarter of 2012 would bring a "positive upswing" for the industry, though admitted it was not realistic to see this across the FEP area. Source: ttjonline