European parquet flooring production massively fell 30.5% in 2023 to 54.4 million m2, according to the latest statistics unveiled by the European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP).
After a good year in 2022 which consolidated the level reached during the booming 2021, decreases were observed on all European markets during 2023, reflecting the decline in construction activity, high interest rates, lack of consumer confidence, and unfair competition.
Production in FEP countries had reached 78million m2 in 2022 and as much as 81.8 million2 in 2021 during the Covid pandemic. The European production outside FEP countries is at an estimated 10.4 million m2.
Consumption also saw a 30% decline, with the 2023 figure standing at 61.8 million m2 (2022: 87.1 million m2), the lowest amount for more than 10 years.
In terms of consumption per country, Germany keeps its first position despite a declining share at 17.44%, Italy at 13.35% and Sweden at 11.06%.
In absolute production figures by country, Poland maintains its top position at 18.18%, Austria with 14.47% keeps the second place on the podium and Sweden the third (11.86%). Italy takes the 4th position from Germany which now ranks 7th.
The usage of wood species in 2023 indicates that the share of oak increases slightly to 83% compared to 82.1% in 2022. Tropical wood species represent a stable 2% of used wood (although the category “other” at 3.2% could, partly, be added to tropical wood). Ash and beech are still the two other most common chosen species with 4.5% and 2.7% respectively.
The 2023 total parquet production per type remains similar to the picture already presented from 2010 onwards, whereby multilayer comes in first with 84% (compared to 83% in 2022), being followed by solid at 14% (compared to 15% in 2022) and mosaic with a stable 2% of the total cake.
