A tough year for the European parquet industry

Provisional figures show that the total production in the FEP countries went down by 15.56 per cent to 84 725 mio m² last year, which is slightly above the figures achieved in 2003. Sweden, France, Spain, the Nordic countries and Germany all experienced a sharp decline, which had a major impact on the negative development of the sector as a whole. The consumption of parquet in the FEP countries was also down: it fell 9.51 per cent to 101 547 mio m². A considerable downward trend was experienced particularly in Spain, France and Germany, as well as in Denmark, Finland and Norway. On the other hand, though, some east European countries and Switzerland actually managed to improve their consumption figures, in spite of the tough economic situation. Download: Parquet production in 2008 by type (PDF) In terms of absolute production figures per country, Poland was clearly in the lead at 18.03 per cent, followed by Sweden at 14.16 per cent. Germany was third with 13.02 per cent. Parquet consumption in FEP member countries (PDF) In terms of the species of timber used, oak headed the list with 57.6 per cent of the total in 2008. Exotic species recorded a share of 14.7 per cent, which indicates a slight decline by comparison with 2007. Having lost considerable ground, ash fell back to 7 per cent, whereas beech remained stable at 6.5 per cent. Download: Species of timber used (PDF)