European manufacturers produced 80.4 million square meters (865.4 million square feet) of wood flooring in 2016, a 2.32 percent increase compared with 2015’s 78.58 million square meters (845.8 million square feet), according to the European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP).
Within countries represented by the (FEP), 80 percent of the flooring produced was engineered, versus 18 percent for solid and 2 percent for “mosaic,” or patterned flooring. Nearly 81 percent of wood flooring was white oak, followed by ash at 5.7 percent, tropical timber at 4.1 percent and beech at 2.5 percent. FEP countries include Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and The Netherlands.
“Despite the harsh competition from flooring alternatives, especially those with a wood look surface, FEP trusts that end consumers will be increasingly convinced by the inherent advantages of European real wood parquet products, their quality, trustworthiness, sustainable aspect and the fact that real wood floors are bringing nature straight into their homes thereby contributing to the mitigation of climate change,” FEP said in a statement.
