EUROPE – In 2016, producers belonging to the EPLF (European Producers of Laminate Flooring) reported worldwide sales of 476 million m2 of laminate flooring manufactured in Europe (2015: 452 million m2). This equates to an increase of 5.6% when compared to the previous year.

Sales in Western Europe (including Turkey) in 2016 reached the figure of 249 million m2 (2015: 254 million m²), which represents a slight decrease of 1.5% compared to the previous year. With 63 million m² sold (2015: 66 million m²), a decrease of 3.6%, Germany remains by far the most important single market in Central Europe.

In North America, the EPLF’s series of successes in European laminate flooring continues for the fourth year in a row: with 47 million m² in 2016 (prev. year: 39 million m²), this region once again managed to increase its growth rate, with 22.6% more sales than in the previous year. The USA demonstrated an increase of 18% in 2016 with 29 million m² (previous year 25 million m²) and, during the same period, Canada achieved an increase of 30% with 18 million m² (prev. year: 14 million m²).

The situation looks similarly positive in Asia-Pacific, where EPLF producers reached total sales of around 27 million m² for 2016 (prev. year 17 million m²), thereby gaining an increase over the previous year of around 54%. However, it is necessary here to take into account the effect of statistical analysis, because the EPLF country list has been extended, which means that some countries that previously fell in the category “Other Countries” have been identified during the reporting year 2016 and have been allocated to Asia – Kazakhstan, for example (with 2.8 million m²), Uzbekistan (with 0.8 million m²), Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan (each with 0.7 million m²). The largest growth in Asia in 2016 was accounted for by the Chinese market including Hong Kong; sales there came to 8.6 million m² (prev. year 5.6 million m²), which equates to a rise of 53% compared to the previous year. Israel reached 2.4 million m² (prev. year 2.5 million m2), the figure for Saudi Arabia was 2.7 million m² (prev. year 2.8 million m2) and for Taiwan it was 1.6 million m2 (prev. year 1.5 million m2).

Latin America remained broadly stable in 2016 with 17 million m² (prev. year: 17 million m²). The sales figures in the largest single market of Chile rose by 7.5% in comparison with the previous year at 7.3 million m² (prev. year 6.8 million m²). Mexico recorded 4.3 million m² (prev. year: 4.5 million m²), Colombia dropped to 1.5 million m² (prev. year: 2 million m²) and Argentina’s figures also went down to 1.4 million m² (prev. year: 1.8 million m²).