BELGIUM - In 2019, the worldwide sales of the EPLF (European Producers of Laminate Flooring) members was 447 million m² of laminate flooring from European production, down 1.5 percent against the 454 million m² in sales of 2018.

The second half of 2019 has witnessed an upturn recovering and is stabilizing at a high level, even though the influence of declining world trade remains noticeable globally.

In Western Europe (including Turkey), total sales in 2019 reached 219 million m² (225 million m² in 2018). This represents a decline of 2.1 percent compared to the previous year. Germany remains by far the most important single market in Central Europe with 50 million m² (52 million m² in 2018).

France remains second in Europe, improving by 1.1 percent in 2019 to 36.5 million m² (36.0 million m² in 2018). A positive trend for EPLF members can be seen in Great Britain: at 32.6 million m² in 2019 (29.8 million m² in 2018), the dent in the previous year’s figure was offset by an increase of 9.5 percent. The country thus continues to rank third in Western European sales ahead of the Netherlands, where association sales in 2019 improved by 1.4 percent to 18.6 million m² (18.3 million in 2018). Spain also reported positive developments: sales figures for laminate flooring increased by 1.4 percent to 16.7 million m² (16.5 million m² in 2018).

A clear upward trend is evident in Eastern Europe. The region confirms its role as an important future market for EPLF manufacturers. With 135 million m² (128 million m² in 2018), the European laminate flooring manufacturers achieved a good result there in 2019.

After a boom in the USA, North America has returned to a normal level, slowed down by a double-digit reduction in Canada. In 2019, a total of 40 million m² (44.3 million m² in 2018) were sold in North America, around 9.6 percent less than in the previous year.

The smaller export regions showed signs of the slowdown in world trade. Asia fell by 6 percent from 30 million m² to 28.2 million m². Latin America declined from 18.5 million m² in 2018 to 15.7 million m² in 2019 (-15.2 percent). Africa was also unable to continue the positive trend of previous years.