Report about wood flooring market in China

China is building more than 19 million houses a year, compared to fewer than two million in the Usa and just over two million in Europe. This creates tremendous demand for all products that can be used in the building sector.
The wood sector worldwide has been strongly influenced by China, which has rapidly become one of the major world wood importers. China is building preferential links with strategic suppliers of the wood products so necessary to its economy.
The main driver of expansion of the Chinese wood firms is the growth of the domestic market, with a population of 1.3 billion people, increasing by 40 million every year and with a growing purchasing capacity.
However, due to the free availability of loans for domestic firms, industrial capacity is growing much more quickly than the capacity to sell domestically. Therefore Chinese firms are looking to export markets to sell their excess capacity and apply more remunerative prices. China has thus become a major exporter of wood products.
The “Chinese Wood Flooring Industry” report analyses the wood flooring sector, one of the wood sectors that has been more strongly influenced by Chinese production and exports. In 2007 China produced more than 360 million square metres of wood flooring, including laminated flooring, much more than the Usa and more or less the same quantity produced in Europe. It exported about 150 million square metres of flooring, only slightly less than the entire Usa production. By 2010 flooring production is expected to reach 500 million square meters, with exports accounting for 200 million. These figures are so large and growth is so fast that the world is bound to be influenced by Chinese production and exports.
Over the last four years Gardino Consulting Company with headoffice in Genova and Csil based in Milan (Italy) have both invested considerable time and effort in Asia, reaching a good knowledge of this part of the world.
One of the results is this report, which is fruit of several trips to China and of many interviews with the main Chinese wood flooring firms. The report will be a very useful tool for all companies wishing to do business with China, both sellers of items needed by Chinese plywood industry, such as logs, machinery, chemicals, veneer etcetera, or companies interested in buying wood flooring from China.
It is also an important tool for wood-flooring producers and traders in all countries, since it provides a clear and up-to-date picture of the competition among Chinese companies, an analysis of which will be useful for identifying potential customers or suppliers.