Europe’s parquet markets are already feeling the effects of coronavirus

On April 2, 2020, the board of the European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP) discussed the effects of the coronavirus crisis on the European markets. These generally started well in 2020 and showed stable to slightly positive trends in January and February. In March, however, the virus and measures to curb it stopped this development.

Compared to the same period in the previous year, the preliminary results for the first three months of 2020 indicate stable parquet consumption in Scandinavia (except for structural reasons in Sweden), the Baltic States and even Germany, where a large part of the business activity will continue for the time being. On the other hand, southern Europe, where stricter restrictions are in place, generally already shows a significant decline in parquet consumption.

Parquet sales in Italy and Austria decreased by 10% in the 1st quarter compared to the first three months of 2019. January and February went well in Austria, but the market collapsed in March. Italy has been rather subdued since the beginning of the year and parcel sales have been on a downward path since February. Parquet consumption in France declined by 15 to 17% in the first quarter of 2020. In January and February everything was still developing normally, but then also slumped in March. Switzerland recorded a 8% drop in parquet consumption. After stagnation at the beginning of the year, the last two weeks of March came to a standstill.