Market Overview

Size of the domestic flooring materials market (as a total of 9 categories including composite flooring, carpets, tatami-mats, vinyl flooring sheets, free-access floors, dry type double-layer sound insulation floors, floor tiles, epoxy resins for flooring, and floor heating systems for residence) for FY2020 is worth 453,400 million yen, a decline by 12.1% from the preceding fiscal year.

Because both residential and nonresidential construction starts saw a decline in FY2020 due to the spread of COVID-19, all nine categories of flooring materials diminished compared to the previous fiscal year.

Noteworthy Topics

Soaring Raw Material Price and Global Lumber Shortage Impact the Market Considerably

Steep rise in price of crude oil and price hike of lumber supply owing to the global “lumber shortage” have been affecting the flooring materials market significantly, threatening the stable production and supply of flooring materials.

Viewing by the influence of “lumber shortage” per category, the supply shortage and price hike of imported lumber in FY2021 led to production adjustments and price revisions at composite flooring makers, since almost 70 percent of the base layer, a main component of the laminate flooring, are mostly imported from Indonesia and Malaysia.

Meanwhile, makers of dry type double-layer sound insulation floors, the material chiefly used for flooring of apartments, are also facing predicament in adjusting production/shipment due to the supply shortage of particle board, the principal raw material of such floors. Despite the recent expansion in demand boosted by the development of new application such as non-residential buildings, manpower shortage in sales is hampering the growth of the market; product shipment adjustments have been taking away the time of salespersons to acquire new customers.

Future Outlook

Market size of the domestic flooring materials industry for FY2021 is expected to decline by 0.1% from the previous fiscal year to attain 452,800 million yen.

Driven by the recovery trend in new housing starts, flooring materials mainly for residential use, such as composite flooring carpet, carpets, dry type double-layer sound insulation flooring, and floor tiles, are expected to recover the market growth. Economic expansion is also forecasted for the free-access floors, whose application is limited to offices, due to an increase in rejuvenation projects especially in urban areas.

Meanwhile, due to a decline in demand at retail stores and manufacturing plants, a full recovery is likely to take time for the market for vinyl flooring sheets, which is mainly used for nonresidential applications, and epoxy resins for flooring, which are almost entirely used for nonresidential applications.

As the flooring materials market is split into those that are growing and those that are shrinking, the flooring materials market as a total of 9 categories is projected to remain mostly unchanged for FY2021.

Research Outline