Although imports have come off the incredible peaks reached in mid-2016, there have been few more impressive wood product import grades than the higher-value added products contained within the broader ‘Builders’ Joinery’ definition.
The stand out grades in 2016 were multi-layer parquet floor panels and their non-parquetry cousins. In volume terms, imports grew respectively by 29.1% and 18.5% in 2016, compared with 2015.
As displayed in the chart below, there is little doubt that the ‘system flooring’ helped to keep the entire Builder’s Joinery grade more or less afloat over the course of the year.
To go straight to the dashboard and take a closer look at the data, click here.
In the charts that follow, each of these multi-layer flooring products is shown separately, as a means of demonstrating just how significantly imports have grown over a longer timeframe.
The chart below shows imports of multilayer parquetry panels. In the year-ended December 2016, imports totaled 803,731 m3. Just two years earlier, for the year-ended December 2014, imports were little more than a quarter of that volume, at 166 359 m3.
To go straight to the dashboard and take a closer look at the data, click here.
It is a similar story for the multi-layer non-parquetry panel floor imports, although the rise to prominence has been more gradual. For the year-ended December 2016, imports totaled 1,140,909 m3. Just two years earlier, for the year-ended December 2014, imports were just less than half of that volume, at 558,733 m3 as the chart below displays.
To go straight to the dashboard and take a closer look at the data, click here.
Attribution is critical to comprehension, so its important to understand what is happening in the Australian market.
At its plainest, Australia has expanded its stock of housing dramatically over the last few years. In doing so, it has entered into the age of the apartment. Instead of floorboards nailed to joists on top of bearers, its floating floors, screwed and glued to battens on concrete. These imports, parquetry or board in type, are meeting the housing market’s requirements.
For all that this is remarkable data, it is also directly linked to the genuine phenomenon of Australia’s burgeoning residential dwelling market.
