Vitality of the Asian Market Shines through the Shadows of Economic Crisis

• -- Improved quality of visitors
• -- In-depth and broad-scale reports from Chinese and international media
• -- First “International Flooring Awards

DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR 2009 Post Show Release

March 24-26, 2009
Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC)

• The three-day event of DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR 2009 has successfully concluded in Shanghai New International Expo Center on March 26, 2009.
• This year’s exhibition occupied eight halls plus and outdoor area with total gross space of 89,125 square meters and attracted 909 flooring companies from 38 countries show casing their latest products and solutions. During three days from March 24-26, the show welcomed a total of 36,986 professional visitors from China and abroad.

Mining Opportunities in Crisis

As the biggest professional flooring show in Asia coming out of the haze of the 2008 economic crisis this year, DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR has inevitably become the center of attention in the world flooring industry. It is important to face the challenges well-prepared. Many international brands are very positive about China and the Asia Pacific market, and use DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR as a strategic platform. Armstrong launched its laminated and engineered wood floor in the Chinese residential market for the very first time. Nora, leader of the rubber flooring, made its appearance again with the new complete series of rubber flooring products after three years, and launched its 2009 products portfolio during the exhibition in order to secure its market share in the commercial market. Many domestic companies have focused their promotional efforts through DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR covering Asia region.

Resilient flooring section saw significant growth this year. Domestic and international brands such as Tarkett, Armstrong, Gerflor, Grabo, Mondo, Vertex, SERFLEKS, FIELOTURF TARKETT SAS, Win Ton, Jiu Hong were present at the scene, making the show the best procurement platform for the commercial real state and project contract businesses in Asia. This year’s parquet & laminate section gathered all the brand names in the industry. Domestic leaders, such as World of Friends, Lulin, Fudeli, Anrantabu, Sterling Pacific, Yan Kanon, New Sihe, Sino-Maple, Kanglong, A & W, Jiusheng, Plantation, Jilin Forestry Jinqiao, Yihua, Yongyu, Kentierwood, were all present at the exhibition. Famous international carpeting brands such as Milliken, Beaulieu, Balta, Mannington, NOURISON, Oriental Weavers, Al-Sorayai, Shanhua, etc. once again gathered together at the scene and displayed their latest products. Floortech Asia, having had fully extended itself based on the traditional flooring sector, displayed the front-end products from manufacturing and processing equipment, raw materials to laytech and protech technologies for after-sales market . So far, DOMOTEX Asia/CHINAFLOOR has essentially become the platform for providing product and service solutions to every aspect of the “life-cycle” of the entire flooring industry. It is without a doubt that DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR will again lead for the development trend and technological innovation in the whole flooring industry from A to Z.

The “Anji Bamboo Flooring Image Hall” by Anji County of Zhejiang Province, located outside of E3, was extremely eye-catching. Taken lead by the local government, the Image Hall gathered 18 of the leading bamboo flooring manufacturers from Anji which named as “The Bamboo City of China”. On recall of the government’s policy to support energy saving and environmental protection, the Chinese bamboo flooring companies are expecting that this environmental friendly flooring material would will create more opportunities in the global flooring market.

Visitor Profile Upgrading in 2009

The number of participating professional visitors reached 36,986, and the quality of visitors has improved steadily every year. The number of international visitors remains steady, which reflects that Chinese products, well-known for their “high quality with affordable price”, are most popular during times of crises. This year, the show welcomed 5,020 international visitors with several buyer delegations organized coming to the show seeking for direct business relationships. The top 5 country and regions origin of visitors are Korea, Japan, U.S., Hong Kong and Taiwan. The proportion of designers, contractors and real estate developers among the visitors has increased compared with last year figure. There were a total of 4,000 designers at the show, among which 250 participated in International Interior Design & Flooring Application & Development Forum 2009 that took place during the show.

Statistics also show that the proportion of management decision makers among visitors has increased significantly to 68%; indicating that more companies are relying on this flagship show in this market of uncertainty, gaining insights of industry development and trends. It is worth mentioning that this year, the organizer has received compliments from professional visitors for the newly-launched on-line and on-site guiding system which provided meticulous services to domestic and international visitors. The organizer will also improve the content and service of this system next year to better facilitate the visitors.

Global Industry Practitioners Gathering in China

Media perceives the same insight as the flooring industry is focusing, Asia and China. You can easily tell the attention and enthusiasm from the number of international press coming to DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR reporting this superior platform based in Shanghai covering the whole Asia Pacific region. During the show, the organizers received nearly a hundred Chinese and international press, many of which sent their strongest team of journalists to report on the show. Domestic Portals such as Sina.com, Sohu.com and Sofun.com also ran special featured reports and live feeds on-site. Participation from international press has reached a new record this year. Professional magazines such as Floor Covering Weekly, Coverings, Floor Covering News, EUWID, PARKET and Floor Forum were all present, with some of their editors in chief taking part in the evaluation process of the first International Flooring Awards. Additionally, Floor Covering Weekly and Floor Covering News both contributed in publishing the Show Dailies on two consecutive days, providing timely and comprehensive information for the participating visitors.

Featured Events Revealing Industry Trends

2009 International Flooring Awards

The long-awaited International Flooring Awards winners had finally been revealed. Meilidao, PTP and Kentier won the “Most innovative laminated floor 2009” award. A&W (Ark) and Treesun won the “Most innovative solid wood floor 2009” award. Sino-maple won the “Most innovative engineered wood floor” award, while the winner of “Most innovative green floor 2009” went to Dasso and Yongyu, and the winner of “Luxury flooring brand in China 2009” went to Shine.

The winners of “Top Chinese flooring brand” included Meilidao, A&W (Ark), Sunyard, Treesun, Kentier, PTP and Sino-maple, and the winners of “Top International flooring brand” went to Lamett and Dasso

280 senior practitioners attended the awards ceremony which was held at Shanghai Pudong Radisson Hotel on March 24, including association directors, Chinese and international press and leading Chinese and international wood flooring manufacturers. It is expected that the scope of evaluation in DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR 2010 will extend to bamboo flooring, carpeting, resilient flooring and floortech products and solutions.

2009 Wood Flooring Trend Show

The five wood flooring trend shows during the course of 2 days is inevitably one of the most eye-catching activities of this year’s exhibition. It was the first time the organizer worked to host the show; the distinct style of presentation attracted the attention of many professional visitors, especially dealers, agents, designers, engineers and real estate developers. The trend show has also become a unique stage for launching new products of the year, demonstrating design ideas and trends. It almost covered all the trends of colors and patterns in the Chinese and international market in the coming years.

Sino-US-Europe Wood Flooring Summit

The third Sino-US-Europe Wood Flooring Summit was held on March 26. Representatives from industry associations from China, the US and Europe gathered together here again in Shanghai, namely China National Forestry Product Industry Association (CNFPIA), National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA), European Federation of Parquet Importers (EFPI). The agenda of this summit included hot topics such as Lacey Act of America, FLEGT agreement between China and the EU, Permit of forest harvesting in tropical areas, EU legislation concerning due diligence, as well as the legality of imported wood. The summit received a great success as it did in the past years. Three sides gained a deeper understanding of each other’s position with the sensitive topics, sought acceptable solutions for all parties based on this common ground and received a certain degree of consensus. The summit has played an important role in reducing industry trade friction between countries and enhancing the degree of openness of the market. For the first time, about 15 Chinese and international mainstream press chose to participate and observe at the summit.

Lay-Tech & Pro-Tech

It was the first time the organizers established a new exhibition area in E5 for laytech & protech solutions, targeting at the “after-sales market”. Laytech includeed installation tools & equipment, underlays, adhesives, skirtings, mouldings and flooring locking system. Protech had demonstrated cleaning & maintenance solutions such as cleaning & maintenance tools and equipment, oils, waxes. These two new sections provided solutions to the entire “life cycle” of the flooring industry from raw materials, manufacturing & processing, to installation, cleaning and maintenance, once again demonstrating the unshakable status of DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR as the one-stop shop in the flooring industry. On the other hand, Bona of Sweden and Osmo of Germany both established live demonstration areas on-site. Their display laytech and protech technologies attracted a large number of visitors to stop and watch.

Prospect

DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR 2010 will be taking place on March 23-25 next year, again at Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC). We hope to welcome even more key players, businesses and buyers again in 2010; we also hope that the Chinese as well as the international flooring industry will come out of the economic crises soon to embrace a new round of opportunities!