DOMOTEX asia Leads: In-depth Analysis of Resilient Flooring

In-Depth Analysis of Resilient Flooring

In the development of the flooring materials industry in the Asia-Pacific region, DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR has always played a pivotal role as an industry barometer and connector. As a leading B2B professional exhibition in this sector, it not only builds an efficient trade platform for global exhibitors and buyers but also serves as the premier launchpad for cutting-edge products, technologies, and trends. Among these, resilient flooring has emerged as one of the fastest-growing product categories in recent years, consistently occupying a core position at DOMOTEX asia. Its diverse material composition, outstanding performance advantages, and wide range of application scenarios are profoundly reshaping the competitive landscape of the flooring materials industry. Taking DOMOTEX asia as the perspective, this article will disassemble the material system of resilient flooring from a professional dimension, and combine exhibition practices and market data to provide a comprehensive interpretation of the core value of this category for industry practitioners, investors, and purchasers.

I. Definition and Material Classification of Resilient Flooring

(1) Core Definition of Resilient Flooring: Category Characteristics Driven by "Recoverability"

According to industry standards and official exhibition materials of DOMOTEX asia, resilient flooring refers to a category of flooring that can undergo a certain degree of deformation under external force and fully recover to its original shape once the force is removed. This "recoverability" distinguishes it from non-resilient flooring such as ceramic tiles, natural stone, and solid wood—latter materials feature a hard, non-elastic surface that is prone to irreparable damage upon impact. From a performance perspective, resilient flooring balances hardness and toughness: it not only has sufficient load-bearing strength to withstand daily wear and tear but also can buffer impact force through micro-deformation, providing users with a more comfortable foot feel while reducing the risk of floor damage.

At DOMOTEX asia 2025, the organizing committee specially set up a Resilient Flooring Zone in Halls 7.1 and 7.2, covering an exhibition area of 50,000 square meters. Gathering more than 400 world-renowned brands, the zone showcased a concentrated display of resilient flooring products made from mainstream materials such as PVC, rubber, linoleum, and cork, as well as innovative material solutions including non-PVC, PET-based, and carbon-negative options, intuitively demonstrating the material diversity of this category.

 (2) Four Core Materials of Resilient Flooring: Characteristics, Processes, and Exhibition Cases

 1. PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride): The King of Cost-Effectiveness with the Widest Market Application

PVC is the most mainstream material for resilient flooring, accounting for more than 70% of the global resilient flooring market share (Source: Polaris Market Research 2025 Report). Its core raw material is polyvinyl chloride resin, which is processed into finished products through calendering, extrusion, lamination, and other processes by adding auxiliary materials such as plasticizers (to improve flexibility), stabilizers (to resist aging and fading), fillers (to enhance hardness and slip resistance), and colorants (to achieve diverse patterns and colors).

At DOMOTEX asia, PVC resilient flooring presents a diversified form:

• PVC Roll Flooring: Featuring a continuous sheet structure with few joints and strong sealing performance, it is suitable for scenarios with high requirements for "seamless cleaning" such as hospital operating rooms and food processing plants. Exhibitors like Armstrong FLOORING displayed PVC roll products with a thickness of 2-4mm, using formaldehyde-free adhesives and holding EU CE certification. These products can withstand frequent disinfection and heavy trolley rolling.

• LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile): Boasting highly realistic stone and wood-like textures, LVT is mostly available in specifications of 300×600mm or 600×1200mm. With a user-friendly click-lock installation design, it balances aesthetics and practicality. In the European Pavilion (Booth 5.1C01) of DOMOTEX asia 2025, brands such as Classen and Swiss Krono launched LVT products adopting 3D digital printing technology to restore the detailed textures of rare wood species. Meanwhile, these products possess waterproof and wear-resistant properties (AC5 grade or above), making them a popular choice for both residential and commercial spaces.

•  VCT (Vinyl Composition Tile): Containing more than 50% mineral fillers, VCT offers higher hardness and lower cost, and is widely used in high-traffic areas such as school corridors and office building lobbies. Exhibitor HMTX launched VCT products at the exhibition with a "recycled PVC" raw material ratio, achieving an upgrade in environmental performance and meeting the market's demand for "sustainable materials".

  2. Rubber: The Durable Choice for High-End Scenarios

  Rubber resilient flooring uses natural rubber (extracted from rubber tree sap) or synthetic rubber (styrene-butadiene rubber, cis-butadiene rubber, etc.) as the main raw material, with a rubber content usually above 45%, supplemented by vulcanizing agents, reinforcing agents, etc., and formed through high-temperature vulcanization. Its core advantages lie in super wear resistance, slip resistance, and impact resistance, but its relatively high cost limits its application to high-end venues.

At DOMOTEX asia 2025, rubber flooring became the focus of the Medical and Sports Zone:

•  Medical Scenarios: Rubber flooring has passed the ISO 10993 biocompatibility certification. It can withstand strong disinfectants such as alcohol and iodophor, and its non-porous surface prevents bacterial growth, making it suitable for hospital wards, ICUs, and other areas.

•  Sports Scenarios: Sports rubber flooring features an excellent deformation recovery rate, which can buffer the impact force on athletes' bodies, becoming an ideal choice for indoor sports venues.

• oInnovative Product: Carbon-negative rubber flooring—by optimizing raw material ratios and production processes, the full life-cycle carbon emissions of the product are negative, making it a hot candidate for the DOMOTEX asia "Sustainable Innovation Award".

  3. Linoleum: The Ecological Representative of Natural Environmental Protection

Linoleum resilient flooring is made from six core natural raw materials: linseed oil, rosin, wood flour, limestone, pigments, and jute (as the base material). It is 100% natural, free of formaldehyde and heavy metals, and biodegradable, making it one of the preferred flooring categories for "green buildings". Its structure is homogeneous and through-color (the material is consistent throughout the entire thickness), so it can maintain its original color and pattern even after wear, with a service life of more than 20 years.

In the Green Building Materials Zone of DOMOTEX asia, linoleum flooring brands such as Forbo and Tarkett highlighted their "natural attributes":

•  Raw Material Advantages: Linseed oil is derived from renewable flax crops, wood flour is a by-product of wood processing, and the jute base material is biodegradable, making the entire industrial chain low-carbon and environmentally friendly.

•  Application Scenarios: Due to its excellent "sound insulation" and "gentle foot feel", linoleum flooring is widely used in scenarios with high requirements for "comfort and environmental protection" such as early childhood education centers, nursing homes, and libraries. Some linoleum flooring products have obtained LEED Platinum certification, making them easier to be applied in batches in many high-end kindergarten projects in China.                                                         4. Cork: The Comfort Model of Niche High-End Flooring

The raw material of cork resilient flooring is the bark of cork oak trees (mainly growing along the Mediterranean coast and the Qinling Mountains in China)—the bark can be harvested every 9 years without harming the trees themselves, making it a "sustainable raw material". Its core structure is a honeycomb-like air cell system, which provides excellent elasticity (with a deformation recovery rate of 90%), sound insulation, and thermal insulation properties. It offers a soft foot feel similar to carpet, while also being wear-resistant and waterproof.

In the High-End Home Furnishing Zone of DOMOTEX asia 2025, cork flooring brands such as WONDERFLOOR and Shengxiang launched products focusing on "personalized customization":

•  Process Innovation: By adopting a multi-layer composite structure (cork surface layer + solid wood core layer + moisture-proof bottom layer), the problem of easy deformation of traditional cork flooring is solved, making it suitable for scenarios such as bedrooms, studies, and recording studios.

•  Design Upgrade: Combined with digital printing technology, cork flooring can present diverse styles such as wood grain, stone grain, and abstract patterns, breaking the stereotype that "cork flooring only has a single color tone" and attracting the attention of many high-end home decoration designers.

II. DOMOTEX asia: The Incubation Platform for Material Innovation of Resilient Flooring

 DOMOTEX asia is not only a "display window" for resilient flooring but also a "test bed" and "promoter" for material innovation. Through the three core functions of the exhibition—new product launch, technical forum, and trade matching—it promotes the upgrading of resilient flooring materials from "traditional types" to the direction of "high performance, low energy consumption, and recyclability".

(1) Exhibition-Driven Material Innovation: From "Concept" to "Commercialization"

At DOMOTEX asia 2025, non-PVC resilient flooring became the biggest highlight—influenced by the global "plastic ban" and environmental protection policies, resilient flooring made from non-PVC materials (such as PET-based, PLA-based, and bio-based materials) has achieved technological breakthroughs:

• · PET-Based Resilient Flooring: Exhibitor Power Dekor launched PET flooring made from recycled PET bottle flakes (each square meter of flooring consumes approximately 20 PET bottles). Through modification processes, its wear resistance and elasticity have been significantly improved, with a cost only 10% higher than that of traditional PVC flooring. It has already obtained office space procurement orders from enterprises such as Coca-Cola and Unilever.

• · Bio-Based Resilient Flooring: ARTREE displayed bio-based flooring made from raw materials such as corn starch and bagasse. Bio-resin is produced through fermentation to replace traditional PVC resin, and the product is biodegradable in the natural environment. Although the current cost is relatively high (about 3 times that of PVC flooring), it has already attracted the attention of European high-end hotel groups.

In addition, the Flooring Innovation Summit of DOMOTEX asia, co-hosted by the Floor Professional Committee of the China National Forest Products Industry Association and its partners, has been held for many consecutive years. The theme of this year's summit is "High-Quality Flooring for High-Quality Development". Against the backdrop of increasing global uncertainty and fierce market competition, this industry event aims to consolidate the strategic consensus centered on quality, break through the existing competitive pattern, empower key enterprises to strengthen cooperation, jointly build a healthy industrial ecosystem, promote product and service upgrading, and accelerate the advancement of China's flooring industry to the high end of the global value chain.

(2) Exhibition-Accelerated Market Education: From "Cognition" to "Acceptance"

For emerging materials of resilient flooring (such as linoleum, cork, and carbon-negative rubber), DOMOTEX asia reduces the market cognition threshold through scenario-based experience and case sharing:

•  Scenario-Based Experience: Many exhibitors set up "Resilient Flooring Application Experience Halls" in their booths, reproducing real scenarios such as hospital wards, kindergarten classrooms, and high-end bedrooms, allowing buyers to intuitively experience the foot feel, sound insulation, and slip resistance of resilient flooring made from different materials. For example, in the "hospital scenario", the "difference in impact force buffering" between rubber flooring and traditional ceramic tiles was compared and displayed—real-time data from pressure sensors showed that rubber flooring can reduce the impact force of falling objects by a significant margin, intuitively proving its advantages.

•  Case Sharing: Exhibitors such as Anxin Flooring and Smarin Wood shared "application cases of linoleum flooring in green buildings"—after a well-known domestic science and technology park adopted linoleum flooring, its LEED certification score increased by 15 points, and the user satisfaction rate reached 92%, providing a valuable reference for other buyers.

(3) Exhibition-Facilitated Trade Matching: From "Display" to "Transaction"

Through the Buyer Club and one-on-one trade matching services, DOMOTEX asia connects resilient flooring exhibitors (especially brands of innovative materials) with precise buyers:

•  Buyer Profile: Among the 83,850 visitors attracted by the 2025 exhibition, 30% were from real estate developers, 25% from architectural design companies, and 20% from end purchasers such as hotels, hospitals, and schools. Among them, the demand for "green procurement" accounted for 45%—highly matching environmentally friendly material flooring such as linoleum, cork, and carbon-negative rubber.

•  Transaction Cases: Many exhibitors held "new product launch conferences" for their products through the exhibition and signed contracts with leading domestic home decoration groups on site; other exhibitors matched with multiple European high-end furniture retailers through the DOMOTEX asia Buyer Club, achieving a breakthrough in the European market for cork flooring.

III. Market Value of Resilient Flooring Materials: From Performance Advantages to Commercial Potential

From a market operation perspective, the material differences of resilient flooring not only determine its performance but also directly affect its target customer groups, pricing strategies, and channel layout. Combined with the industry report of Polaris Market Research, we can clearly sort out the market value of resilient flooring made from different materials.

(1) Materials Determine Target Customer Groups: Precise Matching of Demand Scenarios

Taking the buyer survey data of DOMOTEX asia 2025 as an example: in the procurement of real estate developers, PVC flooring accounted for 80% (due to controllable cost and short delivery cycle); in hospital procurement, rubber flooring accounted for 75% (due to disinfection requirements and wear resistance); in green building project procurement, linoleum and cork flooring accounted for more than 60% (due to environmental certification requirements).

(2) Materials Drive Price Stratification: Covering Different Consumption Levels

The material cost of resilient flooring directly determines its pricing range, forming a three-tier market of low, medium, and high end:

•  Low-End Market (¥100-200 per ㎡): Dominated by VCT (vinyl composition tile), which has a high proportion of mineral fillers and low cost. It is mainly targeted at customers such as residential buildings in third and fourth-tier cities and economy hotels. Several domestic exhibitors at DOMOTEX asia focus on this market, reducing costs through large-scale production, and the order volume accounts for more than 60% of their total revenue.

•  Mid-End Market (¥200-500 per ㎡): Dominated by LVT (luxury vinyl tile) and ordinary rubber flooring, which have good aesthetics and wear resistance. It is targeted at customers such as residential buildings in first and second-tier cities, mid-range hotels, and office buildings. Through "design + brand" premium, the gross profit margin can reach 30%-40%.

•  High-End Market (¥500 per ㎡ and above): Dominated by linoleum flooring, cork flooring, and carbon-negative rubber flooring, which focus on environmental protection, comfort, and personalization. It is targeted at customers such as high-end residential buildings, luxury stores, and international schools. The high-end products of European exhibitors at DOMOTEX asia can be priced at more than ¥1000 per ㎡, with a gross profit margin of over 50%, and the demand is growing rapidly (the inquiry volume of high-end resilient flooring at the 2025 exhibition increased by 45% year-on-year).

  
  

(3) Materials Affect Market Trends: Environmental Protection and Innovation Become the Mainstream

The market trends of resilient flooring materials show two major directions:

1. Environmentalization: Driven by the global "dual carbon" policy, "recyclable, low-carbon, and formaldehyde-free" materials have become the mainstream. For example, PVC flooring is upgrading to "recycled PVC" (the proportion of recycled materials has reached 30% at present, and it is expected to reach 50% by 2030); rubber flooring is making a breakthrough in "carbon negativity" (Interface's carbon-negative products have already achieved small-batch production); the market share of flooring made from natural materials such as linoleum and cork is expected to increase from 10% in 2024 to 25% in 2034.

2. Functionalization: Material innovation endows resilient flooring with more additional functions. At DOMOTEX asia, exhibitors launched functional products such as antibacterial PVC flooring, self-healing rubber flooring (surface scratches can be automatically repaired by heating), and conductive cork flooring (suitable for the anti-static requirements of data centers), expanding the application boundary of resilient flooring.

DOMOTEX asia 2026: Future Outlook for Resilient Flooring Materials

 As the first major event of the Asia-Pacific flooring materials industry in 2026, DOMOTEX asia (May 27-29, 2026, Shanghai New International Expo Center) will further focus on the material innovation of resilient flooring, bringing three major highlights to the industry:

1. Larger-Scale Non-PVC Zone: The organizing committee plans to expand the exhibition area of non-PVC resilient flooring to attract more exhibitors of PET-based, bio-based, and recycled rubber materials, promoting non-PVC materials from "niche" to "mainstream".

2. More Professional Material Testing Laboratory: Third-party testing institutions (such as SGS and Intertek) have long-term cooperation with DOMOTEX asia. They will provide exhibitors with testing services and certificates for resilient flooring materials, improving procurement efficiency and trust.

3. More In-Depth International Cooperation Forums: Industry associations from the EU, the United States, Southeast Asia, and other regions will be invited to hold a number of forums related to resilient flooring material standards, helping exhibitors understand the material access requirements of the international market (such as the EU REACH Regulation and the US LEED Certification), and facilitating the global expansion of "Chinese materials".

Focus on the Resilient Flooring Zone at DOMOTEX asia Shanghai

The material composition of resilient flooring is the core foundation of its performance, value, and market positioning; while DOMOTEX asia/CHINAFLOOR is the key bridge connecting "material innovation" and "market demand". From the cost-effective advantages of PVC, to the high-end durability of rubber, to the natural environmental protection of linoleum and cork, and the breakthrough of innovative materials such as non-PVC and carbon-negative, resilient flooring is constantly meeting the needs of different scenarios through material upgrading. For market operators, understanding material differences and grasping exhibition trends are not only the premise of accurately positioning customer groups and formulating pricing strategies but also the key to seizing industry opportunities and achieving business growth. In May 2026, let us focus on DOMOTEX asia Shanghai and jointly witness the next "leap forward" of resilient flooring materials.