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U.S.:October Flooring Shipments Up
¡¾2002.11.30¡¿

October Flooring Shipments Up More Than 15%
HMR Custom News 11/2002 11:42:08 AM

NOFMA: The Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association, reports manufacturers¡¯ shipments of Solid Wood Flooring reached 52,606,000 board feet in October 2002, exceeding last year¡¯s figures for the same period by 6,974,000 board feet for a 15.3 percent gain.

Year to date shipments reported by NOFMA now total 522,888,000 board feet. That number tops shipments reported for January through October 2001 by 44,614,000 board feet, which amounts to 9.3 percent growth in volume thus far in 2002. Solid Wood Flooring shipments for the last 12 consecutive months (November 2001 through October 2002) stand at 624,171,000 board feet, while shipments for the 2001 calendar year ended at 579,557,000 board feet.

Strong housing construction and remodeling continue to fuel the expansion of Solid Wood Flooring sales. Housing starts fell 11.4 percent in October from the previous month. However, September¡¯s housing starts were disproportionately high - 1.81 million units - the highest level in more than 16 years. Analysts seem to think that it is likely the September housing figures may have pulled from both the preceding and following months.

Where month-to-month spikes are possible in housing starts statistics, comparisons to the same period in the previous year may be more indicative of a particular trend. Total housing starts reported by the U.S. Census Bureau for October 2002 are up 4.7 percent from October 2001. Single-family housing starts for October increased a full 9 percent in 2002 from last year¡¯s results.

NOFMA: The Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association is a trade association of U.S.-based manufacturers of solid and engineered hardwood flooring, representing approximately 85% of known production capacity within the United States.