IndusParquet Enters the US Wood Market
IndusParquet has entered the U.S. floor covering market through distribution. The company will bring solid and engineered hardwood flooring as well as exotics to the specialty retail market.
IndusParquet was started more than 40 years ago and has been providing private-label exotic flooring products in the U.S. for the last 20 years through BR-111. The company’s mill is located in Tiete, Brazil.
We’ve been making exotic hardwood flooring for more than 40 years now and we sell our products in 23 different countries including Italy, Spain, and Germany. For the last 20 years, we have sold product in the U.S. Now we are coming to sell retailers through our nation-wide distribution network. We are fortunate because the distributors already know us and so do many dealers. Floor Covering Weekly 07-12-2010
Illegal Logging Down Across the Globe
LONDON — Tougher enforcement and strict new rules have led to a dramatic drop in illegal logging, sparing woodland in Cameroon, national parks in Indonesia and rain forests in the Amazon, a British think tank says.
Worldwide, an international clampdown on unlawfully harvested timber has helped protect up to 42 million acres of forest over the past few years — roughly the same area covered by the state of Illinois, according to a report published Thursday by the London-based Chatham House.
Since 2002, the report said, total global production of illegal timber has fallen by nearly 25 percent.
"We're a quarter of the way there," said Sam Lawson, one of the report's authors. He expressed the hope that newer regulations — such as a European law passed last week that will ban the import of illegal timber by 2012 — would cut the amount of illegal logging even further.
"A lot of the action that's been taken happened recently and can't be expected to have been trickled down to the level of the forest yet," he said.
Much heads West as furniture
A big chunk of that timber is processed in China and makes its way to the West in the form of plywood and furniture. The U.S., the U.K., Japan, France, and the Netherlands spent $8.4 billion buying illegally harvested wood in 2008, the report said.
Illegal logging in the Amazon has already been cut by between 50 percent and 75 percent, with similar drops recorded in Indonesia and Cameroon, the report found.
by Raphael G. Satter Associated Press. 07-15-2010
Armstrong Resilient Flooring Price Increase: Oil and other energy prices are rising. Chemical prices have led the movement of oil prices even though market demand is generally weak. Significant manufacturing capacity for our raw materials was taken off-line during the recession creating tightness in those markets ahead of input cost escalation.
Armstrong will initiate a six-percent price increase in the United States and Canada on vinyl composition tile, commercial sheet vinyl, luxury tile, linoleum and residential sheet and tile, effective on June 1, 2010. Apollo 05-28-2010
Somerset has introduced the most exciting line-up with the new Character Collection, a 3", 4", 5" x 3/4" solid in Oak, Maple, Hickory, American Cherry, and Walnut. It will be featureed in larger size samples for your display. Also new is the Specialty Collection of Maple and Hickory solids in 3-1/4", 4" and 5" with beautiful stains. The Exotic Collection features 3/4" solids in unbelievable stains that really sets Somerset apart from anyone doing Exotics. The High Gloss Collection features a 70 percent gloss fullfilled face finish with proven colors at the same price as Color Collection in 2-1/4" and 3-1/4" solids. BayLink. 05-09-2010
Pergo will be introducing the new Commercial line of 14 decors in a direct pressure textured format soon. Also Pergo discountinues its very popular Pergo Laminate Flooring Cleaner. 05-08-2010
U.S. adds 290,000 jobs in April. “This is unambiguously a strong report for growth implications,” James O’Sullivan, chief economist at MF Global, said. “It adds to the evidence that the pickup in growth is leading to a clear-cut pickup in employment. It is very clear there has been a bounce here, and momentum has been up.” With revisions on Friday, April was the fourth consecutive month that the economy added workers (a revised 230,000 jobs were added in March, instead of 162,000), the job market still has a long way to go before it can be counted on to provide a base for a sustained economic recovery. More than 15.3 million were unemployed last month. New York Times. 05-07-2010
Highway Flooring has learned today from Shaw Industries' Product Show in Cranburry, NJ that Shaw is introducing its state-of-the-art new finish - ScufResist PLATINUM. The test results are in! Shaw Hardwoods with new and improved ScufResist™ Platinum resist scuffs up to 6X better than the competition! When life is tough, ScufResist™ and ScufResist™ PLATINUM finishes are tougher. So you can relax and let life happen on our hardwood floors.
Shaw's new hardwood finished is designed to help resist household scuffing on hardwood floors. Though durable, over time all hardwood floors scuff - it's part of their charm - but our patented finish keeps your floor looking younger longer. So you can live on it.
Because life is life—and we all know what a challenge that can be!—many of Shaw's hardwood products have the extremely strong ScufResist™ and ScufResist™ PLATINUM finishes. New and improved ScufResist™ PLATINUM offers a Limited Lifetime Wear Warranty which, in effect, says, "We give you permission to live on your Shaw hardwood floors."
Products featuring ScufResist™ PLATINUM are extremely wear-resistant with UV-cured polyurethane finish with aluminum oxide, designed to help resist household scuffing on hardwood floors. 04-30-2010
Arboritec Holding (Jorlanda, Sweden) has formed a U.S. subsidiary, Arboritec USA (Greenwood Village, Colo.). Arboritec USA offers finish, sealer, maintenance and recoat products and is seeking additional distribution partners. Ron Peden, Mark Meglowski and Gerry Mueller head the company. Arboritec AB is a major producer of waterborne finish products in Sweden; the company also markets products under the Nanofloor brand in Europe and Australia. 2-22-2010
Shaw Industries Group Inc. (Dalton, Ga.), a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, has acquired the privately owned Anderson Family of Companies (Clinton, S.C), which includes Anderson Hardwood Floors, for an undisclosed amount. Anderson had previously manufactured select products for the Shaw alliance. "Anderson really represents the mid- to high-end field of the market in engineered wood, and they're leaders on styling and innovation, so we think there's a lot of synergy between the two companies," said Vance Bell, CEO of Shaw Industries Group Inc. With the acquisition, there will be no personnel changes to Anderson management. Shaw will give financial backing to the Anderson brand, and Anderson's existing product lines will continue to be sold only through its established circuit of distributors. "This really allows the Anderson family to take their chips off the table," said Don Finkell, president and CEO of Anderson Hardwood Floors. "[Shaw] resources will potentially be placed behind Anderson. In the long term, I think it will help us be competitive in the marketplace.
"Hardwood Floors E-News, October 1, 2007; Issue: 325
Armstrong World Industries (Lancaster, Pa.) has clarified a previously announced price increase. There will be a 5 to 7 percent price increase on solid hardwood flooring products shipped in Canada or the U.S. on April 1; prices for its engineered flooring products will raise 1 to 4 percent. The company's Daniel Call attributed the increases to rising lumber and energy costs, poor weather, scarce raw material, and increased demand due to flooring mills increasing inventory. "We believe further raw material inflation is likely in the coming months," he said. 2-22-2010
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