After a brief stint as the world's leading low-cost provider of laminate flooring, Chinese mills are being forced to shift their focus to the high end or face extinction due to rising costs associated with exporting, licensing intellectual property, raw materials and new labor-friendly regulations. "The exchange rate keeps changing and we have to adjust our pricing time and time again and it is costing us customers," said Grace Lee, business supervisor for Shanghai-based Sino-Maple Flooring, which manufactures laminates and engineered flooring. "It is getting so bad some factories in the north have gone bankrupt."
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