Countdown! E1-grade finished man-made boards are about to be completely phased out of the domestic market.

2026-01-23 Source: News Department, China Wood Industry Network

As we step into 2026, the country’s “15th Five-Year Plan” officially kicks off. The goal of “building safe, comfortable, green, and smart homes,” enshrined in the plan, undoubtedly sets the direction and clarifies the path for upgrading the quality of human living environments over the next five years.

As a core material in home decoration, the environmentally friendly upgrading of engineered wood products has become a crucial component in meeting the standards for “good-quality homes.” The newly released national standard GB 18580-2025, “Indoor Decoration and Renovation Materials—Formaldehyde Emission Limits for Engineered Wood Products and Their Components,” issued in 2025, for the first time includes the E0 grade within the scope of mandatory national standards. Moreover, it explicitly stipulates that, starting from June 1, 2026, engineered wood substrates must meet the E1 grade standard (formaldehyde emission level ≤ 0.124 mg/m³), while engineered wood products—including veneered engineered wood panels, wooden flooring, wooden doors, and the like—must comply with the E0 grade requirement (formaldehyde emission level ≤ 0.05 mg/m³).

This means that E1-grade finished engineered wood products will completely exit the domestic market, while E0- and ENF-grade finished engineered wood products will become the market mainstream, injecting green genes into the construction of “good homes” and accelerating the iterative upgrade of living environment quality.

In fact, the standards for formaldehyde emissions from man-made boards and their products in China have been continuously refined and optimized, with emission limits gradually being tightened.

In 2001, China issued for the first time the mandatory national standard GB 18580-2001, "Limit of Formaldehyde Emission from Interior Decoration and Renovation Materials—Man-made Boards and Their Products," which specified that the E1-grade limit applies to man-made boards that can be used directly indoors, while the E2-grade limit applies to man-made boards that must undergo surface finishing before being permitted for indoor use. This standard established the industry’s initial environmental protection baseline.

The mandatory national standard issued in 2017 further tightened the requirements by removing the E2 level and raising the limit for formaldehyde emission from the E1 level to 0.124 mg/m³, thereby compelling a number of small and medium-sized enterprises that failed to meet environmental standards to exit the market. The recommended national standard released in 2021 built upon the earlier standard by introducing two new categories: E1 (limit ≤ 0.05 mg/m³) and E0 (limit ≤ 0.05 mg/m³), and for the first time proposed the ENF grade (limit ≤ 0.025 mg/m³). This marked a significant milestone, placing China’s requirements for formaldehyde emissions from man-made boards and their products at an internationally leading level.

It’s not hard to see that as the engineered wood panel industry enters the second half of its lifecycle, it’s shifting from scale expansion to efficiency enhancement, from low-price cutthroat competition to deep cultivation of value, and from extensive management to lean operations. As a result, the entry barriers for products continue to rise, and regulatory rules are becoming increasingly detailed and refined. For engineered wood panel enterprises, only by anchoring themselves firmly on the main track of green development, adhering to the bottom line of environmental protection and quality, and focusing their efforts on high-end, intelligent, and green-oriented development can they achieve long-term, high-quality growth!

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