Latest Blogs on the Timber Industry & Trade Digitization

November 11,2022

How Importers can Diversify Timber Market Risks and Increase Stability

A few timber buyers and distributors are globally active with truly global agile supply chains. Most at best are competitive and established in one or two markets. Due to this reliance, movements or changes in exchange rates, natural disasters, legal frameworks, port strikes or forest fires might come in the way of fulfilling the transaction.

November 4,2022

The Exporter's Take on How to Diversify Risks in the Global Timber Market

It is common knowledge that many sawmills sell globally. Export sales to distant markets often use middlemen who act as a filter for information on how the market is performing. This means that exporters often have incomplete knowledge of the market, and that can put them at a disadvantage. To understand the risks associated with the industry & mitigate them to the best effect, one must first understand the situation.

October 28,2022

China Property & Mortgage Crisis - An Investigative Piece on the Implications of the Boycott

The property sector of China makes up around a third of its total economic output ($18 trillion GDP). It includes brokering & rental services along with houses, industries that produce white goods for the apartments, and construction materials. Yet, it is critical to note that the Chinese economy has been declining for the past few years.

October 21,2022

Changes Made to the CME Lumber Futures Contract 2022

The unpredictable nature of lumber prices has given rise to confusion amongst buyers and sellers who have been forced to navigate their businesses amidst extreme volatility. Fortunately for traders, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group has recently launched updates to the lumber futures & options on a futures contract to reduce price volatility in the market.

October 7,2022

A Deeper Understanding of the CME Lumber Futures

Lumber futures can be defined as an option or obligation to buy or sell a specified quantity of lumber at a specific price at a pre-determined date in the future. A futures contract is a standardised derivative contract that gets its value from an underlying asset. This contract is between two parties who intend to buy or sell a specified amount of product at a specific time in the future. Lumber futures are traded at the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange).

September 30,2022

High Trust Community for Timber Industry Democratises Access to Cutting-Edge Tools and Data To SMEs

Timber Exchange is a smart supply chain automation platform for the high-trust global trade community of the forestry industry. It aims to automate the most time-consuming processes like documentation, compliance, transparency, visibility, trade, & logistics, through four core pillars:

September 23,2022

Consumers Demand Traceability of Wood Products - How to do it the Right Way

Consumers buy wood products in DIY stores and furniture. Being able to trace the wood’s origin is becoming of increasing importance for consumers. Previously this was difficult or near impossible on an item-by-item basis, but technology is enabling this, allowing consumers to track the journey of a piece of wood throughout the global supply chain.

September 16,2022

Navigate Global Timber Markets & Increase Profits by 2%

The global timber market goes through volatile ups and downs throughout the year because of several factors like raw material supply, weather, exchange rates, housing demand, logistics prices, global price discrepancies, and logistics capacity. Decisions taken without fully understanding the performance of the target market or the competitors’ activity in their key markets can harm your business's profit margins and lead to lost opportunities.

September 9,2022

How to Leverage High-Trust Trade Networks to Increase EBITDA & Reduce Market Volatility

Today, only a handful of timber distributors and buyers are globally active with agile supply chains. This is because most of them are established in just one or two markets. Some buyers are often seen sending incomplete inquiries to the distributors due to their lack of appropriate information about the procedure of moving forward with a tender and the market situation. This results in several missed opportunities for both counterparties in the long run.

August 12,2022

Optimise Emissions, Schedules and Delays for Your Container Freight

Global supply chains are a complex network of trade flows where maritime transport takes up more than 90% of the volume of global trade, the backbone of the global economy. The structure of this trade flow network also impacts the region’s ecosystem to a large extent. Shipping companies amended their schedules anticipating reduced demand and closure of international borders during the pandemic in 2020.

August 5,2022

How Does Analyzing Market Data Provides Support for Decision Making?

The timber industry is very opaque. The price of timber depends on the information available, which, in turn, depends on the market. The market data hub democratizes access to global market performance and creates a transparent market that helps clients plan when to work with which market and at what price.

July 29,2022

Digital B2B Customer Service is a Reality, Even in the Forestry Industry

Today B2B customer service is highly manual and reactive in forestry and even supply chain in general. Today, companies work in isolated systems and staff spend a majority of their time collecting and sharing updates, thereby wasting many man-hours. Sales and account managers spend up to 50% of their time on follow-ups regarding quotations, tenders, coordination, data and updates which their clients should otherwise have easy access to.

July 15,2022

A Quick Glimpse of the Sawmilling in Finland and Operational Environment Webinar with Tommi Sneck

The Finland Sawmilling market is a topic of interest for several timber industry experts globally. Mr Amir Rashad, the CEO of Timber Exchange and Centersource Technologies, recently hosted a Timber & Technology webinar that focused solely on the subject. To do the same, he brought on board the Chief Executive Officer of Finnish Sawmills Association (Sahateollisuus) and Sales Director of Koskisen Sawmills - Mr Tommi Sneck.

July 8,2022

How to Deal with Compliance Issues in Timber Trade

When it comes to compliance issues, global trade functions in a complex and tricky landscape. This involves dealing with complicated and layered international transport and trade compliance frameworks that involve several counterparties spread across multiple countries. Needless to say, several government agencies govern the distinct layers in detail. Failing to comply with even a single aspect or violating them might jeopardize the entire trade process, thereby incurring high risks and costs.

July 1,2022

How to Track and Reduce Your Ocean Freight Carbon Emissions

Ocean freight carbon emissions are a serious problem encountered all over the world. The vessels transporting cargo from one port to the other produce harmful greenhouse gasses (GHG), as they are dependent on fossil fuels. This, in turn, contributes to rising temperatures and climate change.

May 31,2022

Chinese Timber Market - Analysing Dynamics, Performance & Outlook - Webinar Takeaways

The Chinese timber market is a very interesting domain that is different in several ways from the rest of the world. Mr Amir Rashad, the CEO of Timber Exchange and Centersource Technologies took it upon himself to bring the subject of the Chinese Timber Market up for discussion on a global platform. To do so, he had a panel discussion with notable guests from the Chinese timber industry such as - Anna Ni (Senior Advisor, Business Finland), Cece Chen (Suienfe Friendship Corporation) and Shen Wei (Deputy Secretary, China Timber and Wood Products Distribution Association).

May 25,2022

How Can Modern Trade Finance & Compliance Services Increase Flexibility in Global Trade

Timber Exchange offers three vital offline tools in the form of cargo inspection, L/C management & remittance, and shipping document compliance & legalization to help remove bottlenecks and increase flexibility on-demand in global trade. Each of these services are provided by highly trained, trusted, and experienced experts in the field to ensure a smooth and flawless process, even at an international level.

May 17,2022

How Can Reducing Blank Sailing Improve Cash Flows?

Blank or void sailing is a term used for when a carrier or shipping line skips a particular port or the entire scheduled sailing route altogether. Carriers across the world announce blank sailings time and again. Since COVID, however, the number of announcements for blank sailing has increased by manifolds. This has put a halt on many vessels and containers across the world, thereby delaying shipments and locking in money flows.

May 5,2022

Most Recent Updates to ACID and Other Electronic Documents - Egypt

Digital trade has become a crucial aspect of the entire industry, rather than being just an abstract idea, thereby changing the picture of global trade, depending severely on the free cross-border movement of data. Keeping that in mind, most offline or physical documentation or transactions are being shifted to a digital or electronic version. These digital documents are to be treated like their physical counterparts in the future.

April 22,2022

North America Lumber Market Webinar with Keta Kosman: Key Takeaways

The North American lumber market has been the starting point for several conversations in the industry over the years. Mr Amir Rashad, the CEO of Timber Exchange and Centersource Technologies, took it upon himself to bring this subject up for discussion on a global platform. To do so, he had a panel discussion with one of the finest analysts of the lumber market, Keta Kosman, the owner of Madison’s Lumber Reporter on a special webinar hosted on 30th March 2022.

April 8,2022

How a One-to-Many Integration is a Game-Changer for Your ERP & Supply Chain

The best way to work in a digital supply chain depends on how each stakeholder maximizes their resources by connecting, reusing, replicating, and interoperating them across their supply chain. Enterprise systems consist of on-site legacy applications, self-hosted applications inside a private virtual cloud, and vendor-hosted applications under a SAAS (Software-as-a-Service) agreement.

March 30,2022

Control Tower Technology to Achieve Operational Excellence & Proactive Customer Service

A supply chain control tower can be defined as a personalised yet connected hub of key business metrics, data, and several important events across the supply chain. These are meant to enable organisations to understand, prioritise, and resolve complex issues easily.

March 23,2022

The Impact of the Russia-Ukraine War on Global Timber Trade

The war between Russia and Ukraine is likely to impact global trade, especially the timber market, to a large extent in the coming months. The increased number of sanctions against Russian trading and the challenging financial transactions will possibly re-direct and interrupt forest products’ shipments globally. Trade with Russia, as a result, will likely decline, jeopardizing the long-established international trade flows of forest products to and from the region.

March 3,2022

Top Ways Digital Smart Contracts Can Take Global Trade to the Next Level

Per shipment, there are distinct shipping, legal, and trade-related documents involved. Crucial information like tracking numbers, requested amendments, and drafts can easily get lost in transit. Hence, integrating a smart supply chain tool like Timber Exchange can minimize manual checks and ensure that everything goes smoothly without any hiccups on the way.

February 24,2022

What You Need to Know About Egypt’s New L/C Import Regulation

On 12th February 2022, the Central Bank of Egypt announced a new rule for Egyptian importers stating that they would need Letters of Credit to buy goods from March onwards and that they should stop dealing with collection documents during import operations, especially within the framework of the Cabinet’s directives regarding the activation of the ACI system and the governance of the import processes.

February 14,2022

The European Timber Industry Begins Its Digital Transformation

The end of the year 2020 saw an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) being signed by the member states of the CEO-Bois, European Confederation of Woodworking Industries, about an initiative that would digitize the European timber industry. “TIMBIM”, the name given to this initiative, supports the constant collaboration and knowledge-sharing of the timber market between the member states participating.

February 7,2022

Implications of Russia’s Proposed Log Export Ban on Global Markets in 2022

In 2020 Russia exported around 15 million cubic meters of logs which accounted for 12% of the Roundwood that is globally traded. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, however, has proposed a new log export ban that will stop the exportation of hardwood logs of high-value and softwood logs from 1st January 2022.

January 31,2022

Analysing Timber Inventories Globally And What It Means - January 2022

Timber prices globally have seen a rollercoaster time in 2021. With each new wave of the virus being reported, the timber production and demand of timber has been disproportionate across the world. This has ultimately created tremendous instability in the construction and timber industries.

January 24,2022

Timber Product Inspection – Discussing the American Grading System Webinar: A Review

With the increasing lumber prices in the United States, interest from foregin markets to produce compliant goods is at a record high. Mr. Amir Rashad, the CEO of Timber Exchange and Centersource Technologies thus took it upon himself to bring this subject up to discussion on a global platform. To do so, he brought on Mr David Conner (Senior Vice President Operations) and Mr Robin Lillandt (Senior European Representative) from TPI (Timber Product Inspection) to speak on the subject as part of a collaborative panel discussion webinar.

January 14,2022

Lumber Prices Increase Again in 2021, With No Sign of Improvement in The Near Future

No matter how you look at it, 2021 was anything from ordinary. Many of us are looking at the end of this troubled year as supply chain problems, inflation, an overly hot housing market, and record-breaking timber prices have contributed to making this year problematic. But will the year 2022 be any better?

December 30,2021

Timber Exchange's 2021 in Review: A Year Full of Achievements

Centersource Technologies was registered on 2018-10-04 as a supply chain automation platform by industry professionals to automate time-consuming processes and make global trade smoother. In line with our vision, 2021 saw a lot of developments and achievements from our end. Let’s take a brief look at all our pivotal breakthroughs this financial year!

December 20,2021

Christmas & New Year Special Offer – 30% Discount on the First 3 Months

Christmas is the season to sit back, relax, and make happy memories as you sip on eggnog and sing carols with friends and family. But, can you do that with the weight of your business supply chain malfunctioning on your shoulders? No, right? Well, we are here to help you get rid of that tension!

December 14,2021

US Tariff Hike

In a recent order by The US Commerce Department, the USA has decided to raise duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports to the US from 9% to 17.9%, with a final decision of countervailing and antidumping duty rates on Canadian softwood lumber imports as follows:

November 22,2021

How Does the US Market Affect European Lumber Prices

US home building has grown, especially since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, at a balanced pace, and the lumber producers have slowly risen to reach the demand received from the constructors. However, the gap in the supply chain exposed during peak pandemic time is on the verge to become an issue for the longer term that keeps pressure on the US lumber prices. The lumber shipments from Canada to the United States (an extremely vital chunk of the supply to the US) were hit by around 20% in 2020 April.

November 15,2021

North American Timber Industry Webinar: A Review

Conversations regarding the North American Timber Market and speculations around it have been going on for quite some time now, and Mr Amir Rashad, the CEO of Centersource Technologies and Timber Exchange took it upon himself to call in two true veterans of the industry – Mr Russ Taylor (CEO, Russ Taylor Global) and Mr Christian Provost (VP, Boscus), to speak on the subject as part of a panel discussion webinar.

November 8,2021

How Does Pallet Timber Usage Endorse Sustainability

Wooden pallets, over the years, have been known to be a massive contributor to deforestation. The reality, however, is slightly different. Timber pallets require the harvest of special natural resources for sure, but most manufacturers are making their practices as sustainable as possible to ultimately work towards an eco-friendly planet.

Top Factors that Influence Investment in Russian Sawmills

November 1,2021

Top 3 Factors that Influence Investment in Russian Sawmills in 2022

The Russian sawmill sector can be divided into two distinct fragments – one, the large export-oriented companies and two, smaller companies that rely on the domestic market. The industry, however, is going through a serious pressure period, all thanks to inflation and several other factors, that has ultimately amounted to the high prices of the delivered logs along with the requirement to invest in new equipment and infrastructure to maintain competitiveness.

October 20,2021

What Are the Biggest Advantages of Using KVH Timber?

Whenever you’re thinking about building a house, the best material you can lay your hands on is timber. As a cost-efficient material, timber has several characteristics that make it ideal for outdoor projects and structures. It provides long-lasting performance and an extremely natural appearance, based on the type and grade of timber you’ve chosen. One of the most sought-after timber types is the KVH timber. Why? Let’s find out!

October 13,2021

What Does the Lumber Price Forecast Have in Store for Q4-2021?

Lumber prices, over the past few months and 2020, have been in turmoil. While it might show an all-time high at one point, the next quarter can see the European and US lumber price dropping down like anything. Mid-July 2021 saw the price of the finished SYP (Southern Yellow Pine) lumber tumbling over 65% from the record high ($1,600 per 1,000 board feet) that it had reached simply 9 weeks ago (in May).

October 6,2021

Top 5 Factors that Affect International Timber Prices

Irrespective of the location you’re based, the cost of wood acts as the single largest variable of price when it comes to wood-consuming manufacturing projects. In this regard, you need to have a fair understanding of the timber wood price or stumpage in a supply region. The stumpage price is the amount paid to the landowner to gain the right to harvest the trees from the timberland of the owner that can drastically vary across local wood basins.

September 15,2021

A Detailed Insight into the Most Popular Types of Construction Wood

Wood, in general, has been an extremely vital part of our civilization, starting from the early Paleolithic times. It is used for making tools, furniture, weapons, and constructing buildings as well. Now, the usage of wood has always been dependent on three major factors – availability, quality, and cost. As a hard-fibrous material that is seen as the branches of trees and shrubs, construction wood has various structural and non-structural applications.

September 8,2021

What Demand and Supply Tools Can Do for the Users?

In every business owner’s mind, the first thing that matters is to take their brand to the next level by increasing the profitability. The one thing to keep in mind while working towards the objective is efficient supply and demand planning. It can ensure that digital supply chains are efficient for planning and finally driving revenue as well. Now, supply and demand are extremely important aspects of economic activity.

September 1,2021

Retail Homebuyers Getting Outbid by Big Companies

About one in five homes sold in 2020 were purchased by investors in the USA, a trend which is being observed even outside the USA (such as Australia) where retail buyers are continuously finding it hard to compete with investors who don't need home inspections, appraisal contingencies, or a mortgage. Such corporations might be institutional investment organisations, publicly trading firms, pension funds, etc.

August 18,2021

Elevating Trend in Swedish Wood Market

Today’s wood marketplace is investing in digital technology across organizations. However, most of the timber companies are focusing on digital efforts to improve their quality management and IT operations, as well as to enhance the execution of supply chain and production. Recently, Swedish wood companies are using a range of technologies for optimizing their supply chain, where the cloud is the most widely adopted one.

July 5, 2021

Forestry Industry Supply Chain Challenges

The forestry industry plays a crucial role in uplifting the global economy and also has a significant impact on the environment that we reside in. More than 57% of Sweden is covered in forests. Sweden holds less than 1% of the global commercial forest areas and offers 10% of sawn timber, pulp, and paper traded across the international market.

June 21, 2021

Learn Advance Cargo Information Declaration of Egypt Customs

From the 1st of April 2021, Egypt arrived at a trial period for getting approval on the implementation of the Advance Cargo Information Declaration (ACID) System. Egypt finally managed to become the first country in the North African region to implement the ACID System, to start from 1st July 2021.

June 7, 2021

Digital Timber Supply Chain: The Transformation to Automate the Forestry Industry

Industries across the globe are experiencing a wave of the digital revolution through automation that promises to transform the overall scenario of doing things!

April 22, 2021

New Egypt Advance Cargo Information declaration effective from October 1, 2021

Egyptian Ministry of Finance (Customs Authority) activate article 39 of customs law 207 of 2020 and issue decree 38 of 2021. Which requires a unique customs registration number (Advanced Cargo Information Declaration (ACI) for each incoming shipment imported into Egypt that must be included on all shipping documents.

March 9, 2021

Dubai Woodshow 2021

For 15 consecutive years, Dubai WoodShow has been the leading destination for wood specialists, professionals, entrepreneurs and key leaders from across the globe. As a commitment to continue to provide a robust platform for the industry’s specialists, entrepreneurs and professionals from around the world

August 27, 2020

Digital transformation and what it means for forestry industry and global supply chains

In 2019 Centersource has completed a survey amongst a number of companies that collectively export, transport or import over nine million cubic meters of lumber materials annually. We have asked these companies if they were satisfied with the work tools currently available to them. As a result, over 90% have replied with a definitive “No”.

The Case for digitisation of the Forestry Industry

May 14, 2020

Recommendations for Creating Value with BI/Analytics in the Supply Chain

If you are a supply chain professional you probably already know this: Building analytics solutions that produce actual value is usually a very complex endeavor which requires a lot of thought, time and effort. The main reason is that the data you need to consolidate to get value is typically very fragmented and lives in multiple data sources, both internally, externally (at suppliers/customers) and in between (e.g. forwarders, agents, etc.). Some data might not even be possible to access.

March 20, 2020

How to maintain Business Continuity and Coordination during Crisis through Smart Tools, Automation and Integration

Because of coronavirus, we now face the biggest challenge in living memory to both continue business and coordinate it. This is a challenge for any organisation, but it may be particularly challenging for industries with global supply-chains and large networks of partners. So when everybody across the supply-chains works remotely - how can you coordinate it?

February 07, 2020

The Case for digitization of the Forestry Industry

My father started his company in the forestry industry exactly forty-five years ago. Back then typewriters, mail, calculators and telex (which was later replaced by fax) were the main tools required to conduct business. Due to language barriers and geographic distance, trading-houses were engaged to act as an outsourced export department, whom main task was to manage orders, oversee the supply-chain, open markets, provide finance security, ensure compliance and organise logistics.

February 01, 2020

The Case for Industrial Digital Data Sharing and How to Decrease Risk by Linking Transparency, Compliance and Accountability

Companies are only as proactive, effective and organised as the employees inside and the tools available to them. Having worked in the industry for almost a decade and having worked with many companies globally of all sizes, including the biggest, I noticed that all share the exact same problems and suboptimal processes. The largest being that existing software doesn’t integrate producers to their industrial-buyers, automate processes or cover the final steps of the supply-chain - Which is why we built the Timber Exchange.