Timber Industry Overview

Posted on October 8, 2020

• Softwood market has been doing well for last decade on the back of recovering construction activity ; increasing from 88 million m3 to about 103 million m3 • Hardwood market has seen a fall in exports of good quality logs to non-EU countries from 12.2 million m3 to 10 million m3 in past 10 years • Austria saw a volume of 10 million m³ of damaged wood in 2019, 5.5 million m³ of which were damaged by bark beetles a new record . • In Austria total of 19 million m³ wood was harvested. • In Germany , a total of 83 to 85 million m³ of log wood (including hardwood logs) were harvested. • German softwood is gaining market share in China and in the US • German and Austrian exports are becoming more competitive in third markets • In the short term, there is an abundance of raw materials across Central Europe at lower prices than in the past • But in the medium term there will be scarcity of raw materials in Central Europe.