{"id":76350,"date":"2018-09-07T09:14:24","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T09:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tin.happy-projects.ro\/outlook-european-sawmill-industry-2018\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T08:48:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T08:48:55","slug":"outlook-european-sawmill-industry-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.timberindustrynews.com\/ro\/outlook-european-sawmill-industry-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Outlook of the European sawmill industry in 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

During the third EOS Board Meeting of 2017 held in October 2017, the Board Members expressed an interest in defining the European Sawmill Industry structure.\u00a0There was a feeling that the industry is undergoing change and that old assumptions could be dispelled as a result of structural changes in the market. That hunch proved correct: sawmilling in 2018 is not was it was twenty or ten years ago. Many sawmills are more and more involved in value-adding activities and many larger sawmills are getting more export-oriented.<\/em><\/p>\n

The EOS Secretariat was tasked to survey the EOS Members by submitting a set of questions which have been answered either in written form or in a phone call.<\/p>\n

The countries which participated in this information collection are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Key data<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were almost 34,000 sawmills in the EU28 in 2016 (plus around 250 in Switzerland, and 700 in Norway) \u2013 down from around 40,000 in 2010. According to Eurostat, out of 34,000 sawmills around 29,250 are classifiable as micro enterprises, around 4,250 are classifiable as small enterprises, around 630 are classifiable as medium enterprises, and around 60 are classifiable as larger enterprises.<\/p>\n

Sawmilling in 2018: first evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n

While there are some sawmills which process both hardwood and softwood logs, most are specialized in the processing of either softwood or hardwood species. Based on the latest available data (2017), the EOS members produced around 80 million m3 of sawn softwood and 5.5 million m3 of sawn hardwood. Thus, sawn softwood production accounts for around 93.5% of the total EOS production, while sawn hardwood production accounts for the remaining 6.5%. In general, hardwood sawmills tend to be smaller than softwood sawmills.<\/span><\/p>\n

Based on the information received, in general, across Europe there are less traditional1 sawmills (precise data missing for some countries) than in the past \u2013 even when we compared figures with ten years ago. In France around 30% of sawmills can still be defined as traditional sawmills. However, there are still many small, family-size sawmills that employ a significant amount of people in many countries. The share of the logs processed in such sawmills as a total of the logs processed across Europe is getting lower.<\/p>\n

Sawmills are more and more involved in valueadding activities such as planing, finger-jointing and impregnation. Window-scantling production is a more peripheral activity, and furniture-making is even rarer. For instance, in Germany 82.5% of the companies produce planed timber. In France around 70% of sawmills produce value-added products. In Belgium around 20% of sawmills produce value added products, the bigger ones and some smaller ones, too. In Austria 10%, which are however responsible for 90% of the production volume.<\/p>\n

In Romania, around 20%, with smaller companies the least likely to produce value added products.<\/p>\n

Selling BY-PRODUCTS is an integral part of the sawmill industry\u2019s business model. In some countries there is a relatively balanced situation when it comes to selling by-products. Other countries, such as Finland, Denmark, Norway, are finding it a little more difficult to place them in the markets. Pellets production in general is not a very widespread activity but there are big differences across Europe. At any rate, pellets production is generally growing, for instance in Sweden. Few Austrian sawmills produce pellets, but that output accounts for 90% of total Austrian production. In Latvia specialized pellets producers prevail but more and more sawmills use pellets machinery to produce pellets. In Belgium the four bigger sawmills of the country produce pellets, while in France and Romania around 2% of sawmills produce pellets.<\/p>\n

Forest ownership is a marginal phenomenon, which is often restricted to bigger companies; there are few sawmills which own forests in Switzerland and in Sweden, but in other countries such as Finland and Belgium no sawmills own forests. Forest ownership is slightly more widespread in France, where around 10% of sawmills own forests. 2% of German sawmills have jointventures with forest owners. In Romania, overall, medium enterprises (as per the internationally utilized definition) are the ones more likely to own forests and be involved in harvesting activities. Many sawmills are involved in wood procurement, and some of them transport raw material to the mills.<\/p>\n

Some sawmills are involved in the transportation of products from mills to buyers, but there are significant differences across Europe (no or very few transport their products in Finland, Latvia, some in Sweden, around 35-40% in Belgium, around 50% in France, many in Switzerland and Norway), while few sawmills own builders\u2019 merchants\u2019 chains (for instance in Sweden, in Romania, in Switzerland, and in France; in Latvia some own their shops where they sell products). In Finland there are nowadays no sawmills builders\u2019 merchants\u2019 chains.<\/p>\n

Emerging trends:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larger sawmills are further expanding their processing operations and tend to be more focused on value-adding products. Smaller sawmills tend to be more focused on traditional sawmilling. This, however, shouldn\u2019t be a sweeping generalization as there are smaller sawmills focusing on value-adding products and some bigger sawmills remained traditional sawmills.<\/p>\n

While the production of the sector is overall expanding (the softwood sector\u2019s production is growing, while the hardwood sector production is stagnating), more output is achieved with less personnel and with less sawmills. In Belgium there is a clear difference between hardwood and softwood producers, with much more hardwood mills having shut down over the past decade.<\/p>\n

In Austria the 10 largest sawmills process 60% of logs, while in Latvia the 13 largest sawmills process 80% of logs. There is therefore a trend towards consolidation (with some exceptions), but this is taking place quite slowly. In Southern Germany an estimated 40% of small businesses have shut down over the last 10 years. In France the sector lost around 25% of sawmills in 10 years. Sawmills can grow through takeovers or organic growth.<\/p>\n

However, with some exceptions such as Denmark and Latvia (in which smaller sawmills tend to be less profitable), size doesn\u2019t usually define sawmills\u2019 profitability. Smaller sawmills concentrated on own markets which sometimes operate in niches and can customize products can also be successful. There are therefore smaller sawmills which can actually be more profitable than bigger sawmills.<\/p>\n

Norway emphasized that it is management rather than size that defines profitability. Bigger sawmills tend to be more export-oriented while smaller sawmills are more prone to service their local markets. This is generally true across all EOS countries. While extra-European markets are becoming more and more important for many sawmills scattered across Europe, for many sawmills the main focus markets remain the local and European markets.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the third EOS Board Meeting of 2017 held in October 2017, the Board Members expressed an interest in defining the European Sawmill Industry structure.\u00a0There was a feeling that the industry is undergoing change and that old assumptions could be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4716,4715],"tags":[3299,3247,3275,3352],"class_list":["post-76350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-trends","category-market-analysis","tag-europe","tag-hardwood","tag-sawmilling","tag-softwood","topic-forestry","topic-sawmilling","area-europe"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOutlook of the European sawmill industry in 2018 - TIN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sawmilling in 2018 is not was it was twenty or ten years ago. 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