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Poland's wood industry was still coping with problems at the beginning of last year. It has only gotten worse since mid-2022, entrepreneurs say.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of February 2022, Polish wood business was taking a second breath after being subdued during the pandemic by lockdowns, high prices of materials and problems with obtaining wood. Until the war broke out in Ukraine, some people even hoped for some stability. Now the industry faces the rising energy prices, slowing down on construction sites, the collapse of exports, and especially domestic sales.<\/p>\n
The signal is as usual the decline in orders for pallets in the wood industry. \u201cAt the end of the year, companies even gave up collecting previously ordered pallets. This is illustrated by the level of pessimism in thousands of sawmills -'' says Rafa\u0142 Szeler, director of the Polish Chamber of Commerce of the Timber Industry (PIPGD).<\/p>\n
The fact that the situation is changing can be seen from last year's preliminary results of Koszalinskie Przedsiebiorstwo Przemys\u0142u Drzewnego, a stock exchange tycoon in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. KPPD predicts that the reports for 2022 will include good results for difficult times, including sales revenue of PLN 474 million (compared to PLN 415.9 million in 2021). The forecast of last year's profit - PLN 130.8 million - is also significantly higher than that of 2021 (PLN 104.1 million).<\/p>\n
Priceless stabilization<\/strong><\/p>\n Asked to comment on this matter, Marek Szumowicz-W\u0142odarczyk, president of the company, processing at least 0.5 million cubic meters of wood every year, confirms that last year's forecasts of results look good at first glance. However, this is due to the first half of 2022, when KPPD was still processing the raw material purchased in the previous 2021.<\/p>\n ''Already at the beginning of the second half of 2022, trouble began, i.e. a period of exceptional instability that continues to this day. Without hesitation, I would trade these encouraging last year's results in statistics for regaining real stability in business - says Szumowicz-W\u0142odarczyk. The president of KPPD says that last year's result was still influenced by the old prices of wood contracted in the State Forests in autumn 2021, supplemented even then with imported raw material. \u201cWe imported a lot of wood from Scandinavia, because it was definitely cheaper than domestic wood,\u201d explains Szumowicz-W\u0142odarczyk.<\/p>\n Last year's relative financial success of KPPD cannot be repeated this year also because energy prices soared.<\/p>\n Companies pressed against the wall<\/strong><\/p>\n A nightmare in all segments of wood production is also the decline in orders, the largest, over 90%, in the case of garden products. Orders for furniture and construction joinery fell by 50%. Until recently, complete roof trusses were ordered in large batches - now they are single orders, resulting rather from the implementation of previous contracts.<\/p>\n In the current year, more sobering results are expected, since new log sales contracts with Scandinavia are concluded at current prices, while energy is billed according to the current price. At the same time, domestic log wood is also becoming more and more expensive. Standard spruce or pine logs, previously priced at auctions at PLN 320 per cubic meter, do reach PLN 500 this season.<\/p>\n The great slowdown in the wood industry is reflected in employment, small companies shorten the working week, larger ones lay off people.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Poland’s wood industry was still coping with problems at the beginning of last year. It has only gotten worse since mid-2022, entrepreneurs say. At the beginning of February 2022, Polish wood business was taking a second breath after being subdued … Continue reading