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The decline in construction volumes has significantly reduced the need for construction materials in the Baltic Sea region, and as a result, the demand for various types of wood industry products has experienced a decline. As a result, prices continued to fall in all market segments in Latvia's wood market in June. <\/span>In June, the average price of small-diameter sawlogs of spruce and pine fell by about 5%, which is explained by the fall in the price of pulpwood of these species. The price of birch veneer blocks experienced a sharper decline in June than in May, decreasing by 5% and 10%, respectively. At the same time, the price of birch pulpwood also decreased from \u20ac65.00\/m\u00b3 to \u20ac58.00\/m\u00b3.<\/p>\n A general decrease in activity in the construction sector has been observed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when the availability of certain construction materials significantly decreased. Later, the increase in inflation made construction prices more expensive, thus reducing its activity as well. Also, due to the increase in interest rates of the European Central Bank, it is more difficult to attract financial means for the purchase of real estate, and until the uncertainty of raising interest rates does not decrease, there will still be fewer real estate transactions, which also negatively affects the construction industry. Although less, the slowdown in construction in the private sector is also caused by the public's lack of confidence in the future, which is exacerbated by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. These conditions affect not only a certain segment of the wood market,<\/p>\n In June the demand for Latvian forest cuttings was stable, despite the fact that the demand for wood as a raw material has fallen, and thus the purchase prices of logs has also decreased. This is due to the fact that the economic activity of logging companies is significantly limited due to the restrictions of the bark beetle emergency, which is still in force. Thus a large number of companies are approaching downtime ''solution''. \"In order to avoid the possible losses caused by downtime, in June, a large number of companies continued to purchase cuttings and develop them in order not to stop the operation of their company and thus reduce the amount of possible losses\", explains Gints Shnikers, founder of the Latvian forest auction platform \"E-silva\".<\/p>\n As a result of the decline in the volume of construction, sawlog prices continue to decline<\/strong><\/p>\n Although not as fast as in May, the average price of softwood logs in all segments continued to decline in June as well. Also, in June, similar to May, the fastest average price decrease was in the thin sawlog segment, with the average price of spruce sawlogs decreasing by about 5%, or from \u20ac76.13\/m\u00b3 to \u20ac72.00\/m\u00b3, but the average price of pine thin sawlogs decreasing by slightly more than 4% and reaching 72.19 \u20ac\/m\u00b3. Also in the medium sawlog category, the average price continued a moderate decline, with the average price of spruce medium sawlog reaching \u20ac76.25\/m\u00b3, but the average price of pine medium sawlog falling to \u20ac77.88\/m\u00b3. Accordingly, a decrease can also be observed in the segment of thick softwood logs by an average of 2.9%.<\/p>\n The price of birch starts to fall faster<\/strong><\/p>\n In June, the average price of birch veneer blocks decreased from \u20ac139.75\/m\u00b3 to \u20ac132.70\/m\u00b3, which is a decrease of 5% compared to May. If from March to May the average price of birch veneer blocks experienced a moderate decline every month, then in June the price drop has been more rapid.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The decline in construction volumes has significantly reduced the need for construction materials in the Baltic Sea region, and as a result, the demand for various types of wood industry products has experienced a decline. As a result, prices continued … Continue reading