Europe's woodworking industry is facing its most difficult period in decades, according to Sampsa Auvinen, Chairman of the Board of the European Woodworking Confederation, who argues that the current downturn is more severe than both the 2008 financial crisis and the market disruption that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Latvian publication Zemeunvalsts.lv, Auvinen said the situation has been building for several years as housing construction slowed across Europe and uncertainty caused consumers and investors to postpone spending decisions.<\/p>\n
\"The situation is much worse now than it was then,\" Auvinen said, referring to both the 2007-2008 crisis and the market conditions seen in 2022. He pointed to weak construction activity across Europe, arguing that inflation and uncertainty have weighed heavily on new projects and housing demand.<\/p>\n
According to Auvinen, recent geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have added further pressure. Higher fuel prices and rising transport costs have increased expenses throughout the supply chain at a time when many customers remain unwilling to accept higher prices.<\/p>\n
\"The woodworking industry is currently losing money, with some exceptions,\" he said. \"There is a selling price and there is a purchasing price. If the difference is positive, a company earns money. At the moment that relationship is not healthy.\"<\/p>\n
Criticism of EU forest and construction policies<\/strong><\/p>\n Auvinen reserved some of his strongest criticism for European policy makers. He argued that the European Union continues to promote timber construction and sustainable building materials while simultaneously supporting measures that would restrict harvesting and expand forest protection.<\/p>\n \"The EU wants more sustainable buildings and more use of wood in construction. At the same time, it says that larger forest areas should be protected and harvesting should be reduced. These two positions contradict each other,\" he said.<\/p>\n \"In short, we are loudly supported when it comes to wooden buildings, while at the same time being told to harvest less wood. It is simple mathematics. If there is less wood, there will also be less building with wood.\"<\/p>\n More forests, but increasing restrictions<\/strong><\/p>\n Auvinen questioned why the European forest sector is increasingly portrayed as a problem when forest resources across Europe have expanded substantially over recent decades.<\/p>\n \"We have more forests today than we had 20, 30 or 40 years ago,\" he said. \"Nobody says that the sector has done a good job. Instead, politicians talk about protecting forests and reducing harvesting.\"<\/p>\n He went further, arguing that politicians rarely explain what materials should replace wood if harvesting is reduced.<\/p>\n \"If you want less harvesting, then forget wooden buildings, forget toilet paper and forget all the other products made from wood. What will replace them? Concrete? Steel? Then explain why those materials are better than products from sustainably managed forests.\"<\/p>\n Bureaucracy and EUDR remain major concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n Another issue raised by Auvinen was the growing administrative burden placed on companies operating within the European Union. He described Brussels as increasingly disconnected from the realities facing manufacturers and processors.<\/p>\n \"We are talking about a machinery riddled with bureaucracy that continuously creates new rules, requirements and regulations,\" he said. \"The inefficiency caused by bureaucracy is enormous.\"<\/p>\n He singled out the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) as an example of legislation developed without sufficient consultation with industry.<\/p>\n \"The regulation has already been delayed and companies are spending huge amounts of time and resources trying to understand what will ultimately be required of them. At the same time, businesses are losing money, mills are under pressure and investment decisions are being postponed.\"<\/p>\n Auvinen also rejected the perception that Nordic countries have found effective solutions to bureaucracy. Finland faces many of the same problems, he said, arguing that administrative costs and slow economic growth have become significant concerns.<\/p>\n \"Finland has exactly the same problem,\" he said. \"We have a very large administrative apparatus relative to the size of the country.\"<\/p>\n Log prices and competitiveness remain critical issues<\/strong><\/p>\n Discussing timber markets, Auvinen returned to a topic that has long concerned sawmills: raw material costs. He recalled the debate surrounding log pricing in Latvia in 2023 and defended government intervention at the time.<\/p>\n \"Seventy percent of sawmill costs come from raw materials,\" he said. \"You can own the best sawmill in the world and use the best technology available, but if raw material prices are not at the right level, you will lose money.\"<\/p>\n According to Auvinen, the log prices offered at the time by Latvijas Valsts Me\u017ei were detached from market realities and risked creating severe financial difficulties for processors if no action was taken.<\/p>\n Industry needs stability and confidence<\/strong><\/p>\n On the outlook for the sector, Auvinen said uncertainty remains the dominant factor influencing business decisions. He noted that consumers across Europe continue to accumulate savings rather than spend, reducing activity throughout the wider economy.<\/p>\n \"What people want today is stability and predictability,\" he said. \"Many bank accounts are full. People have money but they are not spending it because they are uncertain about the future.\"<\/p>\n He also pointed to U.S. tariffs on Canadian lumber as another source of uncertainty. According to Auvinen, the United States still lacks the sawmill capacity and harvesting infrastructure needed to replace Canadian supplies, making long-term investment decisions more difficult on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n For Auvinen, the industry's immediate need is not another round of regulation or new political targets. It is confidence, investment and a clearer economic environment that allows companies and consumers to plan beyond the next crisis.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n