Italy's timber and wood-panel industries are telling two different stories in 2026. Panel makers are managing to keep output flat despite a tough international backdrop, sawmillers are clawing back some of the ground lost to imports, and yet the wider wood-furniture supply chain is bleeding export revenue as demand cools in key overseas markets. Together, the numbers sketch a sector that is resilient in some corners and exposed in others.<\/p>\n
Panel production stays flat<\/strong><\/p>\n Assopannelli, the Italian association representing wood-panel manufacturers and part of the larger FederlegnoArredo umbrella, has just renewed Paolo Fantoni's mandate as president for a further four years, through 2030. Fantoni's new term arrives at a moment when European regulation is becoming as important a variable for the industry as raw-material costs or energy prices. Chief among the concerns is the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which imposes a levy on imported goods linked to carbon-intensive production. While the policy's climate goals are widely accepted, manufacturers worry it could add friction to an industry already squeezed by expensive energy and scarce raw materials.<\/p>\n The underlying data, compiled by FederlegnoArredo's research centre, shows panel output essentially unchanged between January and May 2026, edging up less than one percent. That stability stands in contrast to the broader timber segment, where production slipped by more than four percent over the same stretch. Panel prices likewise held nearly flat, even as raw sawn timber saw costs climb by close to four percent. On the trade side, panel exports inched forward by just over one percent in the first quarter, while imports grew faster, rising above three percent.<\/p>\n That pattern followed a strong 2025, when the panel segment's production turnover topped \u20ac2.3 billion, a two percent gain year-on-year. Sales into the domestic market \u2014 which make up the majority of output \u2014 grew three percent to surpass \u20ac1.3 billion, while exports reached nearly \u20ac980 million. Performance varied by product type: plywood and several other panel categories lost ground, whereas chipboard, veneer and MDF all expanded. One figure stands out as a caution flag: imports jumped fourteen percent to \u20ac1.4 billion, now outstripping the value of panels produced for Italian domestic consumption \u2014 a sign that foreign competition is gaining a firmer foothold even as local output holds its own.<\/p>\n European rules, domestic raw materials top the new agenda<\/strong><\/p>\n Fantoni's incoming board has set its sights on strengthening Italy's voice in Brussels while pushing back against rules it views as adding cost without adding value. A parallel priority is rebuilding domestic poplar supply, building on a 2025 agreement with regional governments across the Po Valley aimed at reducing reliance on imported wood and working toward protected-origin status for poplar-based products. The association is also defending Italy's wood-recycling infrastructure, among the most developed in Europe, and continuing a professional-development programme with Milan's Politecnico focused on surface design, materials and interiors \u2014 now entering its fifth year.<\/p>\n Furniture and wood exports slide as demand softens abroad<\/strong><\/p>\n Away from panels, the picture darkens. FederlegnoArredo figures show the broader wood-and-furniture supply chain's exports falling 5.2 percent in the first quarter of 2026 to \u20ac4.4 billion, with the decline narrowing slightly to three percent in March alone. The United States delivered the heaviest blow, with shipments down more than fifteen percent \u2014 the single largest loss in absolute terms of any market. Germany and France, the sector's top European destinations, also posted declines. A handful of smaller markets, including Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands, grew, but not enough to offset the losses in the industry's largest outlets.<\/p>\n Federation president Claudio Feltrin pointed to Middle East instability as a major drag, with exports to the region down close to a quarter for the quarter and cratering by nearly half in March, driven largely by the fallout from conflict involving Iran. Shipments to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were especially hard hit. Feltrin noted some tentative signs of recovery in April as trade with OPEC nations began to thaw. At the same time, furniture imports from China jumped close to twenty percent in April alone, a trend the federation is watching closely as a potential threat to the competitiveness of Italian manufacturers, prompting renewed calls for the EU to tighten scrutiny of incoming goods and enforce a level playing field.<\/p>\n The furniture industry's own revenue fell three and a half percent in the quarter, driven mainly by a drop in exports, while the broader wood-processing segment proved sturdier, ending the quarter almost unchanged in turnover as rising producer prices \u2014 sawn timber costs rose more than nine percent \u2014 partly offset a decline in production volumes.<\/p>\n Sawmills chip away at Italy's import dependence<\/strong><\/p>\n Against that backdrop, Italy's sawmilling sector is showing modest but real progress. Domestic output of sawn softwood has climbed back toward one million cubic metres annually, according to the European Organisation of the Sawmill Industry's latest annual report \u2014 a meaningful recovery, though still small measured against the 5.45 million cubic metres the Italian market consumed in 2024, most of it sourced abroad. Italy imported 1.47 million cubic metres of roundwood that year alone.<\/p>\n The rebound was a focus of July's Stati Generali della Foresta-Legno gathering in Bologna, convened by the Federazione Filiera Legno. Federation president Angelo Luigi Marchetti used the event to launch Professionisti Legno, a new national association for timber-trade professionals \u2014 carpenters, structural graders, exhibition fitters, ecodesign specialists and packaging experts \u2014 established under Italy's 2013 associations law with backing from PEFC Italia, UNCEM and Consorzio LegnoLegno. Marchetti argues the sector needs a unified industrial strategy spanning forestry, raw-material supply, manufacturing, construction, logistics and packaging rather than fragmented efforts.<\/p>\n Deputy Minister for Enterprises and Made in Italy Valentino Valentini backed the push, framing the country's timber expertise as part of its broader industrial identity.<\/p>\n Beyond sawn softwood, hardwood production \u2014 much of it chestnut, historically central to Italy's mountain economies \u2014 is projected at 340,000 cubic metres for 2025. Timber's role in logistics remains substantial too: Italian firms handle roughly 160 million pallets a year and manufacture more than 84 million of them, while timber-based construction turnover passed \u20ac2.3 billion, per the federation's own observatory data.<\/p>\n A continental backdrop of growing forests<\/strong><\/p>\n Zooming out to Europe as a whole, the picture is one of expanding forest cover but tightening industry margins. The EOS report puts European forest area at 232 million hectares \u2014 over a third of the continent's land \u2014 after 35 years of continuous expansion adding more than 23 million hectares. Standing timber volume has grown 45 percent since 1990, reaching 38.3 billion cubic metres, a trend corroborated by FOREST EUROPE's most recent State of Europe's Forests assessment, which found forest growth still consistently outpacing harvest.<\/p>\n Yet the sawmilling industry itself is under pressure. Europe's roughly 32,000 sawmill companies employ 220,000 people and generate \u20ac51.4 billion in annual turnover, cutting some 102 million cubic metres of sawnwood in 2024 with over ninety percent of logs sourced within the EU. Even so, softwood output slipped 1.5 percent in 2025 and is projected to fall further in 2026 \u2014 a squeeze severe enough that Stora Enso is set to shutter its Veitsiluoto sawmill in northern Finland starting in August.<\/p>\n For Marchetti, the target is unambiguous: close the gap between the roughly one million cubic metres Italian mills now cut and the 5.45 million the domestic market consumes \u2014 without losing sight of a forest resource that, across Europe, keeps growing faster than it is cut.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Italy’s timber and wood-panel industries are telling two different stories in 2026. Panel makers are managing to keep output flat despite a tough international backdrop, sawmillers are clawing back some of the ground lost to imports, and yet the wider … Continue reading