{"id":99882,"date":"2026-09-09T05:50:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T05:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.timberindustrynews.com\/?p=99882"},"modified":"2026-09-09T16:49:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T16:49:46","slug":"internationaler-holztag-2026-austrias-sawmills-look-to-italy-as-the-domestic-construction-slump-drags-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.timberindustrynews.com\/ro\/internationaler-holztag-2026-austrias-sawmills-look-to-italy-as-the-domestic-construction-slump-drags-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Internationaler Holztag 2026: Austria\u2019s sawmills look to Italy as the domestic construction slump drags on"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

From Klagenfurt:<\/strong> Global Wood Markets Info (GWMI) attended Internationaler Holztag 2026, where Austria\u2019s wood industry gathered with little appetite for ceremonial optimism. Mills are producing into weak construction demand, margins remain compressed and exports fell sharply in several overseas markets during the first five months of 2026. Yet the discussions in Klagenfurt also showed why the sector is not simply waiting for Austria\u2019s building cycle to turn: Italy remains a large and unusually durable outlet, while non-residential timber construction is opening markets that barely existed five years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n

The room at the Klagenfurt exhibition centre was already full when the formal proceedings began on 4 September. Around 450 executives, traders, sawmill owners, foresters and technology suppliers attended the event, held during the Internationale Holzmesse and jointly organised by the Austrian sawmill industry and timber trade. Simultaneous interpretation between German, Italian and English was a practical sign of the market the meeting was built around. The Alpine supply chain may be divided by borders, but Austria and Italy still operate as one of the world\u2019s largest bilateral wood-trade corridors.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere differed noticeably from the shortage years, when the main questions concerned access to logs, delivery times and the speed at which mills could increase output. In 2026, the problem has moved to the other end of the chain. Raw material was available during the first months of the year largely because mills were cutting production, lumber inventories were full after overseas sales slowed, and buyers had little incentive to build stocks. The repeated demand from the stage was therefore for stability: no speculative purchasing wave, no attempt to force volumes into weak markets and no new cost imposed on companies without a measurable benefit.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Markus Schm\u00f6lzer (in the photo above), chairman of the Austrian sawmill industry, set the tone within the first minutes. Conversations across the fair, he said, repeatedly returned to the same three problems: high costs, weak capacity utilisation and lost competitiveness. Construction was recovering slowly at best, investment decisions remained difficult and European companies were being asked to absorb a growing burden of reporting and documentation. \u201cWe will not secure our competitiveness with forms,\u201d he told the audience, arguing that investment, innovation and room for companies to act would matter far more.<\/p>\n

\n
Speaker<\/div>\n
Markus Schm\u00f6lzer<\/div>\n
Chairman of the Austrian sawmill industry<\/div>\n

His opening message was blunt: demand and utilisation are weak, costs are high and regulation is adding expense at precisely the moment mills need capital for technology, energy efficiency and workforce development. The long-term case for wood remains intact; the immediate question is whether the associated production and jobs will remain in Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Austria\u2019s construction crisis is now a structural problem<\/h2>\n

Gunter Deuber, Head of Raiffeisen Research at Raiffeisen Bank International, widened the lens from sawmills to the economy that is supposed to consume their output. His assessment was uncomfortable. Austria and Germany have decoupled from the euro area\u2019s growth trajectory and may not regain their 2022 level of real economic output until 2027. Germany has some upside potential, helped by new policy impulses, but Deuber saw Austria\u2019s risks tilted slightly downwards.<\/p>\n

For 2026, the presentation put Austrian GDP growth at about 0.5%, below an earlier estimate of 0.7%, with inflation around 3%. Private consumption is functioning reasonably well, but exports and investment are expanding by only 1\u20132%; in a conventional Austrian recovery, Deuber noted, both would normally grow by 3\u20134%. Investment remains below its 2021 starting level and rising labour costs have eaten into industrial profitability. Austrian hourly labour costs increased roughly ten percentage points more than in the euro area, while exporters largely held their selling prices in line with European competitors. Market share was defended by sacrificing margin.<\/p>\n

The building sector is the sharp end of that loss of momentum. Deuber expects 2026 to become Austria\u2019s eighth consecutive recessionary year in construction. Even if an upturn begins, a return to pre-crisis building volumes may take until the 2030s. Civil engineering has held up better than building construction, but Austria is participating less strongly than the euro area in the infrastructure cycle, and fiscal consolidation could restrain that support. The divergence with Italy was repeatedly visible in the data: after its incentive-driven boom, Italian construction growth has slowed, but activity remains on a much higher platform.<\/p>\n

The figures behind that verdict were particularly severe. Since the fourth quarter of 2019, prices in Austrian construction have risen by more than 50% and in some measures close to 60%, while real value added has fallen by more than 2%. The sector may invoice more euros than before the pandemic, but it produces less in volume terms. Five years of that gap have reduced reserves and equity across the building chain. Deuber warned that the consequences extend beyond suppliers of timber and building materials: too little housing is now being created in precisely the regions where shortages are already acute.<\/p>\n

Demand, rather than labour or material availability, is currently the largest obstacle reported by Austrian construction companies in European Commission surveys. Financing has become a second brake. Rules for household mortgages were eased, but tighter treatment of commercial real-estate lending has arrived just as developers need credit to restart projects. In Austria\u2019s SME loan book, non-performing exposures have climbed above 5\u20136%, higher than the EU, Germany and Italy. Using the Austrian National Bank\u2019s wider national definition, which also captures parts of the construction business, distressed commercial property loans approach 8%.<\/p>\n

The interest-rate outlook offered no quick relief. With the European Central Bank\u2019s deposit rate at 2.25% during the presentation, Raiffeisen Research expected two further increases and a rise to about 2.75%. More important for long-term corporate and property finance, the German ten-year government yield had reached 3.38% and was expected to edge higher. The years in which central-bank purchases compressed both short and long rates are over. Europe as a whole may tolerate that normalisation; Austria is entering it with a stagnant building market and weak investment.<\/p>\n

Deuber did identify a counterweight. Credit markets were distinguishing increasingly between government and corporate risk, and the additional yield demanded from large European companies was near historic lows. Many private businesses entered the period with better balance sheets than governments. That leaves financing available for strong borrowers and viable property projects, but it does not solve Austria\u2019s domestic cost problem or reopen credit automatically for marginal construction schemes.<\/p>\n

His geopolitical assessment was equally specific. The oil-price shock associated with the conflict involving Iran had proved smaller than initially feared because the market had entered the crisis with surplus capacity, new Gulf export capacity was coming on stream and China had reduced energy imports while drawing on reserves. Deuber did not consider the prevailing oil price an immediate recession trigger; that risk would become much greater if oil remained well above USD 100\/bbl. The present effect was instead renewed inflation pressure and, with it, the prospect of higher European interest rates.<\/p>\n

\n
Speaker<\/div>\n
Gunter Deuber<\/div>\n
Head of Raiffeisen Research, Raiffeisen Bank International<\/div>\n

Deuber described an Austrian recovery held back by weak investment, modest export growth, construction finance constraints and labour costs that have risen faster than in the euro area. His warning to industry was that improved German growth will no longer lift Austria automatically.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Wood prices are high, but mills have little room left<\/h2>\n

The market discussion that followed made clear why high nominal wood prices should not be confused with comfortable sawmill earnings. By June 2026, Austria\u2019s softwood lumber price index stood at 184.51, the roundwood index at 187.07 and the consumer-price index at 188.8, each measured against 2000. After the extraordinary price spikes and collapses of 2021\u201323, the three indices have converged. For mills, this means the selling-price advantage created during the shortage period has disappeared, while payroll, energy, logistics, financing and compliance costs have reset higher.<\/p>\n

Schm\u00f6lzer said the sector had maintained production and export positions through a difficult period, but profitability remained strained. Some Austrian mills extended summer shutdowns in August, a practical response to the mismatch between raw-material costs and demand. The priority for the coming months is not aggressive volume growth. It is to keep production, skilled labour and industrial capacity in place until orders improve.<\/p>\n

Austrian softwood lumber production is expected to fall by about 4% in 2026. The industry has now spent several years below the former benchmark of 10 million m\u00b3, first because of the crises of 2023 and 2024 and later because log availability tightened toward the end of 2025. This year\u2019s reduction is different: Schm\u00f6lzer said it is being driven principally by insufficient demand. Mills have deliberately taken out shifts and operating days because the market cannot absorb their previous output.<\/p>\n

That may reset the production benchmark itself. Rather than treating 10 million m\u00b3 as the level to which Austria will inevitably return, Schm\u00f6lzer suggested that approximately 9.5 million m\u00b3 could become the new working balance between sustainable raw-material availability and demand. For a capital-intensive industry built around throughput, accepting lower volume is painful: fixed costs are spread across fewer cubic metres and productivity deteriorates. Yet running at full speed into an unreceptive market would place even more pressure on cash and selling prices.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s deeper production decline offers only limited comfort. German mills had expanded strongly during the calamity-wood years, when large volumes of inexpensive logs were available. They are now dealing simultaneously with the disappearance of that exceptional raw-material supply and weak construction. Austria gained some sales in Germany during 2025, but Schm\u00f6lzer rejected the idea that a steeper German contraction automatically protects Austrian mills. If Austria\u2019s own output and exports decline, it is still losing tonnes of business and industrial utilisation, regardless of which competitor or destination accounts for the change.<\/p>\n

The margin squeeze has already lasted four or five years for parts of the industry. The capital accumulated during the exceptional lumber-price period was expected to bridge weaker seasons, but those reserves are no longer inexhaustible. Roundwood prices have risen more strongly than the value mills can recover from lumber, while personnel, transport, logistics and energy bills remain elevated. The price indices may move together again, but the cash cost carried between the log yard and the customer is substantially higher than it was before 2020.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
Speaker<\/div>\n
Franz Teuschler<\/div>\n
Chairman of the Austrian timber trade<\/div>\n

Teuschler described a divided trading market. Roundwood business has been comparatively active, while demand for processed construction timber remains weak. Italy is still buying, but margins in the trade have narrowed, and flexibility, assortment and the ability to deliver quickly have become more valuable than speculative stocking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Exports fall 10.6%, with Italy still taking 45%<\/h2>\n

Austria exported 2.51 million m\u00b3 of softwood lumber between January and May 2026, down 10.6% from 2.81 million m\u00b3 a year earlier. The headline decline was spread unevenly. Italy remained by far the largest destination at 1.12 million m\u00b3, a comparatively moderate reduction of 4.5%, and its share rose back to 45%. Germany took 404,990 m\u00b3, down 10.2%, while shipments to the rest of Europe increased 4.6% to 407,847 m\u00b3.<\/p>\n

The heavier losses came outside the core European market. Deliveries to the Middle East and North Africa fell 24.2% to 386,087 m\u00b3. Asia, including Japan, was down 26.3% to 131,737 m\u00b3, and North America dropped 45.5% to only 30,587 m\u00b3. These figures explain the commercial mood in Klagenfurt better than any confidence survey: Austria\u2019s nearest major customer is still absorbing volume, but distant outlets are no longer providing the release valve they offered during earlier cycles.<\/p>\n

Teuschler traced the MENA decline directly to disrupted shipping and the conflict around the Gulf. Freight rates to the Levant rose by as much as sixfold at the worst point, forcing suppliers and customers to divide the additional cost and bringing business close to a standstill. Some movement had returned by early September, but summer is normally slow in the region and the logistics chain remained distorted. Cargo that would ordinarily move through established ports was being transferred overland, adding cost and uncertainty that would persist as long as the conflict continued.<\/p>\n

Asia offered no simple substitute. India is expanding quickly, but the price level sought by many buyers makes it a disposal market rather than a profitable destination for Austrian mills. China remains supplied principally by Russia and its property crisis continues to weigh on wood consumption. Vietnam has become a major furniture producer as manufacturing migrated from China, but its demand is concentrated more heavily in hardwoods and in raw logs. Japan, once a reliable high-quality outlet for Austrian lumber, has become more difficult because the yen makes imports expensive. At the same time, a country whose land area is roughly two-thirds forest is investing in domestic sawmilling and trying to use more of its own timber.<\/p>\n

North America remains too small to change Austria\u2019s national balance. It can offer specialised business to the largest industrial producers, but at about 1% of exports it cannot replace missing sales in Italy, Germany or the Levant. The uncomfortable result is that every surplus-producing region turns toward Europe when its overseas markets slow. Nordic mills that cannot place their output in the United States or Asia compete more aggressively in southern Europe, making Italy valuable to Austria and crowded at the same time.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michael Pfeifer, coordinator of the Austrian sawmill industry\u2019s Austria\u2013Italy committee, stressed that competition in Italy is now international. Austrian suppliers face German mills as well as producers from other regions, and Chinese material has appeared in segments such as formwork. Nevertheless, the geographical and commercial connection remains unusually strong. The Austria\u2013Italy trade in softwood lumber was described during the panel as the fourth-largest bilateral flow in the global wood trade.<\/p>\n

Pfeifer\u2019s product-by-product account showed that the Italian market was not moving in one direction. Packaging demand performed well early in the year before pallet activity gradually softened. Construction timber still moved reasonably, and deliveries of lamellas were stable to slightly higher during the first five months. Glulam and formwork panels weakened later, with Chinese products adding pressure in the formwork segment. Engineered-wood sales also lost part of the stimulus created by Italy\u2019s 110% Superbonus, which had already expired and had supported single-family timber construction in particular.<\/p>\n

Germany could eventually provide some support for engineered wood after the launch of a EUR 17 billion construction package, but it is also adding domestic glulam and CLT capacity. New plants built during the past five years will compete for the same recovery. Pfeifer still expects timber construction to expand in Central Europe over the next several years; the immediate challenge is the interval between the end of subsidy-led demand and the arrival of a wider structural recovery.<\/p>\n

\n
Speaker<\/div>\n
Michael Pfeifer<\/div>\n
Coordinator, Austria\u2013Italy committee of the Austrian sawmill industry<\/div>\n

Pfeifer connected the export statistics with operating conditions at the mills: Italy remains the indispensable outlet, but competition has widened, engineered-wood sales are less buoyant after the end of Italy\u2019s building incentives and several Austrian producers used longer summer stoppages to adjust output.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Italy asks suppliers for stability, not a rush for stock<\/h2>\n

Stefano Cor\u00e0, president of Fedecomlegno, offered the clearest message to sellers tempted to read tight log supply as the beginning of another price surge. Italian companies\u2019 stocks of raw material and semi-finished products are broadly aligned with current demand, he said. Buyers do not expect an immediate shortage-driven collapse in volume, but neither do they see a reason to race for material in anticipation of higher prices. His advice was simple: keep calm and preserve predictability.<\/p>\n

That discipline matters because the post-PNRR market will not repeat the frantic completion phase of the incentive years. Italy\u2019s National Recovery and Resilience Plan created deadlines that favoured timber\u2019s speed of installation, particularly in public projects. With that programme reaching its endpoint, wood must now win share from competing materials on performance rather than depend on a temporary surge in financed work. Cor\u00e0 argued that speed remains a powerful commercial advantage, but stable prices are needed if contractors are to quote projects today for construction next spring.<\/p>\n

Cor\u00e0\u2019s import analysis also detected a change inside the headline totals. Italian purchases from Austria softened only moderately, but softwood lumber declined more in value than in volume even though market prices had generally risen over the previous 18 months. In his reading, the explanation was product mix: Italy imported a higher proportion of lower grades and goods with a lower average unit value. Structural wood recorded only a small reduction, while pellet imports from Austria rose by almost 50% in the first four months to around EUR 80 million.<\/p>\n

Construction confidence in Italy is easing, but its movement has been less violent than the European index. Italy entered the 2020s after a long and painful adjustment that followed the 2008 financial crisis; it did not rebound as dramatically as some European countries after Covid, but it has also avoided the same degree of pessimism during the latest decline. Three years of Superbonus work were followed by public expenditure through the PNRR, including schools, nurseries and infrastructure. Timber became a leading solution because design, tendering and contracting consumed much of the available schedule, leaving a short window in which to build.<\/p>\n

That deadline effect cannot be extrapolated into 2027. Cor\u00e0\u2019s argument was that the industry must convert the experience into permanent market share: architects and public purchasers have now worked with timber, contractors have learned its speed advantages and suppliers have built capacity around larger projects. But the material will have to take business from concrete and steel rather than wait for another subsidy of the same scale. Balanced inventories and predictable prices are essential during that transition.<\/p>\n

\n
Speaker<\/div>\n
Stefano Cor\u00e0<\/div>\n
President of Fedecomlegno<\/div>\n

Cor\u00e0 said Italian inventories were balanced and rejected the idea that buyers were preparing for a new price run. Austria is Italy\u2019s most important softwood lumber supplier and Italy is Austria\u2019s most important customer; protecting that corridor requires price stability on both sides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Italian timber construction shifts away from the detached house<\/h2>\n

Angelo Marchetti, president of FilieraLegno, brought company-level data to a debate often dominated by broad construction indicators. Italy imported 757,000 m\u00b3 of glulam and cross-laminated timber in 2025, worth approximately EUR 410 million. Domestic production reached 248,000 m\u00b3 across 19 member plants representing 96% of national output. Production is concentrated in northern regions, led by Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto, but the market served by those plants is changing.<\/p>\n

FilieraLegno expects Italy\u2019s timber-construction market to remain broadly stable in 2026, but stability at the top line hides a decisive split. Residential timber construction is forecast to contract 3.8%, while non-residential timber construction is projected to increase 12.1%. In the building-envelope and renovation segment, residential work is expected to decline 1.9%, against growth of 4.4% in non-residential work. Istat\u2019s wider construction figures point in the same direction, with non-residential buildings up 15.2% and housing down 5.6%.<\/p>\n

Before turning to buildings, Marchetti used packaging as an early indicator of the wider Italian economy. The sector consumed close to 1.5 million m\u00b3 of wood in the first half of 2026. Volume was slightly below 2025 but above 2024, pointing to a market that had ceased growing quickly without entering a severe contraction. Production of EPAL pallets was close to six million units during the half-year. New-pallet output increased, while used-pallet activity declined; Marchetti cautioned that lower second-hand volumes can also indicate limited availability in an active reuse system, not simply weaker demand.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The construction numbers come from a more systematic attempt by FilieraLegno to measure a sector that Italian statistics have often captured poorly. The association surveyed plants individually to establish national glulam and CLT output, rather than relying only on import flows. Its 19 participating production sites account for 96% of Italian output. The resulting 248,000 m\u00b3 estimate confirms that Italy is not merely an end market for Austrian engineered wood: it now possesses a meaningful production base of its own, concentrated in the north but supplying projects across the country and a limited export trade.<\/p>\n

Even so, imports remain three times larger than domestic output. The 757,000 m\u00b3 brought in during 2025, valued at EUR 410 million, gives Austrian suppliers a central role in Italy\u2019s building programme. It also creates a more complex competitive setting. Italian producers are expanding skills and capacity while remaining dependent on imported lumber and engineered components; Austrian companies supply that growth but also compete with the downstream manufacturing capability it creates.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The new work is coming from student accommodation, senior housing, social housing, tourism and public buildings. Public procurement is especially significant. According to Marchetti, the PNRR cycle familiarised Italian public authorities with timber construction and created an institutional market that did not exist at the same scale five years ago. Public and non-residential projects now generate 57% of sector turnover.<\/p>\n

Company accounts tracked by the association show the scale of the change. From 2021 to 2026, the businesses in its sample increased activity by more than 22%, while personnel costs rose by more than 30%. Part of that cost increase came from wage inflation, but Marchetti also read it as evidence that the industry is becoming more organised and technically demanding. Larger non-residential schemes require engineers, project managers, off-site planning and qualified assembly teams; growth is occurring not only in cubic metres but in the amount of professional work attached to each cubic metre.<\/p>\n

Renovation may become the next large opening. Of Italy\u2019s roughly 12 million buildings, more than nine million fall into energy classes E, F or G, and much of the post-war stock lacks modern seismic performance. Timber exoskeletons, lightweight additions and demolition-and-reconstruction schemes allow the industry to move beyond new detached houses. In the reconstruction zone affected by the 2016 central Italy earthquake, Cor\u00e0 said the share of timber in active sites rose from 7% to 24% after an additional 10% incentive was introduced for timber solutions.<\/p>\n

The change is also cultural. Timber has traditionally been treated in Italian disaster zones as a material for immediate emergency shelters, after which permanent reconstruction returned to concrete. Marchetti and Cor\u00e0 argued that this division is weakening. Engineered timber is entering permanent reconstruction and deep renovation because it is light, fast and suited to improving existing structures without imposing the loads of conventional additions. The first full-building timber exoskeleton projects are important less for their current volume than for the market they establish.<\/p>\n

Policy still has a measurable influence. FederlegnoArredo\u2019s campaign for the additional incentive in the 2016 earthquake reconstruction area lifted timber\u2019s share of active projects from 7% to 24% in roughly a year and a half, according to Cor\u00e0. Training by proHolz and Forum Holzbau has also given architects and engineers greater confidence in the material. The Goldene Fichte awarded during the meeting to Hugo Karre and Stefan Rubner recognised precisely this long work of connecting Austrian producers with Italian builders and decision-makers.<\/p>\n

\n
Speaker<\/div>\n
Angelo Marchetti<\/div>\n
President of FilieraLegno<\/div>\n

Marchetti\u2019s figures showed a market becoming less dependent on single-family housing. Italian timber companies have expanded their capabilities during the incentive years and are now targeting public buildings, accommodation, tourism, seismic upgrading and the renovation of inefficient post-war stock.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Pellets strengthen as industrial residues tighten<\/h2>\n

The energy market supplied another indication of pressure on the raw-material balance. Austria\u2019s household pellet price reached EUR 403.66\/t in August 2026, up 2.12% from July, after easing far below the 2022 crisis peak. Panel participants linked the renewed firmness to higher energy prices and reduced availability of sawmill residues. When mills cut operating hours, output of chips and sawdust falls with them; pellet producers then compete harder for a smaller residue stream. Exports to Italy were expected to remain high and continue increasing.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

This does not amount to a repeat of 2022, and the discussion avoided predictions of an uncontrolled price cycle. It does, however, show how reductions in sawmill utilisation travel through the entire wood chain. Lower lumber output tightens the feedstock base for pellets and pulp even when final demand for construction timber remains poor.<\/p>\n

Poland is a major pellet producer, but rising domestic consumption is reducing the amount available to neighbouring markets. Italy has diversified its supply beyond Europe, bringing in cargoes from Canada, Brazil and the United States, yet demand for Austrian and German pellets remains high. Panel members described pellets as one of the few wood products whose sales were currently satisfactory. The benefit to integrated sawmills is real, although higher sawlog and industrial-wood prices mean that pellet revenue cannot simply be treated as a windfall.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Hugo Karre (third from left) receives the Goldene Fichte alongside Markus Schm\u00f6lzer (left), Michael Pfeifer (second from left) and a representative of the event organisers at Internationaler Holztag 2026. Photo: FV Holzindustrie\/Just.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Forest owners expect supply to remain available<\/h2>\n

The closing discussion brought the raw-material side of the chain into the room. Andreas Steinecker, forestry spokesman for the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture and president of the Styrian chamber, argued that active forest management is essential both for climate adaptation and for supplying long-lived wood products. Carbon remains stored in buildings, while timber substitutes for fossil-intensive materials and energy. That chain depends on viable businesses from harvesting contractors through sawmills and further processing.<\/p>\n

Asked about log availability through autumn and winter into spring 2027, Steinecker expected supply to remain positive. The reason was not wholly encouraging: heavy damage in other parts of Austrian agriculture and the resulting financing needs could encourage more forest owners to mobilise timber. He would not predict prices, stressing that owners do not control the market alone. The intervention nevertheless reduced fears that a physical log shortage would force mills to cut output further during the winter.<\/p>\n

A final comment from Italian trader Pierluigi Schifino captured the commercial request heard throughout the morning. Europe\u2019s wood market needs stable quotations and professional conduct across forest owners, sawmills and importers. At a gathering opened with a formal reminder that no price or volume coordination could take place, the appeal was not for an arranged market. It was for each part of the chain to avoid destabilising a market already weakened by construction, freight and finance.<\/p>\n

A trade relationship tested by a weaker cycle<\/h2>\n

Internationaler Holztag did not produce a declaration that the downturn is over. The Austrian high-rise and housing market is still contracting, export volumes are lower, overseas destinations have weakened and the sector has little room to absorb another increase in costs. What emerged instead was a practical division of labour for the next stage of the cycle. Austrian mills need to control output and protect margin; traders need to remain liquid and responsive; Italian builders need predictable supply as they shift from incentive-led housing toward public, non-residential and renovation work.<\/p>\n

The event\u2019s most credible source of confidence was therefore not a macroeconomic forecast. It was the evidence that timber has moved into Italian project categories where it previously had only a limited presence. If that share can be retained after the subsidies fade, Austria\u2019s largest export market will be supported by more than the traditional detached-house cycle. For producers gathered in Klagenfurt, that is the difference between waiting for construction to recover and finding demand in the parts of construction that are already moving.<\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Klagenfurt: Global Wood Markets Info (GWMI) attended Internationaler Holztag 2026, where Austria\u2019s wood industry gathered with little appetite for ceremonial optimism. 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