Wood

The demand for Austrian products in the global wooden joinery market is gaining momentum. In Q1-Q3 2021, Austria exported 863K tonnes of wooden carpentry worth 1.6B, setting a new record. Compared to the same period in 2020, its supplies grew by 15% in physical terms and 49% in monetary terms. Increased sales to Italy, Germany, and France shaped the most significant impact on the total value growth. Among the top ten buyers, the U.S. recorded the most prominent spike in purchases of wooden joinery from Austria, boosting imports from $11M to $28M over the period under review.

Over 120 countries signed the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, a voluntary commitment to halt deforestation. The world’s top lumber suppliers, such as Canada, Russia and Sweden, are among the signatories, as well as those countries with the highest rates of tropical forest loss - Brazil and Indonesia. Based on experience from a similar 2014 agreement signed in New York, the obligations will not force suppliers to significantly slow their pace of deforestation but rather instigate an increase in planting new trees to replace those cut down.

Prices for MDF in the U.S. continue to shoot up amid a shortage of the product and the high demand from the furniture industry. Other factors that led to the jump in prices include the high cost of woody materials and resins for manufacturing MDF as well as increasing container freight rates. Strong demand for the product has led to a spike in imports to the U.S.. High prices for MDF negatively affect furniture sales, which have been decreasing in recent months due to a slowdown in the construction boom noted at the first half of the year. The fall in demand for furniture, coupled with the beginning of a decline in the cost of wood raw materials should lead to a decrease in prices for MDF in the coming months.

Global wood pellet imports spiked by +9.2% y-o-y to $4.5B, reaching the highest point ever. The UK remains the largest wood pellet importer, accounting for 35% of the total global imports. Among leading importers, the Netherlands saw the most prominent growth of supplied volume last year. The average import price for wood pellets grew by +4.3% y-o-y in 2020. The U.S., Viet Nam, Canada, Latvia, Russia and Denmark constitute the prime exporters of wood pellets worldwide. 

In 2020, American imports of wooden furniture for kitchens soared by +22% y-o-y to 52M units or $1.9B in value terms. Supplies from Vietnam and Malaysia offset the dramatic drop in imports from China after the tariffs on Chinese products increased. Among other countries, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand and Mexico saw the highest spikes in wooden kitchen furniture exports to the U.S. The average wooden kitchen furniture import price dropped by -18.1% against the previous year. 

In 2020, China increased its chemical wood pulp imports by +10% y-o-y to 24M tonnes. It was driven by rising demand for paper packaging and tableware amid the pandemic and further stimulated by a sharp fall in import prices last year. Brazil, Indonesia and Canada are the major suppliers, providing 57% of the total import volume. Bleached sulphate pulp accounted for 95% of total wood pulp imports into China. 

American OSB imports shot up due to the construction boom that has been seen in the country. The unprecedented demand for wood products leads to record hikes in prices that are relevant not only for OSB but the entire wood industry. Canada is the only major supplier of OSB to the U.S., holding approx. 30% share in the market. Canadian producers thus thrive from the American construction boom.

The solid biofuel market indicated steady growth. The pandemic generated financial and logistics issues for producers, but this failed to disrupt output, as a result of the consistent demand for long-term supply contracts. The production of wood pellets remains the fastest-developing segment on the solid biofuel market. 

The European peat market is entering a downward trend against the targeted regulation strategy to cut peat output and consumption. The EU is committed to protecting the peat deposits, as they naturally absorb greenhouse gases. Alternatives to peat are increasingly being used in agriculture and other areas, such as energy and wastewater treatment. 

Because of the pandemic-related shifts in downstream industries, pulp manufacturers are forced to correct their market strategies towards the rapid increase of the use of packaging paper. In the medium term, value chain sustainability emerges as the most important factor due to the tightening of environmental regulation.