Warm weather at the tail-end of summer extended the construction season in Ireland, giving impetus to the timber industry that was ‘badly needed’, one contact said, because ‘things have been quite slow here’. ‘We’ve had record levels of building for two years, so anything coming back from that was going to be significant but there is a definite slowdown now,’ he observed.

Another contributor admitted to being concerned about the immediate prospects for Ireland’s economy. ‘In terms of the global economic change, ever since September, it has indeed impacted to a degree in Ireland,’ he said.

Timber prices, squeezed by the contracting market, are described as ‘very competitive’. Despite this, many in the timber industry remain confident that the impact of falling demand on the market will be neither serious, nor last very long. While there is anecdotal evidence from some sources of a downturn in the past few weeks, most people believe there will still be plenty of opportunities for growth into early next year, though the scale of growth ‘will obviously be reduced’. ‘National growth predictions have been revised downwards but we are still very much in growth territory,’ claimed one bullish contributor.

Another contact, who supplies timber products to the building industry, said all areas of business are very busy but added that ‘there is definitely going to be a bit of a slowdown – but hopefully nothing too severe’.

There has been a great deal of ‘quite significant’ committee work going on into standards relating to a range of timber processes. The national authority driving much of the activity is the Timber Standards Consultative Committee and working groups have been established to examine different aspects of the industry, according to a spokesperson for Enterprise Ireland. ‘Working group one, for example, looks after board products and issues to do with Standard CEN TC 175 and also 261, which encompasses pallets and packaging – there are a whole range of standards either under review or under development there,’ he said. ‘Working group two is looking at TC 124, which relates to structural timber.’

The spokesperson said Enterprise Ireland has been working closely with experts in Britain and had been pleasantly surprised at the vigour with which all elements of the Irish industry had approached the consultations. Clearly aware of the potential benefits of involvement in the development of standards, importers, distributors, the forestry services, timber frame and truss manufacturers, the Irish Timber Council and the Irish Timber Trade Association, representing sawmillers’ concerns, are reported to have taken ‘an integrated approach’ and become deeply involved in monitoring the work.

‘There are many bodies representing different sub-sectors of the timber trade but everybody is working together,’ commented the spokesperson.

Pallet association

Another such body is now being created to improve pallet manufacturers’ representation in Ireland. The Irish Pallet Manufacturers Association has already been formed and ‘the legal aspects’ of the organisation are being put in place in preparation for the official launch.

The big issue dominating Irish state forestry service Coillte‘s agenda this year has been Forest Stewardship Council certification, which has now been achieved. Forest managers have ‘worked long and hard’ to gain the coveted symbol and now face the equally-stiff challenge of maintaining their new systems in order to keep it. ‘They are over the finish line,’ said a Coillte spokesperson. ‘Now it is really about hanging on to that status, which is pretty hard-won in the first place.’

Having noted the growing importance of FSC certification in other markets, not least on the UK mainland, Coillte had been preparing to use the news of its certification as a launch-pad for its first consumer advertising campaign. It arranged a press conference, supported by full-page colour ads, in Ireland’s three main national daily newspapers.

However, the launch was on September 11 attack, throwing the plans into disarray. The publication of a major ‘social and environmental report’ by Coillte was also overshadowed by events. ‘We pulled the ads the following day, for obvious reasons’ said the spokesperson, ‘but they appeared a few days later and were staggered over a number of days, rather than the big splash we originally intended. We wanted people to have an appreciation of the fact that we, the managers of the state’s forest, had achieved certification on their behalf and that their forests are being well-managed.’

A number of Coillte’s key sawmilling and panel manufacturing customers have also received FSC certification and the forestry service believes this offers scope for joint marketing efforts to promote Irish timber generically. The last line of the FSC adverts read: ‘Ask for FSC certified timber – the responsible choice’, phraseology which was designed to lend support to Coillte’s customers’ own marketing efforts, rather than focus solely on forestry, thus promoting the ‘joint-effort’ ethic.

Spreading the word

‘It was a significant departure for us because we wouldn’t have gone so up-front with the public in regard to advertising what the company is about before but we saw achieving certification as an ideal platform,’ said the spokesperson. ‘We need to tell people its value and why they should look for the [FSC] mark when they buy wood.’

Despite the concerted drive to promote the FSC in Ireland, timber firms which have not yet taken the certification route are unlikely to suffer in the short to medium-term, it is believed, because awareness generally remains low. However, further efforts to promote the initiative, some emanating directly from FSC International, the system’s ‘governing body’ which recently received multi-million pound marketing donations from companies including Ford, could eventually make certification imperative for survival.

There are only two main timber suppliers in Ireland – Coillte, managing 440,000ha of forest in the south and the Northern Ireland Forest Service, which handles around 100,000ha – and this is often a bone of contention among buyers who complain of monopolistic pricing policies. However, the fact that both these suppliers are now FSC certified can only be an advantage to processors on both sides of the border who wish to upgrade their systems in future.

‘Logistically, it is a much simpler process than if we were having to buy from both certified and uncertified suppliers, or people who are certified to different systems,’ confirmed a sawmilling contact.

Joinery awards

On Wednesday the ITTA’s annual Joinery Awards were held in Dublin. Noel Dempsey, Irish minister for the environment, presented awards to joinery firms which, this year, have received far more nominations from architects than on previous occasions. ‘We’ve had good input from architects and designers this time round, rather than the joinery companies nominating themselves,’ said an ITTA spokesperson. ‘They have shown a lot of interest, which is very positive for us because keeping timber at the forefront of their minds is terribly important.’ (A full report will be published in next week’s edition of TTJ.)

The ITTA’s annual dinner, which is expected to be ‘very well-attended’, takes place on December 5 in Dublin.