The composition of an international group on a fact-finding tour of French oak sawmills was a sign of the times.
The trip is organised by marketing body French Timber every two years, to coincide with the Carrefour International du Bois exhibition in Nantes. Six years ago the group comprised mainly European trade press.
This year the only European media was TTJ, and the other journalists were from Saudi Arabia and India. The rest of the visitors were Chinese. They were all buyers and clearly there to do more than observe. They spent most of their time flipping timber, enquiring about price, and doing calculations on their mobiles.
Obviously the mills were not averse to the interest. China is still principally a customer for lower grades, but what it lacks in willingness to pay higher prices, it is clearly viewed as having future potential to make up for in volumes it could eventually ship.
There is a downside for producers to China’s appetite for French oak; its suddenly surging imports of logs (of which more later). But at the moment it seems that this is outweighed by the value added possibilities.
Currently it is still only France’s fifth biggest sawn oak market, but marketing efforts directed at the country are stepping up, with French Timber operating an office in Shanghai, and this January its imports were double the same month last year.
However, before other French oak customers start looking look for alternative sources, mills stressed that they are not putting all their eggs in one Chinese basket.
All those visited cited the French domestic market, Europe generally, and the UK in particular, as remaining core markets.
"China may have huge potential requirements, but it’s volatile, so we will continue to spread our risk," said one mill.
This balanced approach appears to be paying dividends. The French hardwood industry, in common with the rest of the European timber sector, has been through tough times, but is now on an upward track.
French construction is still struggling to emerge from recession, but as well as China, higher value export markets, including the UK, are filling the gap. Total sawn oak exports rose 43% in 2013 to 214,008 m³, and in January this year were a further 13.5% up on the same month the year before.
UK a key market
The more buoyant state of trade is reflected in oak mills capital spending. Latest investment at Scierie Monniot, following a bank of Baschild kilns a few years ago, is a sorting and cross-cutting line. Last year it also bought an automated gantry lift.
The company, which is based in Brienne le Chateau south-west of Paris, processes around 13,000m³ of logs annually, mostly oak, but some ash and beech.
"The area is rich in large trees and we specialise in longer lengths, particularly for 27mm solid flooring, generally 4-4.2m, but up to 5.2m," said managing director François Monniot.
While the Chinese are increasingly significant customers, currently Monniot’s most lucrative market is the UK.
"It remained our leading buyer of better grades through the recession," said UK sales manager Guillaume Maniere. "There was a dip at the start of the year due to the weather, but today it accounts for 25% of volume, and 40% of turnover."
"The key to the UK is visiting often to follow changing requirements," said Mr Monniot. "Currently we’re getting a lot of demand for beams, but we’re also selling boules and zero-sapwood square-edge for flooring and furniture. Another service is holding stock for UK customers, which they call off as needed."
Monniot has recently introduced polywrapped, green squared lengths for flooring lamellas and, interestingly, amid its French hardwood stocks you also find iroko, sipo and mahogany from its own mill in Côte d’Ivoire.
Asian Expansion
Ducerf, which annually processes 40,000m³ of logs (80% oak) at its three mills, is another witness to the Far East’s growing taste for French timber. China and the wider Asian market now account for 30% of output and growing. Like other mills, however, the business stresses it is not putting its development focus exclusively on the region. Diversity of product and market are where it sees the future.
"In oak the range covers boules, selected boards, square edged, strips, construction and industrial beams up to 5m, plus barrel staves," Asia sales manager Tsiu Yun Troussier. "Our choice of drying also adds variety, and helps us appeal to a range of customers. Annual capacity is 13,000m³, comprising conventional and vacuum."
Ducerf also continues to invest in heat treating joint venture Bois Durables de Bourgogne, with five other partners. Besides oak, this processes ash, poplar and Douglas fir, with total output around 2,000m³ a year.
"In particular we’re developing thermo cladding and decking sales under our Côté Parc brand," said Ms Troussier.
The company’s Bois Profilés business also continues to develop its Profileo, Patchwood and Panoplot joinery ranges of finger-jointed squares and edge-glued panels, plus its new 3Plis three-layer laminated worktop and furniture panels.
Speaking at the Carrefour International du Bois, export manager Florence Perrucaud said that this diversification was combining with general economic improvement to boost international business.
"We’re seeing European sales picking up," she said. "This includes the UK, which used to take 30% of our exports, but declined in the recession. I just made my first trip there for a while and had strong enquiries."
Hardwood Hypermarket
Philippe Tarteret describes itself as a hardwood hypermarket due to its range and stock levels. It processes 20,000m³ of logs annually over two sites. The biggest at Estissac on the border of Burgundy and Champagne covers 17ha, with 40,000m² under cover, and it holds 10-20,000m³ of stock, again mainly oak, but supplemented with beech, ash, alder, cherry, lime, walnut and elm.
The ISO9001-certified mill operates a two-way, 70° angled bandsaw, which presents the log face ultra square to the blade, and has 900m³ of kilns. Latest investment is a further 2,000m² finished product shed, and it is installing air conditioning in another 700m² warehouse, its third climate-controlled unit.
"Business is good, partly because we’re 65% export-oriented, selling to Europe, Asia, North America and South Africa, but also due to stock availability and versatility," said export manager Mathieu Berthe. "This is particularly a strength for UK merchant customers who want to pick up mixed 10m³ loads; beams for oak frame and general construction sectors, boules, maybe some square edged."
The range it sells to the UK, he added, has also seen its timber feature in diverse applications, including sea defences at Dymchurch and a Buddhist temple in Watford.
"Our beech is also being used in architect Foster & Partners redevelopment of Marseilles old port," said Mr Berthe. Oak specialist Mutelet has also supplied prestigious projects in recent years. One, recalled Henri Mutelet, managing director of the Franche-Comte business, was a €45,000 super yacht table, another a €95,000 cathedral door (restoration work timber is a specialism).
"But the most demanding was flooring for the Queen of Belgium. Over three months we cut 4,000m³ to select 1m³."
It’s partly this level of service that has won Mutelet customers across Europe, but its raw material has also clearly helped. It sources from forests within a 25km radius, which spells logs up to10m long and tight, homogenous grain.
The company also markets itself on its bespoke kilning. "With each 1m³ holding 400 litres of water, oak drying is an art," said Mr Mutelet.
The UK is historically a key Mutelet market, buying beams, square edged and boules. But while it and the rest of Europe account for most of its €5.8m turnover, it also sells further afield, including China, which is currently buying various sawn grades, mainly to make flooring for European re-export, but also, Mr Mutelet believes, increasingly for domestic consumption.
So the only significant cloud on the French oak mill horizon seems to be Chinese log buying. Its imports dipped in 2012, but climbed again last year, and in January 2014 were double the same month in 2013.
"China is a good market for us," said Mr Berthe. "But we risk undermining our industry by selling our raw material, and the trade is already impacting prices."
He added that there are calls on the French authorities to use phytosanitary rules to curb log exports. Currently only 10% of Chinabound containers undergo phytosanitary treatment and, according to French Timber director Jean-François Guilbert, the aim is both to get this increased, and to ensure the processing is done in specialised units, rather than largely in the forest, as it is now.
More positively, however, other mills, like Mutelet, also said the growth in the Chinese middle class was creating embryonic demand for higher quality sawn hardwood. And certainly none of the Chinese visitors on the French Timber mill tour mentioned logs.
But before this new trend rings more alarm bells for other customers for French premium oak, producers assure them that a Chinese move upmarket also won’t divert them from maintaining the spread of export markets which has served them so well to date.
