The French market is full of contrasts: demand for packaging and pallet softwood is high whereas with less than 300,000 home starts, structural softwood sales are sluggish, forcing sawmillers to look for new opportunities abroad.

Hardwood sawmills are facing a different types of issues. Despite strong demand on the international market, they suffer from the lack of supply for logs, forcing them to pay higher prices.

And log exports to Asia have become a critical problem for some mills, with some having to cut down production and reduce working shifts.

Oak: a French specialty

Well known for its large hardwood forest, France is the leading supplier of European Oak within the UK.

With its large oak forests of more than 580 million m3, France is also a leading European producer of oak timber, with the product renowned for its quality, appearance and durability.

The main uses of oak timber are joinery, structures, cladding, flooring and furniture. Last year, France delivered 41,000m3 of European oak timber through the UK. And volumes grew 31% in the first quarter of 2015.

The UK remains our main export market for boules, boards and oak beams. But China is becoming more and more important and may overtake the UK’s position at the end of 2015 thanks to a weaker Euro.

Due to limited availabilities in other producing countries, demand for French Oak is also increasing in Germany and Switzerland.

Softwood Trends

Traditionally, France is considered an import country for softwood, consuming more than our national production. With the crises in Europe, sawmills have focused first on gaining market shares in France, driving imports lower every year.

But export markets are becoming more and more important for the French sawmills. Softwood exports totalled 420,000m3 in 2011 and increased to 600,000m3 in 2014. Since the beginning of 2015, exports have been again increasing by about 33%, compared to last year.

French softwood has also a great success rate in the UK and importation is rapidly increasing thanks to the involvement of several sawmills promoting their spruce and Douglas fir products.

Not only are the mills offering lumber but they also actively market added value products such as glulam, and claddings. Responding to the growth of the construction market within England, the UK increased its softwood imports by 21% in 2014.

French softwood sawmills actively participated in this expansion by supplying 3,200m3 to the UK last year, a 65% growth on the previous year. So England is now a strategic market for timber suppliers. Proof of their willingness to be more active on the UK market, several companies will be exhibiting in a French pavilion at the next Timber Expo in Birmingham.

Both pine and fir / European spruce are available in large quantity in French forests, with softwood covering a third of France’s forests.

Softwood is mainly used for structure, packaging, cladding, interior furniture and joinery.

Thanks to the weak Euro, French products remain very competitive in the face of international competition.

French sawmills have a long history and expertise and are renowned for their knowhow. However, this is not holding back the development of new products and processes. Indeed, the French product range is very large from square edged timber or boules to high value-added products such as decking, cladding, cross-laminated timber (CLT) and heat-treated wood.