Germany’s timber industry has played a bit part in the supply of wood to the UK for many years but the trend is changing.
Many of the large UK distributors are taking German wood now and a look down the local B&Q store or Travis Perkins might reveal some German CLS or other timber products.
The stats are stunning – German softwood exports to the UK were up 52% last year to 337,382m3.
And a look at the level of investment in the German sawmilling industry reveals what a giant the country is becoming in terms of timber supply. Seven mills are extending their facilities this year, while five are making major new mill investments in 2008. Among these is Pollmeier, which has been exporting hardwoods to the UK since 2000. Its new mill at Aschaffenburg, due for completion next year, will boost annual capacity by 500,000m3.
The country’s domestic construction industry is picking up and there is fresh focus on export markets, especially in the light of reduced demand from the US – a talking point during the Association of German Sawmillers’ annual convention in February.
Travis Perkins timber director Peter Crook believes the soft US market is a big reason for German and Austrian companies targeting the UK. He said Travis Perkins started sourcing from the countries about 12 months ago.
Woodbridge Timber is one of the leading importers of German softwood, having imported whitewood from the country since mid-2001. It imports a significant volume from the region in a range of different products.
“We made a decision to increase our imports from Germany several years ago and this has proven beneficial, not only for ourselves but also our customer base during a time of uncertainty over supply,” said Woodbridge CLS product manager Steve Place. “We have developed direct partnerships with mills that provide us with reliability and continuity of supply which we are then able to forward to our UK customer base.”
Germany’s largest sawmiller, Klausner Group, is one of the mills looking to grow its UK volumes and intends to attend several UK trade exhibitions in the near future.
Its annual turnover in the past financial year was more than €500m, with 3.5 million m3 of softwood lumber produced from its five mills. It is currently spending more than €40m renovating a mill it bought last year.
Klausner’s output for 2007 is estimated to be 4 million m3, and the company says it is now Europe’s second largest sawmiller. An almost sixfold growth in volumes has been recorded since 1998.
The company told TTJ at Ligna that it saw the UK as having growth potential, focusing on products such as KD carcassing, CLS and PAR timber.
Other factors why German eyes are on the UK include rising timber prices and increased availability of logs in Germany following the effects of the Kyrill storm in January (23 million m3 of windfall in Germany).
There is also a suggestion that German timber firms like doing business with the UK because of a shared conservatism and similar business philosophy, a point attested to by hardwood sawmiller Holz Schnatmeier.
It has been exporting green and air-dried oak beams, boards and boules to the UK for several years, with customers including oak frame builders and merchants. “The UK is an important market,” said managing director Petra Schnatmeier. “It’s also a nice market to work with because the customer/supplier relationship is reliable.”
The company’s trading arm which distributes products such as glulam and KVH solid structural softwood timber, the latter of which is S10 graded, kiln-dried, finger-jointed, planed and chamfered.
She said KVH had taken over from fresh sawn spruce in the German market but was quite new on the export market. “It will be interesting for the English market to start trading in KVH.”
Another player targeting the UK is one of Germany’s newest glulam manufacturers, Nordlam. Earlier this year, the company met potential distributor partners and is eyeing up construction projects to feature its products. It will exhibit at Interbuild this year.
“It’s not easy,” said Nordlam’s Klaus Hartz, “but we think we have a good chance to enter the UK market.
Its production last year was 130,000m3, with output projected to hit 150,000m3 in 2007. It carries its maximum length beams – 24m – in stock.
Moralt Tischlerplatten, a German manufacturer of block- and laminboards, sees potential for its door blanks business in the UK. In February it purchased the intellectual rights of British Plywood Manufacturers, which ceased to trade last September.
