A lead market player is Danzer. To complement the facility at its IFO mill in the Republic of Congo making finger-jointed 3-ply laminated scantlings (KKK), it is now investing in a lamination line for DKD products with solid top and bottom layers.
EU tropical timber imports may still mainly comprise lumber and logs, but traders see increasing promise in further processed material thanks to its predictable yield and transport benefits and producers’ growing ambitions to add value.
"We’ve also built a mill to process heavyduty species, like azombe, bilinga takli and mukulungu," said Danzer UK managing director Ken Walsh. "These are mostly in fixed dimensions for heavy construction, decking and marine work."
Market reaction to these products, he added, had depended on customer acceptance of standardisation,
"For Continental European customers we’re producing their standard requirement 72x86x5900mm 3-ply scantlings and, while unit prices are higher, they appreciate the added stability and better yield," he said. "In the UK demand is more bespoke and there’s still some reluctance to accept laminated hardwood window sections. But there’s a global market, including the UK, for the heavy-duty species."
And despite the residual customer resistance, Danzer predicts demand for further processed tropical timber ultimately growing across the board. "When you factor costs of transporting semi-finished product against shipping waste, and added value to local economies, it’s obvious this trend will [spread]," he said.
LDT agrees some UK customers still need persuading, but also sees rising market potential. In addition to its existing range of DKD and KKK engineered sapele and meranti, it is introducing engineered eucalyptus and idigbo.
"And we’re seeing suppliers increasingly offering added-value product to maximise material yields," said manager Vicki Link.
Meanwhile, Vandecasteele has solid and finger-jointed laminated sipo, sapele and Red Grandis, and Chris Cox, head of environment at Timbmet, which is including more tropical material in its TEC engineered component range, maintains suppliers must now invest in further processing "or face an uncertain future".
