The annual Timber Market conference, organised by the Swedish Forest Industries Federation, heard that the Swedish domestic market is more buoyant, building activity in Europe has bottomed and an increase is forecast for 2014.
Swedish exports to North Africa and the Middle East remain high and in China an increase in demand is expected. But the conference also heard about challenges ahead.
“Yes, it looks brighter today compared to a year ago,” said Mikael Eliasson, director of Swedish Wood.
“Development has pointed gently upwards this past six months and is now displaying a steeper climb. The trade’s efforts in positioning Swedish wood products on an expanding market have contributed to this.”
The conference heard that Swedish exports to China could be expected to double or treble over 2013. And the figure could double again during 2014.
The UK market, Sweden’s largest export market, was also singled out as a growth market, with the UK government’s mortgage guarantee scheme flagged up as a boost for the housebuilding sector.
But delegates heard that several factors could negatively impact exports, particularly protectionism in various markets.
“This is most obvious in Japan, where domestic wood production is not competitive on the home market,” added Mr Eliasson.
“Various administrative tricks and incentives are used to stimulate companies and consumers into buying Japanese wood products. Another example is China, which still imposes a 14% import duty on wood products. These restrictions affect our sales on these markets.”
Delegates heard that the large softwood producer countries of Germany, Austria, Finland and Sweden were not expected to increase production significantly in 2014, indicating that the present balance between supply and demand can be expected to remain.
“The strong Swedish krona is a big problem, being unfavourable for our sawmills and to all other export industries,” added Peter Eklund, Swedish Wood chairman.
