Around 150 people from the European hardwood trade converged on Vienna on November 8-10 for the 10th edition of the International Hardwood Conference.
The Conference was hosted by the Fachverband der Holzindustrie Österreichs, which co-organized the event with the two usual partners: the European Organization of the Sawmill Industry (EOS) and the European Timber Trade Federation (ETTF).
Attendees came from 26 countries, with participants having the opportunity to visit parquet company Weitzer Parkett, Mühlbauer Holz, a leading timber merchant in Austria, and TEAM 7, which produces, custom-made solid wood furniture.
An economic overview provided by Christoph Schneider of the Economica Institute showed that increasing global tensions are having a negative effect on stability. Businesses will operate in an increasingly challenging environment but there will also be opportunities such as mainstreaming of artificial intelligence.
Silvio Schüler of the Austrian Research Centre for Forests said the share of hardwood forests is rising across Europe and with climate change trees are growing faster.
However, climate change and forests pests are threatening forests’ vitality. Adapting forest management to these changed conditions is very important as well as increasing material uses of hardwood.
Ad Wesselink, ETTF President, argued that in Europe the last couple of years were quite challenging for the hardwood businesses.
He said the big question mark for operators in the sector is whether the market has bottomed out and 2025 can really be the year of recovery. The hardwood businesses are also adjusting to a new cost structure amid higher costs for energy, personnel and equipment.
Michael Snow of the American Hardwood Export Council showed that 2024 is a quite difficult year on the other side of the Atlantic as well. Production in the United States has been on a long-term declining trend due to weak home demand for basically all hardwood applications. Exports to overseas countries are sluggish but, overall, slightly better than US demand.
However, subdued Chinese demand is taking a toll. In his presentation about the Chinese market, Mr James Xu of Shanghai AM Forest Products stressed the importance of using new sales channels such as local social media to maintain market share in the challenging Chinese market.
Jean-Christophe Claudon of the International Timber Trade Organization delivered a presentation about tropical wood. Tropical sawnwood production as a share of overall global sawnwood production has been relatively stable over the last 30 years at around 13/15%.
A very relevant market for the hardwood industry – the parquet market – is also going through a difficult period, as Ms Isabelle Brose showed in her presentation on trends in the European parquet industry.
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