APA – the Engineered Wood Association – closed its marketing office in Hamburg, Germany at the end of last year, making the UK office its last outpost in Europe.
The move follows the closure of its Belgium facility in Antwerp last February. Prior to the closures APA had operated three European offices for almost two decades. The association’s office in Madrid, closed in the mid-1990s.
The APA said the decision was taken in the wake of a 90% drop in sales of North American plywood in Europe over the past two years.
Other factors include the development of a highly competitive OSB market in Europe and the continued strength of the US dollar.
Duncan King, APA’s representative in the UK and Ireland, said: ‘Everything will be handled from the UK office from now on.
He blamed the 90% European sales drop on ‘everybody disobeying the rules and using material such as cheap Brazilian plywood, which is not covered by regulations, in applications where they shouldn’t’.
‘OSB has also nibbled away at the plywood market even though it has had to drop its price to compete with the Brazilian plywood,’ said Mr King.
‘OSB3 grade, which appears in the European standards, is not normally manufactured in the States so people tend to look at buying it from the European mills themselves.’
Mr King said jobbing builders were the main market for cheap Brazilian plywood and added that the UK’s continuing lack of building control officers allowed the construction sector to get away with using sub-standard material.
