The UK timber industry is keeping a close eye on the situation in northern and eastern Europe which is struggling with some of the lowest temperatures in decades.
The winter weather caused Romania to close Black Sea ports early last week because of strong winds and temperatures down to –17oC. The Sulina canal and the Danube-Black Sea canal were also closed.
Blizzards also forced the closure of the Bosphorus straits to all shipping and temperatures were forecast to remain at between –25oC and –30oC for the week.
A spokesperson for BSW Timber, which has a production facility in Latvia, said: “We are experiencing operational challenges that we are overcoming.”
Eric Dobson, a director at port services company Baltic Distribution, said: “Vessels are beginning to be delayed because of the ice but the effect has not trickled through just yet.
“But if the weather does not break soon we won’t get any vessels for a while – then they will all come at once which will give us problems unloading.
John Phillips, managing director of Continental Wood Products, said if the cold snap continued for any length of time it would cause some problems.
“There is a lot of ice building up,” he added, “but so far all the ships have got through. On the plus side, the cold weather is quite good for logging.”
