When Estonia announced a ban on the import of timber products from Russia and Belarus in April, it felt the impact of timber shortages, and in early June, it announced that it would ease logging restrictions in state-owned forests. This has increased Estonia's available logging area by nearly 25%. Finland is expected to increase its logging by 3% per year over the next two years.
Many European countries that produce, import, and export timber have started taking action to address the timber shortage.
These changes are a chain reaction triggered by the halt in timber imports from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. As is known, there are shortages of oak, birch, beech, etc. In 2021, these three countries exported 8.5 million m3 of softwood to Europe, which accounts for a quarter of the global timber trade.
Architects and designers are literally struggling to source timber for their projects, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict has halted imports, threatening timber supplies across Europe and, naturally, driving up prices.
In Europe, prices for oak logs and birch plywood have more than doubled in recent months, while prices for structural sawn timber have risen by approximately 20% overall.
Sean Sutcliffe (Sean Sutcliffe), co-founder of the British furniture maker Benchmark, explains: "Everyone is very worried about their supply chain. Traders, including us, have projects with costs much higher than usual. The purchase price, particularly for birch plywood used in many of our projects, has increased significantly, and, unfortunately, it has not been possible to find an alternative procurement channel."
Representatives from the Danish design studio Space Copenhagen note: "Solid oak is currently more valuable than gold; people even view it as a store of value for the future. Although suppliers and manufacturers can still deliver previously placed orders, it looks like everything will disappear in just a few months."
Most timber exports from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine were sent to the Baltic states, as well as to Germany and Finland; builders and furniture makers are feeling the aforementioned chain reaction everywhere in Europe. Due to the shortage of oak wood, many traders have started using British ash and American red oak in furniture production.
Supply chain changes have also affected countries and regions outside Europe, including North American countries, Brazil, the Solomon Islands, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, etc. It has gradually emerged that large quantities of timber from tropical regions have flowed into European countries.
In the first four months of this year, the UK's imports of tropical plywood from Indonesia increased by 25%, reaching 13,900 tonnes. Imports of tropical sawn timber from the Congo and Cameroon increased by 240% and 14% respectively compared to the previous year.
Consumption of parquet flooring has increased in almost all European countries, according to data published in June at the FEP congress in Hamburg, Germany. The conference forecast that the demand for wooden floor coverings in Europe would continue to rise in the second half of the year as well. Regarding oak (approximately 81.9%), which is the main material used in European wooden flooring, a shortage is inevitable. In Austria and Germany, sales volumes of wooden flooring products have decreased not due to a lack of orders, but because of a shortage of production materials that cannot be delivered.
It is expected that in the coming months, the shortage of timber supplies will spread across all European markets.