Month: December 2012

The European plywood market is undergoing a rapid period of change. Since the start of recession in 2008, the market has become less and less willing to pay premium prices for tropical hardwood plywood. Instead it has opted for plywood manufactured in alternative hardwood species. The emergence of China as a major supplier of large volumes of hardwood plywood at competitive prices played an important role to drive this change. Now the market looks set to alter again. This time the main driver is likely to be the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), to be enforced from March 2013. EUTR will require that EU importers have access to documents demonstrating negligible risk of any wood product coming from an illegal source. This will present challenges for suppliers of wood products that rely on long and complex supply chains – such as many Chinese plywood manufacturers.