Forest Industries Intelligence

EU countries imported wood furniture worth €5.78 billion from outside the EU in 2015, 13% more than in 2014 and 16% more than in 2009, when the financial crisis had reached its climax. At the same time, EU exports of wood furniture rose to €8.73 billion in 2015, up only 3.5% from 2014 but 51% more than in 2009 (Chart 1).

The total value of EU imports of wood products was €17.20 billion in 2015, 12% more than in 2014. This followed an increase of 10% to €15.3 billion in 2014. In 2015 EU import value was at the highest level since 2008 just before the global financial crises (Chart 1).

The European Commission released the results of the first review of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) on 19 February. The review covers the period from March 2013 to March 2015 and is based on Member States’ reports on the application of the EUTR, an open public consultation, targeted stakeholder surveys and an evaluation report produced by an external consultant. It analyses the EUTR for relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and EU-added value.

EU imports of tropical veneers increased by 7% to 257,700m3 in the first 11 months of 2015, with growth driven primarily by rising trade between Gabon and France. Growth in volume was matched by a 6% increase in value to €162 million.

European imports of tropical timber showed healthy growth between January and November of last year, with total value rising 15% to €2.059bn (2014: €1.788bn). The first quarter of 2015 was particularly strong, with an increase of 20.5% over the still relatively weak first three months of 2014. After a dip in summer 2015, imports picked up again between September and November last year (Chart 1).  

Over the last 5 years, the words “flat”, “stagnant” and “slow” have frequently been used in relation to the European wood market. At the start of 2016, the situation has hardly changed. Overall growth in the European construction sector and wider economy has picked up only slowly since hitting bottom in early 2013. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that GDP in the 28 European Union countries will grow 2% in 2016, marginally up from 1.9% in 2015. But there is mounting concern that the world economy will enter a cyclical downturn before Europe regains the ground it lost in the financial and euro crises.

The EU imported 302828m3 of tropical plywood in the first nine months of 2015, 2% less than the same period in 2014. EU demand for tropical plywood in 2015 has been negatively affected by the weakness of the euro relative to the US dollar, slow growth in the building sector in most European countries, as well as lower prices and short lead times for competing temperate plywood products from Europe, Russia and China.

According to an examination by the European Court of Auditors (the Court) published in October, the EU FLEGT action plan to tackle the problem of illegal logging is not sufficiently well managed, designed and targeted.

EU imports of tropical timber products increased sharply between September 2014 and April 2015 but slowed again in the four months to end September 2015 (Chart 1). Nevertheless, the value of EU imports of tropical timber across all product groups in the first 9 months of 2015 was, at €1.703 billion, 16% greater than the same period the previous year. So far EU imports of tropical timber in 2015 have been close to levels last seen in 2012.

Europe’s economy has regained a certain level of stability since the height of the financial crisis, but growth remains slow and there is no sign of acceleration. The EU28 group of nations recorded only 0.4% GDP growth in the second quarter of 2015, down from 0.5% in the first quarter and falling short of most forecasts.