Tag: Market Report

The sharp rise in the EU trade surplus in wood furniture between 2010 and 2013 came to a halt last year as the pace of increase in EU exports slowed while there was an upturn in imports (Chart 1). EU28 wood furniture exports were valued at €8.43 billion in 2014, 2.3% more than in 2013. EU28 imports of wood furniture were valued at €5.11 billion in 2014, 10.4% greater than the previous year.

A single word describes the current state of the joinery sector in Europe. That word is “flat”. It’s also a reasonable description of the state of the European economy as a whole. There are a few bright spots – notably the UK – but not enough to offset slow demand elsewhere. 

The latest Eurostat trade data to end October 2014 shows that tropical hardwood imports into the EU last year were only marginally better than the historically low levels recorded in the previous two years. Various factors account for this lack of import growth including lacklustre performance of the construction and joinery sectors in much of Europe during 2014, supply constraints and logistical problems (particularly for shipments out of Douala port in Cameroon), and the EU Timber Regulation which has encouraged buyers to focus on a more limited range of tropical suppliers to meet legality due diligence requirements.  

After a period of turbulence during the years of the EU recession, the EU plywood market has stabilised and shown signs of recovery in the last 18 months. Supply and prices have also become more consistent and the industry appears to have adjusted well to the new demands of the EUTR.

After showing signs of recovery in the first half of 2014, the market for wood flooring in Europe slowed in the second half of the year. Competition from substitute products continues to intensify. Political tensions and economic slowdown in Russia have undermined export demand. These were the main conclusion of a meeting of the Directors of the European Wood Flooring Federation (FEP) on 30 September 2014.

An 80m ekki bridge made a fitting programme illustration for the international forum of the Association Technique Internationale des Bois Tropicaux (ATIBT) in Amsterdam last week. The bridge uses wood from the FSC-certified Cameroon concessions of Dutch producer trader and construction specialist Wijma, and now features in a YouTube video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZA823Uwy_g) highlighting the sustainable credentials and technical strengths of tropical timber.

This analysis of EU wood furniture supply draws on production data from the Eurostat database of manufacturing statistics and trade data from the Eurostat COMEXT database. In line with Eurostat practice, all value data is reported in euros. The data covers all types of wood furniture with the exception of kitchens. Kitchen furniture is excluded because it is supplied almost exclusively by domestic manufacturers and is therefore less relevant to overseas manufacturers. In practice, the EU’s kitchen furniture industry has more in common with the joinery sector than with other parts of the furniture industry.  Note that while all data is ultimately derived from Eurostat, it has been subject to significant adjustment during preparation of this report in an effort to remove numerous inconsistencies.    

The latest Eurostat data shows that the EU market for veneers has suffered severely in recent years. The supply of veneers to the EU fell 33% between 2007 and 2013 due to the combined effects of economic crises, the decline of domestic plywood manufacturing capacity and competitive pressure from a wide variety of substitute wood and non-wood materials (Chart 1).

The EU28 group of nations recorded only 0.2% GDP growth in the second quarter of 2014, down from 0.3% in the first quarter (Chart 1). The slowdown was largely due to contraction in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy. After expanding 0.7% in the first quarter of 2014, Germany’s economy slipped 0.2% in the second quarter of the year as foreign trade and investment, particularly in the construction sector, weighed on growth. Meanwhile France recorded zero growth for the second quarter in a row between April and June 2014, while Italy’s economy continued to contract.

Although there has been some shifting between product groups, total EU imports of tropical hardwood products in the first half of 2014 hardly recovered from the historically low levels recorded in the previous two years.