Focus on MDF: Part 1 | 15
Act that is part of the Clean Industrial Deal, will help the sector regain some industrial competitiveness in the light of various strategic attacks from all sides. Securing energy and raw material supplies,
advocating the cascade use of wood; prioritising wood-based products in line with the Green Deal and reducing regulatory burdens have been key lobbying points for the European wood-based panels industries. Clouds on the horizon continue to include
weaker consumer demand; supply chains remaining a challenge; and too many sectors are looking at wood (with subsidies) as a way to decarbonise, leading to great concerns about wood availability for traditional materials, such as panels. Moving on, in France, we understand the MDF market and supply has been quite depressed and difficult particularly in the trade related sector. It has been noted previously that the market for thin MDF was particularly strong as vinyl flooring appears to be less accepted. The Unilin Group’s purchase of Panneaux
de Corrèze in 2021 was part of Unilin Group’s strategic growth ambitions and allows its Unilin Panels division to better serve the French market.
The facility produces approximately 150,000m3
of raw MDF panels with its
production plant in Corrèze, in the centre of France with 110 employees
The panel division of Unilin Group – Unilin
Panels – is a European market leader and the company also operates two MDF/HDF lines in Bazeilles, northern France with a combined annual capacity of about 700,000m³. In contrast, the Finsa-owned Mediland MDF facility in Morcenx, south-west France closed five years ago. The mill, formally owned by Willamette industries and then Weyerhaeuser Co, has become a strategic distribution point in France for Finsa’s wood- based panel products coming from Spain. The consequence of these recent
developments means that Unilin Group is now the sole producer of MDF in France and with tough domestic market conditions being experienced, it is currently focussed on more export possibilities, including Spain. In recent years Kronospan has emerged
as a powerful player in the Iberian Peninsula and it now competes seriously, with the long established and locally based groups. One of the company’s goals remains to increase its market share in Spain and Portugal by 20%-30% whilst still consolidating its export markets.
In the UK and Ireland there were no new capacity investments or change from the three main MDF players – West Fraser, Kronospan and MEDITE (Coillte) and all had relatively strong order books in 2025 but in tough market conditions. But a few observations over the last 12
months from that area have been noted – the ongoing flow of goods from continental EU into UK, a factor given the challenging economics there, especially from Germany. Rising costs continue to be a problem, especially resin and energy given their importance to the MDF processes and softer demand in housing, furniture and RMI also proving problematic and having to be worked through. Leading UK-based group the Construction Products Association (CPA) recently revised its economic forecast for UK construction output.
The new forecast paints a gloomy forecast for 2026, predicting UK private housing output could fall by 7% in 2026. Overall UK construction activity is forecast, the CPA says, to contract by 2.5% in 2026. That represents a lot less MDF going into kitchens, furniture and other applications. To note and responding to the regulatory change for the EU REACH formaldehyde emission limits, since the start of 2026, MEDITE began the transition from E1 to E05 complaint product to be fully compliant to E05 by mid-April 2026. The interest and visibility of bio resin panels is clearly growing in Europe, especially in the Benelux. MDF producers are now more regularly seeing organic customer questions and enquires on this topic and two MDF producers have launched Bio-based MDF panels into this market in the last 12 months. In the Nordic region (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland) there are no production facilities for MDF, but the influence of the well-known Swedish furniture group IKEA, in terms of global design trends in the competitively priced self-assembly sector, remains significant. IKEA continues to state it will use more
recycled fibre in MDF manufacturing as well as promoting the introduction of fossil- free binders. This development is focused on particleboard with a smaller number of initiatives in the fibreboard arena currently. Weight issues also continue to dominate selection of materials.
In Belarus, the Kronospan 224,000m3
now being operated there by Emirati Causa Foundation with funding from Qatar and UAE. As a result, the Austrian woodworking holding company Kronospan has closed its business in Belarus and its factories and logistics centres are now owned by the Emirati Causa Foundation. The supervision activities were handed over to Russian managers.
In Russia, the MDF/HDF investment at Vladimir – capacity 424,000m3
– by the
Turkish wood-based panel and laminate flooring manufacturer Yildiz Entegre, could be operational later in 2026 and we will report on this further in due course.
We also have three more Russian projects
to highlight and are listed in our new capacity table: Lesplitinvest, a company from the St
Petersburg region, is investing to increase capacity of its MDF plant in Priozersk up to 240,000m3
.
The Chinese company AVIC Forestry is implementing a project to create the Asinovsky forestry park in the Russian Tomsk region. It is investing more than 30 billion roubles in the construction of 10 timber processing plants including MDF with a capacity of 200,000m3
by 2026-2027.
Monolit Stroy, the Russian MDF producer plans an 80,000m3
expansion of its output
this year based on its MDF plant in the city of Tomsk. The company is also building a plant to produce urea-formaldehyde concentrate ‘ It is rumoured that the Sheksninsky plant
in Vologda has plans to increase combined production of MDF and particleboard, which is estimated at close to 1 million m3
in total,
by 30-40% in the coming years, but we have no updated news on this currently. The Russian market has completely evaporated for European technology providers due to sanctions imposed after the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Ongoing and new projects are now almost exclusively awarded to Chinese technology companies. In particular, Yalian Machinery Co Ltd has increasingly gained a foothold here and in other regions. Yalian was primarily active in the Chinese domestic market for a long time. New orders for lines featuring continuous presses are now chiefly placed with Yalian and Shanghai Wood-Based Panel Machinery Co Ltd. (SWPM), the latter of which Dieffenbacher holds a majority stake.
NORTH AMERICA CAPACITY In North America, the MDF market situation remains challenging. After a strong demand and rapid price escalation in 2022 -23, mainly created by a pandemic hangover and shutdown of two Arauco mills, demand has slipped back in conjunction with new construction and repair and remodeling. Constrained housing affordability
conditions due to elevated interest rates, rising construction costs and labour shortages has led to a reduction in housing production. This is one of the big problems right now in the US that is impeding MDF growth. Compared to former years the US has a smaller furniture manufacturing base than in the past, so moulding, millwork, flooring, and cabinetry, really drive the market demand.
MDF demand has remained generally
poor, very competitive and shows little sign of improving much in 2026. Any shortfall in supply has been of short duration and usually filled by imports. Imports are becoming more
www.wbpionline.com | Summer 2026 | WBPI
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