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Above: W Howard loose insulation fibres produced from recycled MDF fibre
Exciting sector growth before the pandemic gave way to market disruption, then growth again, but high inflation and interest rates, coupled with overcapacity in the European wood fibre industry, has dampened demand in the past two years. Production rates and profits have dipped, but most players in the sector still predict a bright future ahead. This year’s WBPI report has less news on new capacity investments, but there is plenty of activity in the sector, nevertheless.
STATISTICS Firstly, it’s worth reminding ourselves on the stats.
The European Panel Federation (EPF)
compiles figures on the European wood fibre insulation board market, with the most recent annual stats covering 2023. New statistics for 2024 will be revealed at the EPF AGM in June. The EPF says European softboard (wood fibre insulation products) production output reduced by -6.3% to 4.8 million m3 That’s 325,000m3
in 2023. less than 2022. Production had sharply contracted by
-8.6% in 2019 due to announced capacity closures and then had accelerated its growth from 5.7% in 2020 to 12.6% in 2021 due to new capacity expansions, with output reaching more than 5.6 million m3
its historical peak reached in 2018. In 2023, EPF says rigid softboard
accounted for 60% of the output and flex softboard for the remaining part. Some 96% of the sales went towards EU-27-UK, EFTA, Turkey and the Balkans. Total rigid softboard and flex softboard installed production capacity amounted to 4.8 million m3 respectively.
and 5.8 million m3 in 2023 The increases were due mainly to capacity
growth in Poland and Germany. Poland is the largest producing country,
followed by Germany, France, and Norway. Regarding exports, extra-EU shipments of softboard reached 332,000 m3
in 2023,
down by 27% compared to 2022. Switzerland was the largest destination with 34% of share followed by the United Kingdom (19%), the United States (8%) and Saudi Arabia (5%).
Sales of softboard type by application was WBPI | February/March 2025 |
www.wbpionline.com
36% rigid building shell and 32% for flex building shell. Underlays and other uses of flex wood fibre were the other two large applications.
, surpassing
The largest producer is Steico SE, and its publicly available financial results and reports give an additional steer on market performance and trends. The Kingspan Group completed a majority share acquisition of Steico in early 2024 and by the end of February 2025 former long- term CEO Udo Schramek would have finished his advisory role during the transition phase. Steico’s unaudited business figures for 2024 show revenues of €376.3m 2023: €365.3m) and EBIT of €36.1m (2023: €30.4m). The complete, audited business figures are
expected to be published in the second half of April as part of the annual report. At €291m, cumulative Group sales after the first nine months of 2024 were up 3.1% on the same period of the previous year. In Q3, 2024, a pick-up in demand was recorded in some markets despite a strong competitive situation. Germany, France and the UK are Steico’s largest markets.
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