Focus on particleboard: Part 1 | 13 Table 1 North American capacity
No of mills
US
Canada Mexico
15 4 8
27
No of lines
18 6 9
33
Table 2 North American average line Capacity '000m3
US
2021 2022 2023 2024 287.6 287.6 273.4 273.4
Canada 362.3 362.3 376 362.3 Mexico 99.7 99.7 97.4 94.1
Table 3 EU27 + UK Capacity
No of mills
Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia
No of lines
5 11 2 6 1
Czech Republic 3 Denmark Estonia Finland France
Germany Greece
Hungary Italy
Latvia Lithuania
Luxembourg Poland
Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain
Sweden UK
1 2 1
3 7 1 3 1 2 1
11 13 9 16 3 1
6 1
11 12 3 2 1 8 2 6 5 1
3 2 1 8 3 6 5 1
11 13 2 5
2 5
102 126
No of mills
Belarus Norway Russia Serbia
Switzerland Turkey Ukraine
3 3
No of lines
3 3
43 43 1 1
1 1
20 24 3
3 74 78
December 2024 capacity '000m3
2185 1200 2180 110
1350 350 278 200
4012 6075 720 450
3805 618
1127 900
3945 915
2026 1509 330
4120 680
2208 40393 Table 4 Capacity outside EU27 + UK
December 2024 capacity '000m3
835 410
9404 150 580
6425 1700
19504
Table 5 North America future capacity changes '000m3
Capacity as at end 2022 Capacity as at end 2023 Capacity as at end 2024
New Capacity 2025 onwards Canada - Uniboard, Val d'Or
9137 8425 7943
180 8123
December 2024 capacity '000m3
4922 2174 847
7943
Table 6 EU27 + UK Future capacity changes '000m3 Capacity as at end 2023 Capacity as at end 2024
40538 40393
New Capacity 2025/2026 onwards Germany
Italy (San Vito al Tagliamento) Italy (Viadana) Sweden
Elka
Kronospan Saviola
Pervanovo
+125,000 (expansion) 612
1000 tba
42130++
Table 7 Non EU Future capacity changes '000m3 Capacity as at end 2023 Capacity as at end 2024
19554 19484
New Capacity 2025 onwards Lithuania Russia
Baltic Particleboard Kronospan, Kaluga Uvadrev
495
1023 500
21502++
Table 8 Capacity changes: Europe and North America '000m3 2022 6040 2174 997
US
Canada Mexico
EU27 + UK Non EU
39818 17524 66553
2023 6040 2174 997
39818 17524 66553
2024 4922 2174 847
40393 19504 67840
Several economic forecasts show the scale of the problem facing markets currently. Germany’s economy stagnated in the third quarter as exports fell, and growth forecasts for this year have only been mildly revised upwards to 0.2%, with 1.3% and 1.4% growth predicted in 2026 and 2027 respectively. In the UK, The Construction Products
Association (CPA) has substantially revised its forecasts downwards amid growing risks and uncertainty surrounding the UK Government’s impending tax rises in the Autumn Budget and their impact on the wider UK economy. The CPA’s Autumn Forecasts show total
construction output is now only forecast to grow by 1.1% in 2025 and 2.8% in 2026, which is a significant revision down from the 1.9% in 2025 and 3.7% in 2026 in the previous forecast. Confidence among homebuyers, homeowners, and investors is weak. Of course, when markets are poor in the panel board industry, there is great sensitivity towards mill project information, due to the hyper competition for the more limited number of contracts. There are projects to report on and amendments to our survey statistics but across the European and North America regions – which this Part 1 Survey focuses on – investment levels are
currently low in the particleboard industry. Italy, Lithuania and the US are among countries seeing new PB mill investments. In its annual report released earlier this
year, the European Panel Federation (EPF) recorded a 1.5% growth in particleboard production to 31.3 million m3
in 2024, which
was 3% below pre-pandemic levels of 2019. The EPF’s stats show Germany remains the number one PB producer in EPF countries, with a quoted production output capacity of 4.95 million m3
(nearly 4 million m3 m3
in 2024, followed by Poland ) and Italy (3.1 million
). The three countries’ PB production rate
compared to 2023 was -2%, +6.9% and +3% respectively.
The EPF predicts European PB production in 2025 will see growth from several countries, with an estimated target of 32 million m3
(+662,000m3 on 2024). Please
note that production output in not the same as installed capacity, and it’s also worth highlighting that WBPI’s statistics include several additional countries in its Europe stats that are not part of the EU, as well as focusing on press design capacity. The EPF report also shows that in PB, the annual production capacity of most
Continued on page 15
www.wbpionline.com | October/November 2025 | WBPI
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