Comment | 3
WBPI – the voice of the global panel industry T
he end of one year and the beginning of another always give pause for thought. How did 2025 go and what are the business prospects for 2026 in the global wood- based panels manufacturing industries.
Clearly, for many markets
in this sector, hopes of economic rebound have continued to be delayed, with consumer caution and reduced demand. This has obviously impacted orders for new panel lines and capacity investments. Indeed, some plants have seen production curtailed.
But if you look at signals from the construction industries, such as in Germany and the UK, there are signs of better conditions ahead. The figures from both countries point to a mild increase in housebuilding. With so many wood-based panels applications existing in the latter stages of builds, a large portion of a boost in housing will take time to work its way through to panels mills and distributors, with many seasoned analysts and companies in the WBP sector expecting H2, 2026 to be the earliest signs of a noticeable market improvement. People do need to use wood-based panels, and there must be a pent-up demand ready for the coming years. We expect sales and production output to nudge upwards gently in the next few years.
This last WBPI issue of 2026 contains our
Particleboard Survey Part 2 report and Focus on Germany tour.
❯ WOOD FIBRE INSULATION FOCUS
❯ ASIA PANELS MARKET UPDATE We take a look at the large panels sector in Asia
❯ SURFACING A latest update from the world of surfacing
❯ PLUS REGULARS Including all the news relevant to our industry, which will be covered in depth and will also appear, as it happens, on our website:
www.wbpionline.com
PB Part 2 lays bare the extent of PB investment in China in the last few years. Chinese press supplier Yalian has picked up a very large number of contracts in the country, with a long list going online in 2024 and 2025. This update has added greatly to China’s PB capacity and is the result of the trends towards PB and away from MDF. Despite many global economies being in the doldrums, there are a number of PB plant projects ongoing or projected to start.
Our headline statistics for installed particleboard capacity for the Rest of the World region is 56,554,000m3
. This added to our 67,840,000m3 total
for our Part 1 Survey report on Europe & North America give a combined estimated global total of installed particleboard capacity of 124,394,000m3
.
Meanwhile, our Focus on Germany report brings news from a selection of major suppliers to the panels industry – Fagus-GreCon, Dieffenbacher, Wemhöner and Kleiberit. We visited each of these companies in November, and report on significant developments within their operations and products. It was a privilege to tour the Wemhöner factory with CEO Heiner Wemhöner in the company’s 100th year. Lastly, our Focus on Resins provides updates from some of the leading suppliers of chemicals for wood-based panels manufacturing, with bio-resins continuing to be a prominent talking point.
Stephen Powney
www.wbpionline.com
GROUP EDITOR
www.wbpionline.com | December 2025/January 2026 | WBPI
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