Markets: Plywood and OSB | 17
markets are not what was hoped for. This foregoing bears out what I heard from the companies to which I spoke in late April for this report. Those companies covered import, distribution and merchanting of plywood and OSB.
The situation in the Middle East was of course a recurring theme as it has such wide- ranging implications for every sector, from global shipping to road transport, to energy for manufacturing, to oil as the basis for the manufacturing of chemicals vital to panel production.
A generally fairly low level of demand, and low sales prices for some time, have collided with dramatically rising costs which have had to be passed on, leaving little room for much-needed price increases to improve already low profitability. A ‘double- whammy’, as one builders’ merchant put it. “The second half of 2025 saw very difficult trading for us, but at Christmas our customers were experiencing more demand and more willingness to go ahead with projects and we thought, after the bad weather at the beginning of 2026, that April/ May/June were looking good. Then came the war in Iran and now we just don’t know where we are,” said the merchant. Increased shipping distances are another factor adding to costs due to the war. “These are really testing times,” he added.
“April was quite a strong trading month for us, but the order intake in the last week of the month was slowing down. We think that is telling us that our customers were buying forward to make sure of stock and to beat the price increases.” The spokesman said that, as merchants, the company passes price increases down the line. “The building industry is more than capable of absorbing the increased costs, but the key is to take it one step at a time and what our customers really don’t like are surcharges in a separate invoice and neither do we: Put the increase on the invoice line by line, not as a separate surcharge.”
As a builders’ merchant, the spokesman said he was not so concerned about the new-build market, but that any stagnation of the “used” house market is a worry because repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) would drop and that is a builders merchant’s bread and butter. The spokesman concluded that hardwood plywood prices (mainly from China) were rising from a low level and that structural softwood plywood prices were beginning to rise.
Meanwhile, OSB prices are starting to rise, but not greatly.
He described the underlying OSB demand as “still quite poor” for his company. A bulk importer and distributor of plywood and OSB said that the plywood market for
Plywood imports to the UK grew 10% in 2025
his company was generally relatively steady, being not overly quiet or busy, but pointed out that the company has customers in 70-75 different industries, from commercial vehicle body builders to the art and craft sector. “Housebuilding is still quiet because of interest rates and the economic situation – and now world events – and this all affects confidence in taking out mortgages or investing in home improvements. “There is quite a high resin content in OSB and in overlaid products and costs are rising because of the oil situation,” said a spokesman. “We are trying to increase our OSB prices as it is our lowest margin-earner, but we also have to remain competitive.” In terms of the market going forward, the spokesman expected the next quarter to hold back due to the war, although it would normally be getting busier.
An importer of Chinese plywood said that things are “really tough”. Obviously, the EU anti-dumping duty is causing the importer problems with his hardwood-throughout plywood from China. However, hardwood cores with softwood faces is said to be ‘under observation’ by the EU.
“However, we are reluctant to ship that board to the European continent until that is resolved, as the 86% duty could be applied retrospectively,” said a spokesman for the importer. “We visited Vietnam recently,” he continued. “They were very nice people but mostly about five to 10 years behind China in manufacturing technology and a lot of the mills do not yet have CE or FSC or EUDR certification.
“However, we found three suppliers, whom we are already working with and who are a breath of fresh air compared to China when it comes to doing business.
“Two of those mills have CE and FSC approval and one has just FSC certification so far, but is working on obtaining CE approval,” said the importer. “The US used to be the major customer for Vietnamese mills, but then the US tariffs meant that the Vietnamese mills lost a lot of business and so have turned to the potential market in Europe.
“In Europe, although the Vietnamese mills’ prices are higher than those from China, there is no import duty on Vietnamese plywood – and no anti-dumping duty either.” “Freight rates are going down at present, and containers are no problem to get,” said the importer, “The cost of a container from China has fallen from US$2,400 to US$2,100 in the last week, he said on April 23. “We are doing reasonably well from China and the prices have risen a bit, due to rising resin and transport costs and the exchange rate of the RMB against the US dollar has fallen. It is very difficult to anticipate supply and demand at the moment,” said the spokesman.
“UK demand is significantly down on a few months ago, with very few enquiries and very fierce competition,” he said. Some of the bigger UK importers are even supplying their merchant customers on the basis of payment on sale because the demand is just not there.”
The importer went on to say that he
has taken on a new hardwood plywood manufacturer in China, which has all the certifications required by the market. It is
www.ttjonline.com | Summer 2026 | TTJ
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