18 | Markets: Plywood and OSB


European panel plants like this OSB mill are facing increased energy and chemicals costs


a modern, highly automated, factory and several customers in the UK have placed trial orders, said the importer, going on to mention another Chinese mill with very modern equipment and the required certification that is producing ‘Particle Multi- Layer Board’. This panel is composed of a high-quality eucalyptus plywood with thin particleboard on both sides. A spokesman for a company which manufactures OSB in Europe admitted that we live in “turbulent times”.


“The problem is the war in Iran and its consequences in very high gas prices and prices for all the chemicals used in OSB.” On April 23, the spokesman said these prices were up by 65%, and still rising. “At the beginning of March, we experienced high energy prices and now that has filtered through to the chemical costs. We had to increase our prices very quickly and have just increased all products by 10% on top of March’s 2.5% surcharge,” he said. “The surcharge was the way to make a fast increase as we were talking millions of euros increase in our group’s costs per month and couldn’t wait. I can’t see any change in the next six to eight months either, because we have had to make a commitment on chemicals. Consider that urea is in really short supply and it is needed by other


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industries too, such as fertilisers,” said the spokesman.


He then pointed out that emissions standards for panel factories in the EU are tightening in August and all imports will have to come from factories which meet the same standards. This will lock out some countries in Asia, he said.


“OSB is still growing in consumption, particularly in Europe, where it is benefitting from the high tariff on hardwood plywood from China.”


Speaking next to a major importer of sheet materials to the UK, he said everything was going reasonably well until the recent US Government foreign policy decisions in the Middle East.


In common with everyone spoken to for this report, the spokesman reported “hefty price increases” overall, but pointed out that manufacturers needed price rises anyway, before the Middle East conflict began. “It was an opportunity for the mills to increase their prices and to add a bit more,” he said. “Brazil and South East Asia have implemented big price increases, although China has made less significant increases. “Looking at the market in general, everybody de-stocks in December and re- stocks in January, therefore January was ok for us. February was poor because of the


bad weather but lots of merchants had good months in March and April. “Housebuilding has not really picked up but the DIY sector was consistently busy in 2025 and so far this year.


“OSB demand has definitely increased for us and we have noticed a few shortages, which shows that there is demand. Compared to last year, we are a bit more optimistic.” Overall then a rather mixed view of the market in this report, with some very downbeat, but some leaving room for optimism. That difference seems to be explained by which markets their company is supplying.


The Middle East war was always expected to dominate a market report at this time and it was certainly unanimously agreed that costs have risen dramatically as a result of it. The plywood and OSB manufacturers are in the unfortunate position of having desperately needed to increase prices to keep their businesses economically viable, but they were struggling to do so and now they have had to increase their prices, but that is mostly to cover the increased costs caused by the conflict. It remains unclear whether they were able to add a bit more to those price increases to cover their previous increased costs – and improve their basic profitability – or not.


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