16 | Sector Market Update: Chipboard
SUMMARY
■ Chipboard manufacturers have faced a challenging year
■Contacts have reported that 22mm product sales are up versus 18mm in 2025
■ Merchants are being pushed out of the new housebuilding market
■ The poor UK economy has impacted small and medium-sized furniture manufacturers
BUMPING ALONG THE BOTTOM
The chipboard market is not a happy place to be this year. Demand is just enough to absorb production capacity, but prices are ‘bumping along the bottom’, with no concrete signs of an upturn any time soon, as Mike Botting reports
Timber Development UK’s (TDUK) report on import statistics for the first quarter of 2025 reveal that chipboard imports were stable in volume but saw an 11% drop in value due to a 12% fall in average price. Supply shifts included losses of -25% from Portugal and gains from Spain (+12%) and Luxembourg. “Although chipboard imports in Q1 2025 were at very similar levels as in Q1 2024, the composition of this volume reveals some significant changes in the pattern of supply,” said the report, adding that each of the top three supplying countries supplied less volume in Q1 2025, with France supplying just under 3% less, Belgium just under 1% less and Germany just under 2% less. The largest loss was recorded from Portugal, down by a quarter, accounting for more than 4,000m3
less volume in Q1 2025. Of
the leading group, only Spain increased volume, by 12%.
Top: Chipboard manufacturers have faced a challenging year Above: Chipboard imports were stable in volume in Q1 but saw an 11% drop in value due to a 12% fall in average price
TTJ | September/October 2025 |
www.ttjonline.com
The most significant change has been the claiming of a 4% share of supply by Luxembourg, just outside the leading group of supplying countries. When TTJ spoke to someone with an intimate knowledge of the UK panel industry, he noted that the two major markets that chipboard is linked to – housebuilding and furniture – “had shown signs of picking up in Q1 2025, but things have gone back a bit since. The market is ticking over but we’re not seeing real growth,” he said.
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