TIMBER


NOT OUT OF THE WOODS YET


The UK faces declining supplies of home-grown wood due to lack of productive tree planting and could be sleepwalking into a timber shortage crisis in the not too distant future. Stuart Goodall, Chief Executive, The Confederation of Forest Industries, examines the threats to supply and why the UK must urgently move productive tree planting up the agenda.


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t should be concerning to everyone when a mature economy with the perfect conditions for growing a wide range of tree species should be in a potentially precarious position in relation to wood supply. But that’s exactly where we find ourselves. For decades we have not taken responsibility for investing in our domestic wood supply, leaving us exposed to fluctuating prices and fighting for future supplies of wood as global demand rises and our own supplies fall.


UK: the big net importer The UK currently grows only around 20% of its wood requirement, and is the world’s second largest importer of wood after China, importing around £7.5 billion annually. In 2021 the UK was importing an average of one million m3 of timber and panel products every month, with softwood import volumes up by over 21%, hardwoods by 26% and plywoods by over 13%.


The World Bank estimates that global demand for wood products will treble by 2050, driven primarily by higher living standards, greater urbanisation - including China's almost inexhaustible need for timber for construction and manufacturing - and greater use of what is increasingly seen as a more sustainable building material. These trends are being compounded at a time when a number of other global developments are coalescing. In particular, security of supply of natural resources is under ever greater threat from geo-political upheavals, as witnessed by the Russian- Ukrainian crisis and soaring energy prices. Russia remains the world’s largest supplier of timber globally. With potentially longer-term economic sanctions placed against Russian exports, there will inevitably be significant


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David


Hopkins, CEO of Timber


housing over city centre apartments, with more wood needed for elements such as roof joists. To add to potential supply chain woes, there also remains some uncertainty of supply due to Brexit. New regulations and disrupted shipments can mean materials from overseas are often delayed or challenging to source. Labour shortages have also played a part. While the upward trend in UK and global demand for wood is clear, the UK Government’s own forecasts show that supplies of home-grown wood will fall from the 2030s, meaning there will be less wood available in future than there is now.


disruption to supply chains, price hikes and pressure on countries typically supplied by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, to seek building material imports from other sources – including those Scandinavian countries that the UK relies upon so heavily.


Russia is also the largest exporter of sawn timber. Although the UK only imports 6% of its sawn softwood imports and 7% of its plywood from Russia, the impact on the UK’s building and construction sector will be much wider, as the overall global availability of wood products will be reduced and competition likely to intensify considerably. Timber prices are spiking because of the switch in demand towards lower-density


An overlooked partner for Net Zero


The UK’s commitment to become net zero by 2050 is, in part, dependent on the greater sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) for which productive tree planting in the UK can make a significant contribution. Wood in all its versatile forms is a readily available substitute for many materials which have much higher emissions loads, including brick, concrete, steel and polyurethane, but the tree from which it evolves sequesters large amounts of CO2 as it grows. Wood fibre insulation, in particular, has impressive green credentials and there is currently interest in establishing a manufacturing plant in the UK. Recyclable, compostable and dimensionally


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net May 2022


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