world news - 18.06.2003

European plywood market: the overall European plywood and blockboard production during 2002 according to the final FEIC statistics for 2002 amounted to 3.4 million m3.

Reporting on the FEIC General Assembly on Friday 13 June 2003 in La Rochelle, France, FEIC President Mr Nicola RENI (Reni Ettore SpA, Italy) announced that the overall European plywood and blockboard production during 2002 according to the final FEIC statistics for 2002 amounted to 3.4 million mі. Compared to 2001, this means an increase of 1.4%. Over the past ten years, total plywood production has risen by 32%. Finland still is the largest European plywood manufacturer, representing 36% of the total output and its production picked up vigorously during 2002 with a rise of more than 8% up to 1.2 million mі. Other major producers were Italy, France, Spain and Latvia in descending order of importance. In addition, the new FEIC member companies in Russia produced some 400,000 mі of plywood during 2002 and contributed also significantly to the overall result.

Consumption of plywood within the FEIC countries rose slightly to 3.7 million mі, but overall plywood consumption in Europe fell by 1% to 5.7 million mі, due to two-digit reductions in Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands. The UK remains the biggest European plywood market with a share of 22% or a demand of 1.3 million mі. Other major markets are Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands in descending order of importance. Concerning trade, imports remained rather stable at 2.8 million mі, whereas exports rose by more than 2% up to 2.6 million mі. Exports consist mainly of intra-EU flows, accounting for 86% of total exports. Intra EU imports represent more than 30% of total imports, closely followed, however, by the Central and Eastern European countries, South America and Asia, each providing about 20% of total imports into the FEIC countries.

Expanding somewhat more on the current market developments, Mr RENI stressed that the plywood markets continue to be quite competitive in Europe. The high exchange rate of the € to the US$ is favouring the imports of plywood from non-European countries into the Euro-zone. Furthermore, the rapidly increasing imports of extremely cheap okoumй plywood from China (which were at the end of 2002 already 28 times higher than during 2000) caused a dramatic market disruption.

FEIC represents some 70 plywood manufacturers in 17 member countries, both in the European Union and in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in Morocco.

IHB Internationale Holzboerse GmbH

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