Timber is a growing market despite uncertain times

The weaker pound has meant consistently strong demand for UK home-grown timber and higher prices for the grower. Log prices have increased dramatically and processors have been struggling to maintain profitability. Spruce sawlog prices for certified timber delivered-in are now fetching £60 per tonne.

The hardwood market too has been good throughout the year mainly due to competition in the Euro area, which continues to bode well for this year’s winter felling and sawtimber selling season. Of course, the dominant species is oak, which is always in demand for beams, flooring, planking, wooden structures, furniture, joinery and barrel staves. Most of the increased demand is due to a decrease in the supply particularly from France and Croatia which is experiencing a ban on log exports. In the last five years domestic oak sawlog prices have increased by 60 per cent despite very low inflation.

I am pleased to hear that smaller UK hardwood mills and processors are now newly emerging. Some of them mainly focus on oak but there is increasing demand for prime planking ash, beech, cherry, elm, sycamore and sweet chestnut. Regarding the latter I am in the process of selling a nice standing parcel of sweet chestnut with an average diameter of 45 to 65 centimetres. The specifications have to be right though – 7m of clean, straight stem with no cracks or defects, no spiral grain and minimal epicormic growth with a top diameter underbark of at least 30cm. The site for growing chestnut has to be right too – light sandy soils, reducing the likelihood of shake. We shall see what the quality is like when we come to fell the timber next week.

Knowledge of what the local processors are looking for, timing, presentation and pricing are key to marketing timber.

One local fencing supplier, for example, takes all softwood species of a certain specification, apart from Scots pine. Another is looking for any kind of conifer species for smaller-sized fence posts and strainers. I know of one local processor who just can’t get enough softwood timber at the moment (any kind of softwood will do; 2.1 to 2.4 metres in length, between 20 and 35cm diameter). Although the company promotes itself as a family-run firewood business, it actually produces boards for manufacturing wooden packaging for pallets and crates as its main business, using sustainably sourced timber.

The firewood logs are produced from the waste wood slabs which are then cut and stored until fully seasoned and ready to burn. Where the waste wood is not processed into firewood, it gets chipped down for animal bedding and biomass.

Martin B. Jones is a Chartered Forester and Managing Director of the Woodland Stewardship Company, a UK-wide forest management consultancy based in Shrewsbury