Cluster power

Summary
• Austria is the fifth largest sawn softwood exporter.
• Marketing initiatives are under way to increase UK exports.
• Holzcluster Tyrol has a production of 1.9 million m³.

Austria’s timber industry is the country’s second largest export earner after tourism.

That equates to a positive export balance of about €3.3bn, with total sales value in 2006 of €7bn (including furniture). This was up 13% on the previous year and a staggering 60% since 1998.

Austria is also the fifth largest sawn softwood exporter in the world after Canada, Russia, Sweden and Finland with sawn softwood exports worth about €1.2bn. Hardwood exports in 2006 reached 182,176m³ and were worth €83.4m.

Add in an export ratio of 75% and a sawn wood production of 10.5 million m³ and you are left in no doubt what a big player the country is in the wood trade.

Mills Holzindustrie Pfeifer, Mayr-Melnhof Holz and Holzindustrie Binder each have an annual production of more than one million m³. In fact, Mayr-Melnhof’s current takeover of the Kaufmann/Stallinger group will give it an output of more than two million m³.

Not surprisingly, neighbouring countries Italy and Germany represent the strongest traditional markets, with Italy importing 4.3 million m³ in 2006.

UK market

But the UK is increasingly becoming a target. Nearly 90,000m³ was shipped to the UK in 2006 and co-ordinated marketing between the Austrian government and the wood industry is taking place to win more market share across the product spectrum, whether it be dimension lumber, glulam or windows.

The Austrian Trade Commission in London organised an Austrian pavilion at Ecobuild this year and will be doing the same again next year.

Forest Covers 47.2% of Austria, with 19% being hardwood and the rest softwood. Beech is the most prominent hardwood species covering 9.3% of the total area, while spruce has a 61.5% share. This all equates to a total timber resource of one billion m3.

The 10 largest mills account for about 65% of production, but the majority of sawmills (1,000 total) are SMEs, which rely on organised “clusters” as a way of promoting themselves on the export market.

Wood marketing

One of these is holzcluster Tyrol, an initiative of wood marketing organisation proHolz together with the province of Tyrol.

Based in Innsbruck, it is made up of about 1,200 companies in the wood manufacturing sector, including 200 sawmills. It has a lumber production of 1.9 million m³, worth some €700m (export value €360m) and represents about 12% of the Austrian timber industry.

“The predominantly small-sized company structure of Tyrol’s timber industry ensures the necessary flexibility for implementing ongoing innovations in product development and thus forms the foundation of successful business,” said spokesperson Wolfram Allinger-Csollich.

He said Tyrol’s timber companies are doing more business in the UK, partly due to their “high service orientation” and quality of products.

“Educating and recruiting the next generation of expert woodworkers and nimble handling of currency fluctuations in completing contracts abroad are ongoing challenges for Tyrol’s companies,” he added. “But the outlook for the future is optimistic.”

Binder Holz and Egger are two of the biggest timber companies in Tyrol. The former has formed a partnership with James Jones & Sons to supply cross-laminated solid wood construction panels to the UK market.

The cross-laminated product is also produced by KLH, based in the province of Styria. The company has had a long list of UK contracts, including a current one to build the “tallest timber residential building in the world” – a nine-storey block in Hackney.