French beech fashion revival

Summary
• French beech forests cover 1.34 million ha.
• France’s beech harvest is 1.3 million m³ a year.
• Annual sawn beech output is 500,000m³.
• Over 5 million ha of French forest is PEFC certified.
• Sawmillers are offering more further processed beech products.

Unless you spell them out, the words French beech will make most Brits think of a stretch of golden sand with the Mediterranean crashing on it – and that includes timber traders.

Beech, as in Fagus sylvatica, from our nearest European neighbour has not figured highly on the UK timber trade radar for a while, not really since the heyday of furniture making here. As, one by one, the big furniture names migrated to take advantage of the low labour costs of the Far East and eastern Europe, so the timber followed in its wake.

But, according to French Timber, France’s international timber trade promotion organisation, there are structural changes under way in the timber market that are turning more French beech producers back to Europe and, at the same time, developments which are making the species a more attractive proposition for European joiners and other end users.

“By 1999, China was by far the biggest international market for beech and French sawmills had become easily the country’s biggest supplier, well ahead of their European rivals, supplying 300,000m³ a year” said French Timber director Jean-François Guilbert.

Storm impact

What blew this trade off course, he added, were the colossal storms, Lothar and Martin, which devastated French, German and Swiss forests in 1999.

“These disrupted the customer-supplier relationship for several years and users looked to other species,” said Mr Guilbert. “Things are now changing, and beech is becoming more popular again in the Far East, but suppliers are also keen to develop and retain other markets.”

While trading patterns have been shifting, he maintained, European joiners and manufacturers have also been looking for alternatives to tropical hardwoods due to shortages and environmental concerns.

“Timber trends have been changing, particularly in the European staircase sector, and this is where we see beech making more inroads,” he said. “The market historically has been a big user of tropical hardwood, but manufacturers have been increasingly uneasy about its environmental credentials. This is a particularly sensitive issue when it comes to seeking public procurement contracts, which across Europe are increasingly strict on environmental criteria and proof of sustainability.”

The vast bulk of French beech is certified, he added, mostly under the PEFC scheme, the dominant certification programme in France, with 5.1 million ha of the total national forest covered, against 16,851ha for the FSC.

Giving beech further impetus, said Mr Guilbert, is that the tropical species once popular for use in exposed wood staircases in Europe have become more expensive.

Carrefour International du Bois

The rebirth of the fashion for the timber was strongly in evidence at last year’s Carrefour International du Bois, the biennial trade show in Nantes, now rated as the biggest exhibition dedicated exclusively to timber in Europe.

“It definitely made a breakthrough in terms of the number of companies exhibiting it, the range of products and level of innovation,” said Mr Guilbert.

And one thing is certain, there’s plenty of French beech to go around. It accounts for 8% of France’s forest, adding up to a total of 1.34 million ha, or nearly half the UK’s total forest area. And French beech forests are still growing, putting on another 5.5% in the last four years.

“It still isn’t widely known that we are Europe’s leading beech producer, but no other country comes close, ” said Mr Guilbert. “Annually we’re harvesting 1.3 million m³ of logs. The highest grades are used in veneer, but the vast majority goes for primary-processed sawn timber, of which we’re currently producing 500,000m³ annually, a figure that’s increasing at about 3.7% a year.”

France’s temperate and relatively rainy climate – even compared to the UK – is perfect for beech and the forest management approach in the east of the country produces logs that, according to one sawmill, are “very large in diameter and deliver a wood that is ideal for veneers, rotary cutting and high class timber”. The latter, he added, also performs well in sanding, drilling, routing and gluing and “poses no particular technical problems in drying”.

Beech product range

The range of beech products coming out of French sawmills, said Mr Guilbert, is also wide and growing. It includes boules, waney-edged boards, railway sleepers, but also, in response to market demand, an increasing variety of more finished material, including square-edged boards, finger-jointed lengths, turning blocks and “machined or non-machined custom-cuts produced to customer specification”.

“We realised market demand was shifting towards square-edged boards and dimensioned timber, so we’re now producing more of these from selected material,” said Eric Ducrot, managing director of the sawmill Les Avivés de l’Est. “Generally they are dried before edging, which means more efficient production for joiners and manufacturers and essentially gives them 100% yield.”

Mills are also moving into solid glued and laminated panels, he added, targeting manufacturers, including staircase producers, who want to “simplify their own production methods and put the material straight into production using CNC machining centres”.

This diversification of French beech production, said Mr Guilbert, also suits it to the repair, maintenance and improvement market, which has proved a bright spot for the building and joinery industry across Europe during the slump in construction.

“French beech wood now provides an ideal solution for a full range of products for the RMI sector, from sawn timber, to ready-to-use glue laminated panels,” he said. “Thanks to its mix of sustainability, price and product innovation, it’s also becoming increasingly trendy with the consumer.”