Summary
• Environmental certification is a big driver for European hardwoods.
• Carpentier has switched to solely European species.
• European hardwood producers are moving into value-added products.
• Carpentier aims for its outdoor solutions division to account for 30% of business by the end of next year.
• Raison Bois is experiencing growing demand for square-edged oak.
• By expanding its product Raison Bois has enabled customers to buy mixed loads.

Weaker demand, exchange rate discrepancies and the increasing cost of energy and transport have created a perfect storm for European hardwood traders, according to Dutch importer LTL Hardwoods.

But although these factors are conspiring against hardwoods trading, European hardwoods, and European oak in particular, are not doing so badly.

“The general market in Europe is not so good,” said LTL’s commercial manager, Willem de Bruin, “but if we look at consumption of European hardwoods compared with American or tropical hardwoods, it is still quite good.”

Oak has been in fashion since the Middle Ages, he said, and remains so today. American oak is usually available in wider and longer dimensions but European oak is popular because of its character.

French sawmiller Raison Bois et Débits specialises in oak and owner Jean-Bernard Bahier agrees that the species has an enduring appeal.

“It’s suitable for a diverse range of applications. It can be put in the ground as a post, it can build a house, it can floor the house, create furniture for the house and store the wine that the people in the house are going to drink,” he said.

Oak is also the main species for Belgian importer/exporter Carpentier Hardwood Solutions, which has dropped tropical timbers and now focuses solely on European hardwoods.

LTL deals with around 12 “blue chip” hardwood importers in the UK but volumes have declined in recent years as volume manufacturing has moved to Asia. In the past much of the oak was destined for solid wood flooring in the UK but this market has lost share to engineered flooring manufactured in Asia and eastern Europe.

“Romania and Poland have their own raw material,” said Mr de Bruin. “In the past we bought that material and sold it to the manufacturers but manufacturing has moved east, next door to the raw material supply.”

Now demand in Europe and the UK is led largely by bespoke furniture manufacturers and architectural joiners who want high quality specifications and good service, he said.

Demand from China

China’s voracious demand for timber has affected log availability but at present this is balanced by slower markets elsewhere as a result of the global economic problems. Where there is potential for conflict is China’s growing interest in higher grades.

“In the beginning China took the very low grade logs which we wouldn’t use,” said Mr de Bruin. “It was a tremendous bonus for forest owners who could sell their worst quality timber for reasonable prices.

“But now the Chinese are looking at slightly higher quality which could disturb availability, although at the moment European markets are not very strong so it’s not really having an impact.”

In the UK and Europe a big driver for European hardwoods is their environmental provenance.

“European forests are generally very well managed,” said Mr de Bruin. “Ninety-nine per cent of our material has FSC or PEFC certification so for European hardwoods this is no longer an issue.”

European hardwoods’ sustainability and legality credentials were the reason for Carpentier Hardwood Solutions’ move away from tropical hardwoods in 2009.

“We changed completely to European hardwoods to provide an ecological alternative to tropical hardwoods,” said joint general manager Heidi Carpentier.

Around the same time, the company launched the Carpentier Outdoor Solutions division to produce cladding, decking and fencing, mainly in oak, and this year it has added wooden buildings to the mix.

The oak buildings – pool houses, garages, sheds and home offices – are delivered in kit form with each component numbered, removing the need for any woodworking machinery on site.

Thermo-treated hardwoods, mainly ash and poplar, aimed at decking and cladding, are the latest to be added to the company’s product range.

Carpentier still supplies what it calls its “classic range” – oak and beech boules, beams and square edge, dried in the company’s 13 kilns in Belgium and France, but increasingly its emphasis is on value-added products. The UK buys from the classic range, including oak logs, but it is also an established market for Carpentier’s cladding and the company plans to target its wooden buildings here too.

The outdoor solutions division currently accounts for 10% of business but by the end of next year Carpentier wants that to rise to 30%.

“In the past we were just buying green, drying and selling,” said Ms Carpentier. “In future we want to offer more value-added products to differentiate ourselves from the competition. Vertical integration is our strength.”

Raison Bois, whose main export market for sawn wood is the UK, has also diversified which has helped it, and its customers, weather the economic turmoil.

“We’re always trying to make it easier for our customers to buy more wood from us and sell more wood,” said Jean-Bernard Bahier.

Raison’s Normandy sawmill, which is PEFC certified, consumes around 70m3 of oak a day which is generally sourced from local forests.

The fifth generation business traditionally sold boules and beams but, over the past six or so years, has been meeting growing demand for square-edged oak.

“We’ve been doing a lot more square-edged as our customers wanted wood that was closer to end use,” said Mr Bahier “You get some wastage with boules, and square-edged can be stocked more easily.”

Investment in value adding

Raison has also moved into production of flooring, decking, cladding, and finger-jointing and, two years ago, bought a K2 Hundegger to produce oak frames, which are marketed under the Innov Chene brand. The €700,000 investment was made during the depths of the economic downturn, but it was also in response to that downturn.

“We needed to find different ways to help our customers find different routes to market,” said Mr Bahier.

Expanding the product range has also helped Raison’s customers, including in the UK market, to buy a mixed load of products rather than committing to a full load of boules or beams.

“They can buy a mixed load of beams, boules, square-edges, flooring, decking, cladding and oak structures,” said Mr Bahier.

The value-added products have also helped Raison’s customers reduce their waste.

“It’s easier for us to deal with the wood by-products. A lot of it goes to our finger-jointing plant, biofuels or to heat our kilns,” said Mr Raison.

In addition to drying kilns, Raison has a pre-dryer, which replicates air drying.

“Rather than having the wood outside for several years, we can put it in perfect air-drying conditions for a shorter time,” said Mr Bahier. “Air drying can make the wood darker and it can split but we provide the ideal temperature, humidity and air flow.

“Pre-drying also shortens the time required for kiln drying.”

The diversity of products has helped Raison to maintain its sales levels during the global financial crisis but it has found its customers need a more responsive service.

“Our customers need more reactivity,” said Mr Bahier. “We can no longer give a three or four-week lead time on a beams order. The market is much more demanding and we’re having to turn around orders more quickly.”