Demand for thermally modified timber is increasing as it continues to establish itself as a more mainstream product.
Statistics produced by the Institut für Hoztechnologie indicate that production of thermally modified wood in Europe hit 400,000m3 in 2015.
Within this production, figures compiled by the International ThermoWood Association (ITA), show that output by its members, who produce the fiercely protected ThermoWood brand of thermally treated timber, was 159,333m3 in 2015, up from just 18,799m3 in 2001 (2016 figures will be released in January 2017).
“ThermoWood came to the market in the late 90s and production volumes have grown every year since 2001,” said Jukka Ala- Vikari of the ITA. “The global awareness of ThermoWood is increasing all the time.”
ITA member and ThermoWood market leader, Lunawood, has demonstrated its market confidence by buying Metsä Wood’s Kaskinen-based ThermoWood business.
“Lunawood was already the biggest ThermoWood producer in the world but with the acquisition of Metsä Wood’s ThermoWood business our capacity has risen from 81,000m3 to 105,000m3 per year,” said Ulla Viitasalo, Lunawood’s export manager.
“The demand for ThermoWood has been increasing in general by about 10% per year – and Lunawood sales have been increasing by around 15% per year,” said Ms Viitasalo. Fellow ITA member Stora Enso also reports growing demand due to “increasing consumer demands for ecological and sustainable products”.
The company’s wood products communications manager, Cathrine Wallenius, said thermally modified wood rarely competes directly with other modified variants in similar end uses – such as Accoya, Kebony and Lignia – but pointed out that it doesn’t have any added chemicals.
“Environmental values are becoming more important in construction and in people’s minds,” agreed Ms Viitasalo. “As Lunawood ThermoWood is chemical free and produced from high quality PEFC-certified Finnish timber it matches this requirement well. The price-to-quality ratio is good and the features of dimensional stability and durability are valued and understood.”
The majority of ThermoWood production is destined for export, with Central Europe forming by far the largest market segment. In 2015, for example, ITA’s statistics show that 6% of Finnish ThermoWood production stayed on home turf, 76% was exported to “other EU” destinations, while 18% was sent further afield.
“Our biggest single market is still Finland but more than 90% of our production is exported,” said Ms Viitasalo. She cited the UK, France, Belgium, Germany and Scandinavian countries as generating growing sales and added that sales outside of Europe – to India, South Korea, Australia and Japan, for example – were increasing year-on-year.
“We can’t forecast the impact of Brexit,” said Mr Ala-Viikari. “It depends on many things, such as the exchange rate, the price development and availability of competing products and the future commercial policy between the UK and the EU. But we think that ThermoWood is very suitable for the UK climate.”
Lunawood is also hopeful that normal business will be resumed soon.
“The short-term impact has been the weakened sterling and since all imported materials are more expensive we’ve seen our sales decrease,” said Ms Viitasalo. “UK construction start-ups have increased in recent years and I really hope the weaker sterling won’t steer that sector into a downturn.”
“Our members are always developing new products,” said Mr Ala-Viikari. “New profiles, surface coated products, glued products, fixing systems and new end uses are being innovated.
“The ITA allocates resources for R&D activities every year. For example, thermal modification of different wood species, grading of the raw material, technical tests and so on.”
Stora Enso’s latest offerings are its ThermoWood Advanced products, which combine two processes – thermal modification and oil impregnation (more details are on its website) and it recently developed ThermoWood products with fire retardant treatment.
For Lunawood’s part, it has brought LunaLam, a glue-laminated ThermoWood to market.
“We are able to produce wider section planks, up to 300mm,” said Ms Viitasalo. “Machined products can be used in decking and cladding but we have also sold some rough planks from which customers have machined bigger sections into louvre blades.” She added that the company is exploring new applications for Lunawood together with its customers.
New products are likely to interest UK distributors who report growing sales over the years. One such is Snows Timber.
“The market for procuring ThermoWood is currently working in our favour,” said Andy Jones, northern regional sales manager. “Today we source from a number of suppliers, all members of the International ThermoWood Association, to get the supplies of material we need.”
Although cedar is still Snow’s biggest seller in the claddings category, sales of ThermoWood claddings have grown by around 25% in the past 18 months.
“Greater familiarity with the product is helping, but we feel the increase is largely due to the price factor. Compared to cedar and larch claddings, ThermoWood products have a distinct price advantage which can’t be dismissed,” said Mr Jones.
The company machines its own ThermoWood claddings, which are mainly used in large-scale building projects from hospitals to schools.
“We produce a small amount of ThermoWood decking, though we’ve not found the material to be as popular for decking,” said Mr Jones. “Perhaps that’s the competition from good-looking hardwoods like our certified yellow balau decking.”
“As a big company ourselves, we tend to get the majority of our ThermoWood cladding enquiries direct from similarly big companies like the major national contractors. For organisations of that size, our ability to deliver direct to site is useful.
“We support our builders’ merchant customer base in responding to ThermoWood cladding enquiries for architects’ projects and local authority specifiers by providing merchants with technical advice and samples. International Timber sources its thermally modified timber from a single Finnish producer, which it has built a strong relationship with over the years and says the product makes “a nice contribution to decking and cladding sales”.
“Sales are increasing as thermally modified timber gains traction in the market,” said John Dowd, category director at International Timber. “Being a stockist helps service shorter lead times, which is certainly a feature of customers’ needs today.”
The company also stocks Accoya and says the choice between specifying the chemically modified or thermally modified option tends to be down to the application.
Mr Dowd added that most of the company’s sales of thermally modified timber were destined for cladding applications and that these tended to come direct from builders and sub-contractors following specification by architects.
Lunawood keeps a sizeable stock of product at Tilbury port for distribution throughout the UK and Ireland and MBM Speciality Forest Products (MBM SFP) is its sole UK agent. This exclusivity creates a closer co-operative relationship than simple buying and selling, said Brian Edwards, director.
“Sales are increasing steadily with an average rise of 15% year-on-year,” said Mr Edwards. “This is partly due to the increased understanding of ThermoWood and the recognition of its properties and benefits and its competitive position against durable wood alternatives.”
He also believes that ThermoWood will continue to hold its market share, despite the post-Brexit weakening of the pound.
“Other competing durable wood products such as western red cedar, Siberian larch, hardwoods, Accoya and Kebony are similarly affected by exchange rates, so Lunawoood will hold its relative position. Given a stable UK construction industry we would anticipate further growth for Lunawood as some of the more expensive alternatives become too costly for some projects.”
MBM SFP’s Lunawood sales are primarily destined for external cladding and decking projects and the company is witnessing increased demand for industrial uses where stability and low moisture content is paramount. The aforementioned glue-laminated product, LunaLam has also been used for wide solar shades and decking.
Composite decking is a growing market and Lunawood’s LunaComp – a combination of thermally modified wood fibre and recycled polymer – is also distributed by MBM SFB.
Staying on the subject of decking, MBM Speciality has also announced it is to represent Estonian producer Thermory and market a premium thermally modified American ash decking product.
Mr Edwards said Thermory ash has a deep brown colour and attractive grain configuration and that the decking comes with an innovative fixing clip, allowing the removal of single boards. Also, structural end matching to the decking reduces length wastage to a minimum.
Meanwhile, UK sawmiller Vastern Timber’s Brimstone brand of thermally modified timber launched at Ecobuild earlier this year and recently won the TRADA-sponsored Timber Innovation/Product Development category at the TTJ Awards.
Its UK ash, poplar and sycamore is currently sent over to Ducerf in France for heat treatment but the hope is that funding can be secured in order to invest in the technology in the UK. Self-builds and small eco-house developments are typical market sectors for the product, rather than the mass market.
The products, Vastern says, is breathing new life into British hardwoods.
