After hitting a six-year high in 2017, rising 5% to 430,000 units, French house construction growth fell to 2.3% in 2018, according to the Atradius Market Monitor (www.atradius.co.uk). This year the sector is forecast to contract 0.5%.
Talking to softwood and hardwood producers, however, there is underlying confidence in the timber sector and businesses are investing for the future. Both cite increasing timber-based construction as a factor in their positive outlook, while hardwood suppliers say the French ‘log-drain’ to Asia, an issue for several years, has moderated.
French companies have detected some dip in demand from the UK, attributed to Brexit uncertainty, but say that the general stance on the issue, both sides of the Channel, seems to be, in the words of one, ‘keep calm and carry on’.
PiveteauBois, one of the highest profile French softwood players in the UK market, has had an eventful 12 months. Turnover has increased 10%, driven by landscaping, fencing and construction sector demand. It also opened its new CLT plant on schedule last September, since when production has ‘ramped up nicely’.
“Most timber consuming and using markets may not have changed much, but our new CLT plant has enabled us to substitute imports and one area that is really shooting up is demand for future timber-based construction projects,” said UK and Ireland sales manager Elisabeth Piveteau.
There are also clear signals that the trend towards wood-based building is set to accelerate. The French Adivbois programme, the private-public initiative to construct exemplar, multi-storey residential wood buildings around France, continues to gather momentum.
“Large construction companies like Eiffage, Bouygues and Nexity are also creating divisions to design and build with timber,” said Ms Piveteau.
PiveteauBois’s CLT plant at its Sainte Florence mill site is intended to help it capitalise and is already at 50% capacity.
“It’s a competitive market, but we invested accordingly in sawn wood and CLT lines so they are at least as efficient as the Austrian competition,” said Ms Piveteau. “Our Hexapli CLT brand has raised a lot of interest, including in the UK. It’s being trialled by a number of major contractors, after which we anticipate securing larger developments. And G-Frame, delivered our first CLT building in the UK on July 1.”
PiveteauBois says interest in Hexapli is also due to the fact that it’s offered in both pine and Douglas fir, as well as spruce.
“Our presentation at the UK Wood Protection Association meeting in April was ‘CLT is good, durable CLT is better’,” said Ms Piveteau. “The WPA also awarded us their Innovation Award for our use class-2 water repellent coating, applied as standard to our panels.”
Hardwood suppliers Tarteret and Monniot have a similar perspective on UK sales.
“Customers increased purchasing to cover the risk of Brexit earlier in the year, so there’s been a slowdown since due to high stocks,” said Tarteret export manager Mathieu Berthe. “But, unless it triggers a recession, they don’t expect Brexit to impact procurement.”
“The UK is still one of our main markets, and we anticipate that continuing,” said Guillaume Maniere at Monniot.
Generally, he added, demand has been strong across France and Europe over the last year, although with a dip in lower-grade flooring sales since April 2019. The company is upbeat about prospects for the immediate future.
“2019 may not be as strong as 2018, but we’re expecting a decent year for sales across Europe, and in France,” said Mr Maniere.
Monniot he added, invested in a new head saw in 2017 to meet demand and increase competitiveness, since when it has significantly optimized production.
Tarteret is taking a similarly positive outlook.
“Asia is quieter, and we’ve seen a slowdown in strips and square-edged markets, but overall business is good globally,” said Mr Berthe. “Trading in beams is stable and increasing in boules and planks.”
Tarteret, meanwhile, has invested in a new climate-controlled shed to drive product quality.
French log exports to Asia, notably China, reached such a pitch a few years ago, pushing up prices and leaving French mills short of raw materials, that they protested in Paris. Subsequently the government imposed tougher phytosanitary rules on exports and stipulated that a percentage of logs from national forests were further processed in Europe. Hardwood mills say these measures and a slowdown in the Chinese economy have eased the situation.
