The amount of softwood produced by UK forests and processed through sawmills reached record levels last year, according to two Forestry Commission publications which have just been released.
British Timber Statistics 2000 states that 9.3 million m³ of softwood was harvested, while Sawmill Survey 2000 says 3.9 million m³ underbark was consumed, producing 2.16 million m³ of sawn wood.
The softwood harvest(overbark standing volume) was 7.5% higher than 1999 and 17% higher than the average for the previous five years (1994-1998).
The sawn wood figure is slightly higher than 1999 and more than 10% above the average for the previous five years.
About half the softwood is sawn in the 13 largest mills, each producing more than 50,000m³.
The two publications are the Forestry Commission’s first to be designated as National Statistics.
Mike Bruce, chairman of the Timber Growers Association in Scotland, said: ‘It shows a tremendous resilience in the face of a recession in prices and quite a lot of maturity and resourcefulness in the industry. It shows the benefit of the massive investment that the processing sector has made over the last few years.’
He said forest resources were ‘significant’ and growing. However, he called for appropriate government support with the cost of fuel as this was eroding profitability.
Hamish MacLeod, general manager of Howie Forest Products said: ‘It is in line with what we would expect. The forests are coming into felling age which we can expect to continue for the next 10 years.’
