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Jan 6, 2025 | 
resourcewise.com | Pete Stewart |Matt Elhardt |Hakan Ekstrom
The forest products industries faced a year of significant change in 2024, marked by shifting market dynamics and unexpected challenges. From fluctuating demand and pricing to an increasing emphasis on biofuel innovations, the sector underwent remarkable transformations. As part of our annual tradition, ResourceWise is proud to share our key insights and forecasts for the year ahead. Here are eight pivotal predictions that will shape the forest products industry in 2025.
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Jul 31, 2024 | 
paperadvance.com | Hakan Ekstrom
Many shifts, fluctuations, and emerging trends have formed the industry's landscape. Timber markets, lumber markets, wood fiber markets, and biomass markets each contribute a crucial piece to the puzzle that forms the global forest industry.
Forest Industry Performance in 1H2024
The Global Sawlog Price Index (GSPI) saw a quarter-over-quarter increase in 1Q/2024, despite being lower than the same period in the previous year.
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Jul 2, 2024 | 
paperadvance.com | Hakan Ekstrom
For approximately thirty years, British Columbia (BC) has had the most affordable sawlog costs in North America. However, starting in 2018, there has been a decrease in timber supply, a decline in log quality, and a significant increase in wood raw-material prices. Following the 2009 economic downturn, sawlog prices in the province rose from US$32/m3 to nearly US$120/m3 by 2022, leading the province to transition from being the cheapest to the most expensive region for logs in North America.
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Jan 15, 2024 | 
paperadvance.com | Hakan Ekstrom
GLOBAL TIMBER MARKET
Europe’s sawlog market has been turbulent over the past three years, with wood demand falling, log flows shifting, and sawlog prices going through unprecedented swings. The European Sawlog Price Index (ESPI) fell 12% quarter-over-quarter (q-o-q) in the 3Q/23, with the most significant declines occurring in Central Europe.
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Dec 17, 2023 | 
paperadvance.com | Hakan Ekstrom
Interestingly, despite a worldwide decline in hardwood pulp prices in 2023, the supply of hardwood pulplogs tightened primarily because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This geopolitical event triggered a significant increase in hardwood fiber prices, which have outpaced the rise in softwood fiber prices and led to a 44% surge in the Global Hardwood Fiber Price Index (HFPI) since late 2020 (see chart).
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Nov 17, 2023 | 
paperadvance.com | Hakan Ekstrom
Yearover-year (YoY), this fall represented almost a 10% decline compared to the 2Q/22 when it hit its all-time high (see chart). Although sawlog prices have moved downward in most of the 20 countries the index tracks, a few regions, including the Nordic countries and Latin America, have seen rising log prices over the past year.
Lower demand for wood raw materials, driven by weaker lumber markets worldwide, has been the significant factor in recent decreases in timber prices.
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Nov 12, 2023 | 
paperadvance.com | Hakan Ekstrom
Global pulp prices have fallen steadily since late 2022, when they reached record highs. The most significant decline has been for hardwood pulp, traded at a substantial discount to softwood pulp. Global pulp inventories were down during the summer, and there were signs that the market tightened, and pulp producers were starting to see opportunities to move prices upward in the fourth quarter of 2023 following almost 12 months of declining pulp prices.
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Nov 2, 2023 | 
paperadvance.com | Hakan Ekstrom
One good example is Sweden, where lumber manufacturers in recent years have expanded their sales far outside the markets they supplied in the past. Fifteen years ago, almost 80% of the country’s lumber export volume was shipped to European markets. That share has declined to about 55% in the past years (see chart).
The biggest decline in market shares has been in the MENA region, which fell from 28% to 20% over the past ten years.
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Oct 23, 2023 | 
paperadvance.com | Hakan Ekstrom
Last year, the country's sawmill output was down almost 40% from the heydays two decades ago when the all-time high reached nearly 60 million m3 .
The history of the Canadian sawmilling industry has developed quite differently in British Columbia compared to the rest of the country. During much of the period from 2000 to 2016, BC production was close to 50% of Canada's total output.
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Aug 1, 2023 | 
paperadvance.com | Hakan Ekstrom
The most recent reporting shows an even further spike in those prices. Our data shows that Brazil's cost increases outpace the overall global price index.
Pricing Jump Shows Post-Pandemic Recovery Back to Average Prices
Brazil has continued to become a major producer of pulp and paper in the global marketplace. In fact, it now claims the title of #3 biggest global producer of P&P. Because of this growth, demand has surged for wood resources throughout the country.
