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Report
from the UK
Flooding drowns midlands
Flooding caused by heavy rains hit the North East and West midlands of England over the last few
weeks, causing billions of pounds of damage. Although thousands of properties will need to be restored, timber traders
dealing with wooden flooring are not expected to benefit. Many timber yards also suffered floods and damage to
stocks was considerable.
Growth in housing prices stalled in July
The Nationwide Building Society said that house price growth in July was a mere 0.1%. Construction
orders rose by 6% in May compared to a year earlier, with private housing growing by nearly 13%. The
figures were released by the newly created Department for Business, Enterprise
and Regulatory Reform (formerly the Department of Trade and Industry).
Weather hits B&Q sales
The recent floods have left B&Q sales down 2.3%. Despite the setbacks in England, Kingfisher, the
owner of B&Q, is planning to open 50 stores in Russia over the next few years.
TTF issues guidance to importers of Chinese plywood
The Timber Trade Federation (TTF) issued advice to all importers of Chinese plywood on FSC
certificates in its Timber Trade Journal. They advised importers ¡°to check
the forest source of their FSC suppliers in China and obtain relevant forest management certification for FSC
plywood products offered.¡± They cautioned that if the buyer could not obtain such information, the product
should not be considered genuine FSC and not be purchased.
Conference members call for alternatives to greenheart
During a recent conference at the University of York, members of the timber trade discussed the use of
greenheart in flood defenses in the UK. Although greenheart is the typical timber used in the defenses,
some conference members urged the reduction in the use of the greenheart species in order to alleviate
pressure on Guyanese forests.
EUROPE
MARKET
Planning permits plummet in Germany
EUWID reported that planning permits in Germany for detached and semi-detached houses were
reduced by 59% to 21,429 and permits for apartment blocks fell by 22.6%. Also impacting the
construction was the discontinuation of the owner-occupied housing bonus (from January 2006),
which funded 10-15% of owners¡¯ building costs. The construction industry believes the loss of the bonus has
alienated a group of potential investors in house building. Despite this trend, the number of orders in
building construction and civil engineering is well above last year. Nevertheless, the Bavarian carpentry
and timberconstruction traders said that a turnaround for the construction industry is not likely by the
end of this year.
In the Spanish market, residential construction figures were rising until March 2007. Figures showed a
6% increase from the previous year. However, researchers indicate that residential construction would
rise only by 0.8% by the end of the year.
Italian particleboard cartel fined EUR31 million
EUWID said that eight Italian particleboard producers were fined a total of EUR31 million for making
illegal price arrangements between January 2004 and November 2005. The companies had met regularly to ¡°arrange
production volumes, divide customers, and arrange prices and other contract terms¡±. Gruppo Trombini prompted the
investigation against the particleboard industry, which was conducted by the
Italian competition authority Autorita garante della Concorenzze e del Mercato (AGCM). The
companies sentenced to pay the EUR31 million said they would lodge an appeal in the administrative courts, which
would need to be addressed before the sentence to pay could be made legally binding.
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