Wood Industry Conference in Mercato San Severino

Great success at Mercato San Severino (at the Food Bank in Piazza Don Luigi Giussani) for the annual conference organized by Conlegno, a wood-cork service consortium that has been working for over 20 years to enhance the value of raw materials through its brands while respecting sustainability. Now in its eleventh edition, the conference in Salerno with over 200 registered participants confirms itself as a reference meeting for the wood supply chain in the central-south, but also attracts many companies from the rest of Italy, including the north. Besides discussing the wood market trends and possible scenarios for the coming months, the event is also an opportunity to present a proactive "manifesto" of the Consortium's activities for 2025.

"Wooden pallets and packaging: wood meets and designs its future" is the title of this edition, which will open with an analysis of the situation in Europe: focusing on conifer wood, the basis of a very important industrial system, valued at over 30 billion euros per year, about ten times higher than that of hardwoods. With Germany - the largest producer of conifer sawn timber on the continent - in serious trouble, the market forecast in Europe is characterized on one hand by slight signs of recovery, but at the same time by serious problems for sawmills, caught between weak demand, especially due to the construction slowdown, saturated warehouses, and relatively high log prices.

The production of logs in Europe appears to be declining, various structural problems are causing roundwood prices to rise, and there are strong upward tensions in sawn timber as well. In this context, the crisis of spruce forests throughout Europe is noteworthy, severely affected by beetle infestations, with projections indicating that the production of this wood, one of the most appreciated and used, will be 50% lower at least until 2030 compared to pre-crisis years, and will then slowly recover. It is interesting to note how, at this moment, something never happened before, despite European sawmills having warehouses full of sawn timber, they continue to order logs for fear of a future shortage of raw materials.

What effects will these declines have? Since wood will play an increasingly important role in construction in Europe, thanks to its advantages in terms of sustainability, it will be necessary to find ways to use the available resources today in a sustainable manner.

Source:  ilmattino.it