A decline in damaged timber causes wood prices to rise significantly
  
Sawmills are experiencing a shortage of fresh timber. This has led to extremely high timber prices in some cases, particularly for spruce logs. What is the reason for this, and who is feeling the impact of these timber prices?

The heating season is beginning—and with it the peak season for wood dealer Matthias Birnkammer from Ebersberg in Upper Bavaria. These days, he supplies customers with firewood, wood pellets, and briquettes on a daily basis. However, the wood market is currently extremely tight. Prices are at record levels, especially for spruce and pine wood. This does not worry him. “To be honest, it's chaos every year in the fall,” says the wood dealer. He already bought his wood in the first half of the year, and his warehouses are full. The situation is different at the sawmills, however.

Wood industry apparently facing existential crisis

In many places, sawmills that want to process fresh logs now have empty warehouses because hardly any fresh wood is being delivered. The German Federal Association of the Wood Industry refers to this as a “raw material shortage” in an open letter. If more wood is not felled in the coming weeks, the situation will “escalate into an existential crisis for the sawmill and wood industry” by the beginning of 2026, the letter states.

Hardly any wood supply: How it came about

The bottleneck is due to the wet and cool summer that has just passed, explains Herbert Borchert from the State Institute for Forestry and Forest Management. Precipitation and cool temperatures made life difficult for bark beetles. Their populations were surprisingly small and caused little damage. In addition, there were no major storms. As a result, fewer trees had to be felled due to bark beetle infestation or storm damage.

However, the timber market is dependent on so-called damaged wood—according to the State Institute for Forestry and Forest Management, this accounts for half of all timber harvested in Bavaria. And this is now lacking on the market, which hardly distinguishes between beetle-damaged wood and undamaged wood.

The price index is calculated based on the base period 2015:100 and indicates the price development in relation to this.

What could cause the price of wood to fall

If an autumn storm hits now, the situation could change abruptly. Meanwhile, the German Sawmill Industry Association is appealing to forest owners to fell pine and spruce trees in order to meet demand from sawmills.

Wood market expert Herbert Borchert from the State Institute for Forestry and Forest Management also believes that now is a good time to push ahead with forest conversion—in other words, to fell spruce trees, sell them at a profit, and invest in more climate-resistant mixed forests.

Hardly any price changes for firewood

Prices for logs are currently at their highest in 35 years, according to the Forest Farmers' Association in Deggendorf BR24. Buyers are currently paying just under 130 euros per cubic meter.

Firewood customers, however, need not worry too much about expensive wood: according to the Technology and Support Center in Straubing, prices are stable and in some cases even below last year's levels. The main reason for this is the longer lead time: some of the firewood currently being sold was already cut last winter.

The bark beetle has caused comparatively little damage to forests this year. This is now having an impact on timber prices.

Source: br.de