Declining Swedish glulam sales

Article by Jakob Wassermann (automatically translated) | 28.08.2024 - 10:53

In the first half of the year, Swedish glulam sales fell by 16% compared to the same period last year, according to the latest statistics from the industry association Swedish Wood. Despite the lower sales level, growing demand is located in specific construction projects, such as warehouse and logistics buildings, schools or care facilities.

In Q2, Swedish Wood recorded a 13% decline in revenue from promoters. Sales of individual beams, which are mainly sold in the construction trade, fell by 3%. Overall, glulam shipments fell by 10% in the 2^nd quarter compared to the same period last year.

The reasons for this are the low number of new construction starts and weaker private consumption as a result of high interest rates and inflation. The distribution between project and storage agencies is relatively stable in the first half of 2024 compared to 2023. Project promoters accounted for 68% of the volume, while 32% was attributable to storage beams. Compared to the previous year, only a slight change in the distribution can be seen. In 2023, this was 69 to 31%.

In the wake of expected interest rate cuts and a slowly opening market, industry experts are forecasting increased demand for the autumn, especially for larger projects.