In the Holzkurier‘s economic survey, 36% of Austrian and German forestry companies described their business situation in the past six months as good, and 48% as satisfactory. The outlook for the next six months is also optimistic, with 26% of respondents expecting a positive development of their business situation. At 16%, this percentage was much lower in the first quarter survey. 58% of participants anticipate a satisfactory development in the second half of the year.
The survey results also show more positive assessments regarding sales: 29% of forestry companies reported high sales in the past six months. Sales expectations for the next six months, however, are less optimistic than they have been: In the first quarter, 32% of respondents anticipated an increase in sales, and 47% expected them to remain constant. In the current economic survey, only 23% of forestry companies think that their sales will increase in the next six months.
Rising log prices
The Holzkurier’s survey shows an increase of 21 percentage points to 68% when it comes to the assessment that log prices will rise in the coming six months. Meanwhile, 29% of survey participants expect log prices to remain constant, and only 3% think that they will fall. At the same time, forestry companies also expect either a further increase in log transporting costs (29%) or no change (71%) over the next six months. Survey participants painted a similar picture when asked about timber harvesting costs: 19% expect costs to rise and 77% think that they will remain the same.
Challenges facing the forestry sector
Forestry companies continue to struggle with staff shortages and bureaucracy. They are concerned about potential calamities caused by drought or bark beetles. Furthermore, changing the composition of forests also comes with high costs. Companies are increasingly planting fir, Douglas fir and hardwood species, or they rely on natural regeneration. Reducing game populations was also mentioned as a challenge. As for damaged wood, the situation appears to be largely relaxed for now. Some forestry companies did report bark beetle infestation or wood damaged by abiotic causes, though.
In the Datacube, you can find all the charts for the economic survey among forestry companies.
Answers given by forestry companies*
Most pressing issues:
- Climate change and calamities: Increasing drought, beetle infestation and damaging events threaten forests and make costly changes to the composition of forests inevitable.
- Timber market problems: difficult marketing of hardwood; low log prices, while the costs of labor and harvesting have massively increased
- Pressure from costs and shortage of skilled workers: high personnel and equipment costs
- Bureaucratic burden: sharp increase in administrative work and authorities who seem to have no idea about real life and practice make work more difficult; uncertainty due to EUDR and renaturation obligations
Damaged wood situation:
- Mostly calm at the moment: no or only very small volumes of damaged wood in many areas; situation is described as “relaxed” to “very good”
- Regional strain: accumulation of bigger volumes of damaged wood due to bark beetles and heavy rain events (landslides) in parts of Austria and Germany
- Weather-dependent forecast: If the heat and dry conditions persist, an increase in the volume of damaged wood is expected.
- Processing of snow damage: Processing and removal of wood damaged in the fall of 2024 is to be completed by July.
*Summary of answers given, edited by the editorial team.
