Only in these cases do the monthly price surveys show the reductions of €3/RM demanded by the pulp and paper industry since mid-May. In other cases, forestry companies were able to prevail with demands for increases of 1 to 2 €/RM.
The take-backs mainly concern coniferous industrial timber F/K for pulp, chipboard and MDF plants. Higher-quality assortments for OSB and Erdenwerke prove to be more stable in the summer, while the percentage declines are smaller. In some cases, there were also price updates.
Low supply of beetle wood
A major reason for the little change in prices is the supply situation. The beetle wood incidence, which has fallen well short of expectations, is not only affecting demand and price development for sawn logs, but also on the markets for coniferous industrial wood. In addition, there are longer-term contracts that were concluded in the 1st half of the year and are often valid until the end of the year. Especially in southern Germany, they prevented prices from falling below €20/rm again. Prices below this mark relate almost exclusively to industrial pine wood in the southwest, for which there are hardly any buyers apart from power plants.
For coniferous industrial wood F/K, the lowest prices can still be found in southern Germany. Follow-up contracts are usually €23/rm from Waldstraße, instead of €25/rm previously. In the northern half of Germany, the price range ranges from 25 to 28 €/RM, and in some cases up to 30 €/RM are paid. At the upper end are deliveries for substrate manufacturers in northwestern Germany and exports to the Benelux countries.
For OSB plants, the prices for deliveries to German locations range between 31 and 35 €/rm from Waldstraße. Belgian OSB plants continue to pay up to €38/rm, similar to animal bedding manufacturers.
Stabilization through stock prices
In the pine regions of northern and eastern Germany, the stable prices are mainly due to the stock purchases of self-promoters in recent months. Forestry entrepreneurs and traders do not want to market the timber bought upright at a loss. So far, the effects of declining exports to Scandinavia have been small.
While the demand of the OSB plants supports the prices for higher-quality assortments, the demand for F/K wood is falling. In addition to the weak Scandinavian market, the reduced chipboard production of many plants is having a particular impact. In Germany's two largest pulp mills, inspection shutdowns are scheduled until the end of the year, which will temporarily reduce demand. The same applies to a major shutdown in a northern German OSB plant.
Disagreement on Scandinavia exports
The further development of exports to Scandinavia, which are important for the northern and northeastern German markets, is assessed differently. Increasingly, skeptical assessments are gaining ground. Accordingly, a market-relevant return of Scandinavian pulp mills to the German procurement markets is no longer to be expected. The reasons given are closures in the pulp industry and falling round timber prices in Finland and Sweden.
The optimistic counterposition, on the other hand, points to the low round timber prices. These could lead to a decline in felling in the short term, so that industrial wood processors could be forced to fall back on the German procurement market as early as the 4th quarter.
