Even though the problems for the domestic timber industry increase with every day, the general climate is still positive (as of 19 March). Should the current exceptional situation continue beyond the end of April, 40% of interviewees see their company as not at risk or only at a slight risk. 34% think that the risk is “moderate”, whereas 22% see it as “significant” and only 4% as “massive”.
So far, 15% of interviewed sawmills felt an “extreme” fall in demand, 28% recorded a “significant” and 21% a “moderate” decrease. 36% of interviewees, on the other hand, report a negligible fall in demand or no fall at all.
The way that various entrepreneurs experience and handle the situation varies greatly. Here is a selection of the numerous comments:
We continue to work at normal capacity for as long as possible and as long as the government or health authorities let us work.
… Another question is how long it will take until the first employee is infected, which would result in a quarantine, or until our customers say that they don’t want us come due to the virus.
Do transports still work? Yes, at the moment everything still works.
We see some “panic buying” when it comes to wood and engineered timber. This is why we are currently working on the capacity limit.
We expect that we will soon see the opposite of the current flood of orders.
In the longer term, orders are likely to plummet because customers are themselves struggling with the financial impact of the virus.
The problem is the uncertainty.
