Slight decrease in solid structural timber prices in September

Article by Günther Jauk (translated by Eva Guzely) | 23.10.2023 - 10:07

In September, only 15% of the surveyed manufacturers of solid structural timber described their business situation as bad, compared to more than twice as many in August. At the same time, the percentage of the companies which assessed their business situation as good halved, from 17% to 8%. 77% of the respondents reported a satisfactory business situation.

Assessments manufacturers solid structural timber 09 2023.png — Business situation of manufacturers of solid structural timber in September 2023 © Holzkurier; Source: Franz-Josef Lückge

In September, the order backlog remained unchanged at nearly 70% of the manufacturers, while 23% reported bigger order backlogs. 8% saw their order backlogs decrease month on month.
In terms of prices, there were only minor changes in September.

KVH assortments and raw wood 09 2023.png — Price indices of solid structural timber until September 2023 © Holzkurier; Source: Franz-Josef Lückge

The purchase price index (spruce/fir, KD; 100% = average value of 2014) rose by 1.4% month on month to 101.6% in September, remaining 11.5% below the index value recorded in the same period of last year.

The sales price indices (spruce/fir; non-visible quality) of bar and list products sold to timber trade fell by 0.7 and 1.5% respectively to values which are both around 17% lower than they had been last year.
An even smaller decrease was recorded in the sales price indices of products for direct buyers: -0.4% to 101.3% for bars, while the index value of list products remained unchanged at 104.5%.

Each month, Franz-Josef Lückge researches the prices and carries out the survey for the Überwachungsgemeinschaft KVH.