The price of solid wood for pallets has been rising for around four months. Similar to the start of the year, a month-on-month increase of 5 percentage points was recorded in February. With a value of 341.5%, the price index even exceeded the highest value of 2023 (340.7% in February) for the first time in a year.
Solid wood for packaging has also seen a positive development, albeit not to the same extent, as surveys by the German wood packaging, pallet and export packaging association (HPE) show. Compared to January, the price index was up by 2.5 percentage points in February. In contrast to pallet wood, however, it is still far below the level of the same month of last year (2022: 215.2%; 2023: 191.3%).
At the bottom for good?
Meanwhile, prices for wood-based materials likely reached the bottom for good. At -0.2 points (plywood) and -0.4 points (OSB), the month-on-month decreases were relatively small in February.
Nevertheless, you have to go back at least three years to find similarly low index values, as a look in the Datacube shows.
| Wood purchase prices of the German Wood Packaging, Pallet and Export Packaging Association; 1/2005 = 100% | ||||||||||||||||
| Packaging wood | 02/2024 | Diff. in % | 01/2024 | Diff. in % | 12/2023 | Diff. in % | 11/2023 | Diff. in % | 10/2023 | Diff. in % | 09/2023 | Diff. in % | 08/2023 | Diff. in % | 07/2023 | Diff. in % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solid wood for pallets | 341.5 | 5.0 | 325.3 | 5.1 | 309.5 | 3.7 | 298.5 | –0.1 | 298.7 | –1.5 | 303.3 | –1.2 | 306.9 | –1.0 | 309.9 | –1.7 |
| Solid wood for packaging | 191.3 | 2.5 | 186.7 | 0.0 | 186.7 | 0.5 | 185.8 | –1.6 | 188.7 | –1.4 | 191.4 | –1.4 | 194.2 | –2.0 | 198.1 | –4.3 |
| Plywood for packaging |
190.7 | –0.2 | 191.1 | –2.0 | 195.0 | –0.5 | 195.9 | –3.1 | 202.3 | –1.5 | 205.4 | –1.4 | 208.2 | –1.0 | 210.3 | –2.3 |
| OSB for packaging |
86.5 | –0.4 | 86.8 | –2.1 | 88.6 | –2.6 | 91.0 | –3.5 | 94.3 | –3.5 | 97.7 | –2.6 | 100.3 | –6.2 | 106.9 | –4.9 |
