Can British Forestry cope with housing targets?

TiC talks to Confor chief executive Stuart Goodall about the future of British Forestry.

THE emerging Chinese economy and the US housebuilding slump have buffeted timber prices all over the show. Add to this aggressive competition from the steel and concrete sectors and timber has really been put through its paces recently. The industry has had to work harder than ever to convince specifiers that theirs is the greenest and most economical material around.

What are suppliers doing to promote the material? And how does the forestry sector propose to develop to create a truly 21st Century supply chain?

The Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor) stated its priorities recently in a two-year business plan. These included promoting the timber frame industry, collaborative working along the supply chain and pushing for better forest management.

Confor chief executive Stuart Goodall tells TiC there must be a ready supply of UK timber or specifiers will choose other materials.

“We need to use wood products in construction because otherwise we will use concrete, steel or plastic, which don’t have the same environmental profile of timber,” he says. “Ours is the only truly green product.”

The modern world

Timber specifiers have experienced sharp rises in the cost of timber recently. The material appears to have succumbed to the same global pressures such as demand from the emerging Chinese economy that wracked the steel industry a few years ago.

“Timber prices increased very quickly in spring and summer this year,” he explains. “And although they have softened in the last two months, it’s not entirely clear whether that’s a short term blip.”

This variation, he explains, could be down to global pressures such as a downturn in the US housing market and German exporters looking for alternative markets for their products.

Changes in the US housebuilding sector or the emerging Chinese economy do not instantly spring to mind when considering the price of wood, and fluctuations in global demand is something of a new experience for timber specifiers and suppliers.

Goodall says this new premium on timber products may help to shape the UK processing market. “The situation with prices is making people think about supply, which they haven’t had to do in the past,” he says. “It’s interesting for the domestic sawmilling sector. If prices are strong there’s capacity for the sawmills to produce more, but they need to get more raw material through, which is making the UK look at the market differently.”

He adds that these new pressures could even change forestry techniques and shape our landscape. “In the past we were worried about cheap imports coming in, but what we’re saying now is there’s a domestic market for the future. What we need to be looking at is how we can produce timber more sustainably and feed it into the domestic market.

“We know how to balance the environmental and social considerations of forestry but there’s never been a need to drive the economics hard because there’s been a general feeling that there wasn’t a market out there.”

Government action

Softwoods are in great demand in the UK and last year this country produced 8.5 million tonnes of softwoods compared to 439,000 tonnes of hardwood.

However, Goodall says that forestry has been neglected in the UK and that it suffers a lack of trained workers and support from the Government for small to medium producers.

“Confor is pushing very hard with the Government for greater support,” he says. “What we need to be doing is working with the sector to support capacity and bring more trained people into the industry. A lot of the activity that takes place is done through the large companies but there’s still a lot done by small firms. We need to get business support and training to these companies.”

Without that support, he adds, the quality of timber coming from UK forests will suffer. “We’ve lost the woodland management culture, especially in England,” Goodall says. “People think that the way to preserve woodland is to leave it and what we get is poor, scrubby trees and a low biodiversity. Whereas on the continent, there are thousands of woodland owners who care for them for decades. We end up with low quality trees so we struggle to find large diameter timber.

“It comes down to this attitude that if you want to look after a forest you should stick a fence round it, and that producing timber is a bad thing for the environment; as soon as you get the chainsaw out, you’re harming the environment. But how we manage our woodland is a big thing for biodiversity.”

Without the quality of sawn timber and with a tarnished environmental image, Goodall says, specifiers look to other sources to suit their needs. “People end up using wood from abroad, which means we’re supporting environmental woodland management in France and Sweden instead of Dorset or North Yorkshire.”

Come together

One way Confor is reaching specifiers is through organisations such as Wood for Good (WfG). The organisation has a seat on the WfG board and has pledged to continue to give it funding. Goodall says Confor combines an interest in the organisation with its own lobbying work.

“We’re keen to support the message of WfG and speak to architects, specifiers, politicians and other people with influence,” he says. “Something else we do is to talk to every new minister relevant to our industry in England, Scotland and Wales. It’s a constant process. Each person comes in fresh to the sector.”

As the largest buyer of constructional timber, the public sector is a vital target audience for Confor. Goodall says Government initiatives to promote Modern Methods of Construction and timber frame construction will provide a valuable driver for timber suppliers. “We rely on the public sector as it’s driving things forward such as the Code for Sustainable Homes and affordable housing initiatives, which have a direct influence on the demand for timber,” he says.

WfG also provides the timber industry with a valuable focal point, where Confor members can meet with processors and other downstream stakeholders. This is a valuable resource, considering that the very diverse UK timber industry lacks the cohesion of its competitors in other sectors. Steel, for example, has just one producer in the UK, Corus, which involves itself all the way down the supply chain in order to promote the material.

Corus is also deeply involved in research to develop products as far reaching as fire retardant coatings and blast resistant steel frame structures. Even the concrete industry revolves around the four large cement producers in the UK, whereas the timber industry lacks the equivalent giant producers.

A new direction

Goodall says WfG acts as a good conduit for the different ends of the timber industry, while allowing them to keep their own identities.

“We know the scale of the challenge from the concrete sector – it is putting something like £12m together to promote the material,” he says. “There’s a fragmentation of our sector because it’s a very diverse product and can be used in so many different forms. It wouldn’t be practical to have such a diverse industry in one organisation. We are addressing this through our involvement with WfG; we do share common issues and that’s where the partnership approach is becoming important.”

The timber frame industry holds great potential for wood producers, says Goodall. According to figures from the UK Timber Frame Association, the sector currently accounts for 20% of the UK housing market, although its popularity has leant strongly towards the Scottish construction industry where it accounts for 73% of new homes.

“With timber frame there’s a massive opportunity there to expand and gain market share, especially in England,” says Goodall. “We do want to see more and more timber going into higher value markets so timber frame can be of interest.”

He adds that collaboration between different companies can produce added value timber products. “It’s interesting to see how James Jones and Sons is working with the Binder Holz Group and producing cross laminated panels,” says Goodall. “There is an opportunity to be manufacturing in the UK and producing domestic products, which will go into higher value markets. Engineered timber creates a real opportunity for domestic production.”

Opportunities such as the Government’s housebuilding targets and the Code for Sustainable Homes will provide valuable markets for timber. If the timber industry is to capitalise on these opportunities it will need the supply chain in place to prove to the construction industry that it is the greenest and most efficient material. Confor’s drive to emphasise the economic benefits of forestry alongside its obvious environmental concerns might be what is required to produce high quality timber from UK forests. Perhaps then will we see the timber for the trees.