Good quality is crucial for long life

Welcome to an inspiring new issue of Trä! I hope you have had a great summer and enjoyed your time off. I have filled my vacation with things that energise me, especially being out in nature. My autumn began with a visit to Södra in Värö, Halland. I never cease to be amazed at how efficiently the forest raw material is used. In the sawmill, planks and boards are made from the thickest part of the trunk, with the incoming log scanned to ensure a maximum yield.

The thinner part of the trunk goes to the pulp mill to be turned into paper, paperboard and textiles. The tops and branches of the tree, as well as by-products such as bark and chips, are turned into products such as bioenergy, biofuels and chemicals. Nothing goes to waste, everything is put to good use. Moreover, all these products that we get from the renewable forest raw material can replace things with a much higher carbon footprint. Isn’t that amazing?

Another key aspect of resource efficiency is ensuring that the wood products we use have as long a life as possible. The longer we can keep the products in use, the longer we delay the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Swedish wood products are well known for their high quality – as confirmed by our market analysis – and can therefore be useful for a long time. In terms of deliveries from our members, we can see that, despite challenging conditions, Swedish sawmills are still doing surprisingly well. The weak Swedish currency helps, of course, but we already know that demand for high-quality
Swedish wood products is strong. So far this year, despite a dip in construction activity, we have seen almost unprecedented demand. However, the trend is uncertain, and demand has fallen slightly over the summer months. It will therefore be exciting to follow developments this autumn.

Good quality is essential for wood products to last as long as possible. But of course, they also need to be used in the right way. Swedish Wood is keen to play its part in this, and does so through our technical handbooks and websites with tried and tested design solutions. We also offer various training courses, such  as the RIBA-accredited CPD courses for the UK at woodcampus.co.uk. Don’t miss the »Diploma in Wood Construction« course, read more about it at swedishwood.com. Wishing you a pleasant read!