Good conditions for increased construction

The election superyear of 2024 has featured several important votes around the world that will, in various ways, have an impact on the Swedish sawmill industry, which is still struggling with weak demand and relatively high costs. There are fears that the election result across the Atlantic will lead to the introduction of US trade tariffs. In the assessment of our market analyst, this could certainly put European exports at a slight competitive disadvantage,
but the tariffs on wood products may be more likely to affect American consumers, who will probably have to pay more.

The United Kingdom also held elections this year, resulting in a new Labour government. In December 2023, the previous Conservative government unveiled its Timber in Construction Roadmap aimed at increasing wood construction to achieve the national target of net zero by 2050. It is now up to the new movernment to realise these plans. The UK is already the single largest export market for Swedish sawn timber, and while the Timber in Construction roadmap also focuses on increasing the supply of homegrown timber, we are confident about what it might mean – not just for Swedish sawmills but
also for the climate.

One positive development over the past year is that the economic situation has improved, with inflation stabilising and interest rates falling. But although many indicators are pointing in the right direction, there is reason to believe that the effects may be delayed, and there are no concrete signs of improvement yet. Personally, I hope that the start of the spring construction season will kickstart the construction industry and the demand for wood.

One of Swedish Wood’s missions is to spread knowledge. Among other things, we have produced a guide on how to handle CLT elements in construction without full weather protection. The publication, called »Damp-proof CLT construction without a full temporary shelter« can be downloaded from the Swedish Wood website. The publication is intended to guide designers and contractors on how to achieve industrial and moisture-proof CLT construction. This issue also contains a column on the subject.

In the last issue I wrote about how we were looking forward to our seminar on engineered wood construction, which was held in Stockholm in November. All the presentations from the day were videoed and are available on Swedish Wood’s website. I can especially recommend the lecture »The journey begins in the forest« by Åsa Rydell Blom, Associate Professor and Vice Dean at Linnaeus University.