forestry “Why oh why” are timber prices so high? By Marcus Goodyear
Gazing out of our windows, taking a walk down the street, though we may not appreciate them quite as much as we should, many of us are lucky enough to be able to see trees. Trees are all around us in fact and there doesn’t appear to be any immediate shortage. And yet the timber market is currently experiencing a scarcity of this ubiquitous resource, with demand for wood far outpacing supply. Because of this imbalance, prices of timber are soaring. With the help of Douglas Mathison, forestry expert and owner of forestry management firm Agriforest, we unpick what could have caused this demand for timber. You would be hard pressed not to have heard about Covid-19 by this point in time - its effects have been grim and far reaching. But could the Coronavirus have caused this timber imbalance?
With the pandemic and near worldwide quarantine shutting down the construction industry last year, demand for timber was expected to decrease. However, this was not the case, demand did not decrease. Douglas theorises “if anything the need for timber increased! Think of all those lockdown DIY projects and restaurants building entire outdoor seating areas”. Also owing to the pandemic, many sawmills and timber harvesting sites were forced to close, creating issues with timber supply. Douglas comments “Due to many sawmills being shut Agriforest had to close down a number of our harvesting sites, and some of our planting sites were also postponed. This might have caused some of the problems we are now seeing
with timber supply. The main issue here however is not supply, but demand.” It has been widely accepted that natural building materials like timber are more environmentally friendly than say, a concrete counterpart. With environmental concerns at the forefront of people’s minds, they are turning to timber as a more climate-conscious building material. In fact, eighty per cent of new-build housing in Scotland uses timber framing. With the building of new housing increasing in Scotland year on year, even before the pandemic, this could explain the increase in demand for timber. Douglas says “People generally seem to be searching for climate friendly building materials. Timber would appear to be the answer, as with proper
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woodland management timber can be a truly sustainable resource.” To those of you who may be needing well priced timber in the coming year: “don’t despair yet!”. Douglas predicts these issues with supply and demand will eventually settle down: “as the vaccine continues to roll out, the effects of Covid are further in the rear-view mirror, and supply of timber increases in line with demand, things should start to equalise.” Because of this he says “now is the time to act! Anybody looking to make money from timber right now is very well placed to do so. Many farmers and estate owners are unaware that they could be making profit from their underutilised woodland”. With timber prices at record levels, it’s hardly surprising a lot 121
