Timber News for Wood Professionals
“” At the beginning of July, German beech sawmills hinted to an increase in prices for beech sawn timber. The price increases were justified by rising log prices for the coming cutting season and also by strong demand.
” North American hardwood mills and distribution yards were confronted to more difficult market conditions in June. On top of the problems experienced by the red oak market, hard maple was also increasingly difficult to sell. Also, walnut lumber importers expected the market to break down before the end of this year.
” On July 1st, the Russian export tariff on softwood logs increased to 20 percent, but not less than 10 euros per cubic meter. The change in the export tariff for unprocessed wood products is expected to have a long-term impact for Russia’s main trade partners. Russian logs are exported mainly to China, Finland, and Japan.
” The German market for woodworking machinery has shown a surge in growth in 2006, with double-digit increases on all key indicators. Production of stationary woodworking machines rose to a record high of 2.6 billion euros in 2006. That equates to a remarkable increase of 18.8 per cent.
These excerpts only partially show what the wood industry experienced over the past few months. A more complete view over the industry’s evolution can be gained by constantly checking the daily reports on logs, timber, lumber and other wood products on www.fordaq.com, as well as information on forestry and woodworking machines on www.fordaqmachinery.com.
Video reports are an exciting development recently introduced by Fordaq. In a first phase, a series of video reports from Ligna+ 2007 were made available on Fordaq and Fordaq Machinery. Exclusive interviews, product launches – companies were offered the opportunity to learn what was new in the machinery world in video.
Although Fordaq has gone a long way in expanding its client base throughout the world, it does not plan to stop. Different projects are currently underway in Russia and Ukraine, but also in the United States and in China.
Besides consolidating its current activities on different markets, Fordaq is also striving to improve and extend the services it offers on its website.
The categories of products that can be currently traded on www.fordaq.com are: logs, sawn timber, mouldings, parquet, machinery, panels, veneer, wooden houses, solid wood components (bent wood, curved wood, woodturnings etc), structural composite lumber products (glulam bent beams, LVL – laminated veneer lumber etc) and laminated flooring, home decking, exterior cladding, furniture, machinery and equipment, services etc. A job section for wood professionals has also been introduced in the marketplace.
Fordaq’s websites hit a milestone in May, recording over one million visits during a single month. That is a great new record for the websites which have been on a stable growth path ever since their creation, drawing 32,000-50,000 daily visits from wood professionals worldwide.
Fordaq has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. It also has offices in Romania, Italy, Germany, Spain, China, Croatia and Bosnia.
For additional information, please visit http://www.fordaq.com.
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