Deliveries of wood products (furniture excluded) reached EUR1.22 billion in 2010, up 33.15% on the year, according to data from the Romanian Furniture Manufacturer’s Association, or APMR.
The return of demand on Central and Western European markets, as well as the higher prices obtained when negotiating contracts have been enough for the businesses of Romanian plants in the wood processing sector to get their engines running.
But there is something about the increase in exports that companies in the sector regard with some reservation, although they do not say it officially. It concerns China.
Whilst other countries in the region have introduced taxes for wood deliveries to China, Romania is the only country from which China can buy without such restrictions, according to market sources that did not wish to be named.
In addition to the exports of wood products worth around EUR1.22 billion, there are also furniture exports, which in turn are of EUR1 billion, so that overall exports exceed EUR2 billion.
“Whilst furniture exports went up by 13.6% in 2010 against 2009, export of wood products went up 33.2%,” association representatives said.
“Significant increases were recorded for exports of logs, which virtually doubled, going from EUR14.4 million in 2009 to EUR30 million in 2010,” they added, noting that softwood logs are the biggest log exports, with China being the leading market.
The association notes that exports to China reached EUR16.6 million from nearly EUR5 million in 2009.
However, Romania’s biggest wood exports are accounted for by lumber exports, which exceed EUR500 million, over 40% of the total.
A major lumber producer in Romania is Holzindustrie Schweighofer, the business of powerful Austrian businessman Gerald Schweighofer. He has several wood processing plants in Romania, where, apart from lumber, the company also produces other types of wood boards, with one of the export destinations being Japan.
The exports of Schweighofer’s plants amounted to around EUR100 million last year, according to some estimates.
Second most important in terms of exports are the engineered wood products such as PAL (particleboard), MDF (medium-density fiberboard) and OSB (oriented strand board).
Austrian-held Kronospan manufactures MDF, particleboard and OSB. The group manufactures particleboard at Sebes, with the annual production capacity being 840,000 cubic meters, and MDF, with a capacity of 384,000 square meters.
The Brasov plant, inaugurated in December 2009, required EUR200 million investments and manufactures OSB and particleboard. The OSB production capacity is 270,000 cubic meters, and the particleboard manufacturing capacity is 80,000 cubic meters.
Kronospan has budgeted EUR290 million in sales for this year, up by around 10%. “In the first part of 2011, Kronospan kept exports at the same level as in 2010, with around 60% of the entire production in Brasov and Sebes being exported,” said Oana Bodea, Kronospan representative.
In 2010, the volume of wood exploited in Romania was 16.9 million cubic meters, slightly up from the previous year, according to data from the National Statistics Institute, or INS.
One cubic meter of firewood costs around EUR25 (during the summer), with the price climbing to EUR30-35 in autumn, according to data provided by Vlad Cirjan, partner of law firm CHSH Gilescu & Partenerii, which brokers forest transactions.