The economic, social and environmental contribution of our global forests is increasingly important. The demand for timber and processed wood products underpins trade in global timber markets. Economic growth, exchange rates, policy, technological advances in processing and the growing global interest in promoting the benefits of using wood all have an influence on demand.

A closer look at the global perspective supports a positive outlook for European and indeed UK forestry and wood products. The UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) and FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations) are forecasting increased wood consumption in the ECE (Economic Commission for Europe) region during 2018.

However, the UK is one of the least densely forested countries in Europe with around 13% forest cover (Figure 8). This compares with 38% for the EU as a whole and 31% worldwide. In contrast, the UK also has less than 1% of the global population but is the third largest importer of sawn softwood and in 2016 imported over 5% of the globally traded volume. The UK was the largest global consumer of wood pellets in 2016 with 26% of global consumption compared to America at 22% and Germany at 3%.

^{Source: UK Government Statistics, FAO of the United Nations, Forestry Commission, Wood Resources International LLC}

Increasing demand worldwide

Timber demand is increasing worldwide; the US market is particularly strong and in 2017 over 1 million m³ of sawn timber was imported from Europe (almost double the 2016 volume) and some of the large Swedish and German sawmilling companies have now established terminals in the US east coast to service their customers.

On the back of this increased global demand the UK is falling behind the global price with the inevitable consequence being that larger quantities are being shipped to alternative markets. This is affecting the availability to UK importers, however this will strengthen the position of the domestic sawmills and should provide opportunities to increase prices and market share.

By 2055, which is in less time than it takes to grow a spruce tree to maturity, the global population is forecast to increase by 36% and it is seems unlikely that global timber production will increase at a similar rate putting increasing pressure on available resources.