In a feature from PBM’s December edition, Simon Woods, European Sales, Marketing & Logistics Director at West Fraser, offers his perspectives on the current state of the timber and wood-based panel product market.
The timber-related market has seen some incredible activity over the last 18 months and it looks set to stay for the next few months. Indeed, we have seen prices of all timber products rocket due to very high demand and limited extra capacity on the manufacturing side of the equation.
From a wood-based panels perspective, West Fraser — previously known as Norbord — has seen demand rise across the whole of our European business and across all of our products (OSB, MDF, PB & kitchen cabinets) with very little extra capacity available to release the pressure.
Furthermore, builders’ merchants have seen high levels of demand from their customers and the whole supply chain has been stressed to levels not seen for a long time — if ever.
Our business is driven by the construction sector and, therefore, very heavily linked with the builders’ merchant channel. Our supply teams have worked hard to deliver the absolute maximum volume possible over the past months to try to keep this channel supplied.
Moreover, lots of new potential customers have “appeared” as the market has been so good — which is normal for an extremely buoyant market. However, we have declined these opportunities in order to ensure that we maintain the best possible supply to our current customer base.
It is interesting to see where the whole market demand is driven from — we are seeing housebuilder demand, local tradesman demand and even DIY “room in the garden” demand; all at the highest levels for a long time. Being locked at home for months has clearly made us all reassess how we live and home improvements have evidently climbed the ladder of importance for many.
Couple that with the c£50bn spent each year on foreign holidays that has largely been left unspent, and we have ended up with very high demand of most building materials resulting in high unsatisfied orders throughout the supply chain.
Our production sites have been manufacturing at capacity levels throughout most of the pandemic; we had to close them at the beginning of the Covid crisis due to an almost total shutdown of construction but have been open since. Our Inverness mill, which produces OSB, has been ramping up following the c£250m investment we made from 2016 to 2020. It is already one of the largest in Europe and will continue to improve its output for the next few years, serving the UK builders’ merchant sector with SterlingOSB Zero.
In addition, as the world becomes more and more aware of the effect we have on the planet, it is important for the construction industry to realise how it affects the world in ways it doesn’t intend to. At West Fraser, our products are net carbon negative. This means that we lock up more carbon in the products than we emit in the end-to-end production and distribution of them (delivery to our customers’ gates).
Attaining net carbon negativity, as we have done, is a significant step and demonstrates the company’s determination to be a market leader in sustainable, climate-friendly products. As wood is the main component of West Fraser’s products, carbon is sequestered and locked up for the board’s lifetime. Particleboard products have the added advantage of containing 70-80% post-consumer recycled wood; this is also used in OSB.
As a result, the company’s four European sites and three product ranges sequester a total of 1.18 million tonnes of CO2e per year, equivalent to the CO2 from 200,265 homes’ electricity. West Fraser’s net carbon negative status benefits specifiers and users of the company’s engineered wood panel products — when used in construction, these products can help tip a project’s carbon count in the right direction assisting companies to meet net zero targets, which is good for reputation, compliance and the planet.
Finally at West Fraser, we have been going through some change by integrating two businesses together. West Fraser is a leading diversified wood products company in North America and now has the whole of Norbord under its portfolio. We are moving towards being one total business. However, there is lots to do from branding, to legal entity and everything in-between.
The market has started to see us transfer our branding to West Fraser and, over time, we will gradually move to be 100% West Fraser. We will keep you informed as this big project continues.
Click here for more information on West Fraser’s products and support services for merchants.
