KUCHING: The European Union 27 member countries’ (EU27) imports of wooden doors from Malaysia has dropped sharply to a negligible level as the bloc is trending towards the use of engineered wood in place of solid timber.
Last year, EU27 imported merely euro 1.8 million worth of wooden doors from Malaysia, down by 30 per cent from 2020.
Imports from Vietnam plunged by 49 per cent to euro 0.8 million year-on-year.
However, EU27 imports of wooden doors from the biggest tropical supplier, Indonesia, rebounded by 31 per cent to euro 42.5 million last year after falling eight per cent in 2020, according to International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) tropical timber market report (Sept 1-15,2022).
“Total EU27 wood door imports from the tropics were euro 49.8 million in 2021,which is 21% more than in 2020.This compares to a 16% increase in imports from temperate countries to euro 172 million in 2021.
“The share of EU27 wood door imports sourced from tropical countries increased slightly, from 21.9 per cent in 2020 to 22.5 per cent in 2021. This redresses the loss of share during 2020 when tropical suppliers were particularly hard hit by rising freight rates and other supply problems in the early stages of the (Covid-19) pandemic,” added the report.
EU27 imports of wooden doors from China, still the largest single external supplier, rebounded 19 per cent to euro 59.6 million in 2021 after falling 14 per cent in 2020. Imports from Ukraine rose 24 per cent to euro 20.2 million in 2021, after a 22 per cent jump in 2020.
“The European wood door industry is now dominated by products manufactured using engineered timber driven by requirements to comply with higher energy efficiency standards and efforts to provide customers with more stable products and long-life time guarantees.
“Another key trend is towards composite doors with a steel-reinforced uPVC outer frame with an inner frame combining hardwood and other insulation material. These products are designed to combine strength, security, durability, high energy efficiency, with a strong aesthetic.
“There may be a place for tropical hardwoods in the design of these products with manufacturers looking to combine high quality, consistent performance, regular availability and good environmental credentials with a competitive price,” said the ITTO report.
Eurostat PRODCOM data shows that the total value of wood doors supplied to EU27 (excluding Italy) increased 12 per cent to euro 6.50 billion in 2021, following a one per cent decline in 2020.
Last year, 96.6 per cent of the value of all new doors installed in the EU27 were manufactured inside the single market, only 3.4 per cent were imported from outside.
On wood windows, the report said the total value of the product supplied to the EU27 jumped 15 per cent to euro 6.59 billion following a four per cent decline in 2020.
This was the first annual increase since 2017 in a market which had been effectively static before 2008 financial crises.
Supply of wood windows to the EU27 is overwhelmingly dominated (over 99 per cent) by domestic production which rose 15 per cent to euro 6.54 billion in 2021.
The strongest rebound was in Italy where the value of wood window production increased 38 per cent to euro 1.35 billion after a 25 per cent fall in 2020.
EU imports of wood windows from outside the European bloc climbed by 36 per cent in 2021 to euro 51.2 million.
Shipments from Belarus, the largest external supplier last year, increased 26 per cent to euro 9.7 million in 2021, continuing a rising trend that started in 2017.
Imports also increased sharply from Bosnia (+170 per cent to euro 9.1 million) and the UK (+107 per cent to euro 8.5 million).
However, imports from Norway fell 16 per cent to euro 6.1 million.
According to the ITTO report, only a tiny quantity of wood windows was imported into the EU from tropical countries.
After a spike in imports of euro 7 million in 2015, mainly from the Philippines, imports from tropical countries fell to less than euro 1 million in 2019 and remained at that level in 2020 and 2021.
“While tropical countries are not significantly engaged in the EU market for finished windows, this sector is of interest as a source of demand for tropical wood material. From this perspective, a notable long-term trend in the EU window sector — as in the door sector — is towards the use of engineered wood in place of solid timber. This is particularly true of larger manufacturers producing fully-factory finished units that buy engineered timber by the container load.
“Increased use of engineered wood is closely associated with efforts by window manufacturers to meet rising technical and environmental standards, provide customers with long lifetime performance, guarantees and recover market share from other materials.
“Increased focus on energy efficiency means that triple-glazed insulating window units with very low U-factors are now more common than double-glazed units in Europe. These units demand thicker, more stable and durable profiles that in practice can only be delivered at scale using engineered wood products or by combining wood with aluminium and steel in composite products.”
The report said the quality and engineering of wood windows has undergone a revolution in the EU in recent years so that manufacturers are now able to deliver products with many of the benefits previously reserved only for the best quality tropical hardwood frames using softwood and temperate hardwood.
“Factory-finished timber windows are given a specialist spray-coated paint finish for even and durable coverage which might only need redoing once a decade. The lifespan of factory-finished engineered softwood frames is now claimed to be about 60 years while the thermally or chemically modified temperate woods can achieve around 80 years.
“Nevertheless, smaller independent joiners producing bespoke products in low volumes still tend to rely on solid timber purchased from importers and merchants to manufacture window frames. Tropical woods, such as meranti, sapele and iroko, continue to supply a high-end niche in this market sector,” said the report.
After the dislocation caused by the pandemic, the performance of the EU27 wood joinery sector was transformed in 2021.
The main long-term trends in previous years were a continuous increase in joinery production in Germany, offsetting a large decline in Italy and wood’s loss of share to other materials — particularly plastics — in wood windows and doors manufacturing.
However, 2021 saw a sharp revival in wood joinery activity across the continent.
Following three years of stagnation, production value of wood joinery and related products in the EU27 increased 16 per cent to euro 38.22 billion in 2021.
Last year, in value terms, total wood joinery activity across the EU27 was at the highest since before the 2008 financial crises.
This is the main conclusion to be drawn from analysis of the newly released Eurostat PRODCOM data which provides a snapshot of the production and consumption value of wood joinery products in the EU27 in 2021.
