profile
James Davenport has over 20 years of experience in the UK timber industry, with a career spanning importing, manufacturing, and distributing both softwood and engineered wood products to the UK market.
James began his journey as a trainee with Metsä (then Finnforest) and has since progressed through a variety of senior roles across purchasing, manufacturing, sales, and supply chain management. This breadth of experience provides him with a unique, end-to-end understanding of the UK timber market.
Today, James leads as UK Managing Director, while also serving on the Metsä Wood Executive Management Team and as a board member of Timber Development UK, helping to shape the future of the timber sector both nationally and internationally.
Metsä Wood UK
Metsä Wood UK is a leading importer and distributor of high-quality softwood to the UK Merchant and DIY sectors.
With a reliable supply from sustainably owned and managed Nordic forests, we process and upgrade timber through our lines in Boston, alongside MDF processing and a market leading door linings and casings capability.
Supported by a dedicated treatment facility in King’s Lynn, where we also manufacture Finnjoist® I-beams, widely used in the construction of private homes and commercial buildings every year.
We have built long-standing partnerships with both national merchant chains and independent merchants.
Looking ahead, Metsä Wood UK remains focused on strengthening merchant partnerships and delivering sustainable, quality timber solutions.
Visit: metsagroup.com/metsawood/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/metsa-wood/
Launched in 2015, the award winning monthly Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report is the only reliable measure of repair, maintenance & improvement (RMI) activity in the UK. Filling an important gap, it can be widely used in construction, and by economists, Government, national media, commentators and influencers outside the industry.
Metsä Wood UK Comment: Q4 2025
The fourth quarter of 2025 can be summed up as a period of, one, low activity levels, two, an abundance of caution being shown by all, and three, a rush to close out the year and come back to start afresh in 2026.
Demand from construction sites for engineered timber products slowed at the back end of the fourth quarter and businesses also took proactive steps to reduce their inventories in the run up to their financial year ends, which resulted in poor delivered volumes. There are still pockets of activity in certain regions, and surely this linked to affordability. Could it be that in 2025 we actually ended up building fewer new homes than in 2024?
There is still demand for softwood products in the market. Projects are being started and, of course, the need to repair and maintain will always continue. Reports from our customer base are that their customers are extremely cost conscious and are shopping around to get the best possible price. Unfortunately, this is often a symptom of businesses’ weak order books and subsequently having time on their hands.
In Europe, where a lot of the UK’s strength graded timber, joinery grade softwood, and engineered wood products are supplied from, log supplies reduced in both the Nordic countries and central Europe because the primary consumers of round wood are no longer willing to pay the extremely high prices forest owners have been demanding. This, together with weak demand across most main European markets, resulted in production curtailments being taken, many in the form of extended Christmas holidays.
We start 2026 with supply chain inventories in relative balance. Should either a lack of production, or excessive demand materialise in the first quarter, we can expect to see very aggressive moves to push prices up in the second quarter.