profile
Simon Woods
Simon joins the BMBI Expert panel with almost 24 years’ experience of working in the construction products sector and with builders’ merchants. His previous roles include 10 years with the leading adhesives brand Bostik, five years in the bathroom sector working with Twyford & Methan, and five years with roofing manufacturer Icopal.
West Fraser (trading as Norbord Europe Ltd)
West Fraser the UK’s number one engineered wood panel manufacturer serving DIY, housebuilding and construction markets. Its extensive panel range, which has now been certified as net carbon negative, includes FSC certified flooring, panelling and roofing products, with well known brands such as SterlingOSB Zero, CaberFloor and CaberWood MDF commonly specified by architects, national housebuilders and specifiers. West Fraser’s European manufacturing operations span three UK plants: Cowie and Inverness in Scotland; and South Molton in Devon as well as Genk, in Belgium
In February 2021 Norbord joined the West Fraser organisation – an international organisation specialising in diversified wood products with more than 60 facilities in Canada, the United States and Europe. From responsibly-sourced and sustainably-managed forest resources, West Fraser produces lumber, engineered wood (OSB, LVL, MDF, plywood, particleboard), and other products including pulp, newsprint, wood chips and renewable energy. Its products are used in construction, repair and remodelling, industrial applications, papers, tissue and box materials.
Visit: www.uk.westfraser.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/norbord-europe-ltd/
Twitter: @WestFraserUK
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.
West Fraser Comment: Q2 2023
Q2 2023 has continued in much the same vein as Q1, with a softening of demand for wood products and a fall in prices, which have finally bottomed out after the highs of the Covid years.
While better weather at the end of Q2 lifted many sectors within the construction industry, the struggling housebuilding market continues to impact suppliers, contractors and merchants alike. New private housing output fell -8.1% between May and June 2023, and Q2 2023 was down -9.3% on Q2 2022. As a result, demand for timber products remained subdued, amid a wider dampening in demand for housebuilding materials.
That said, it’s not all bad news. The UK’s construction output has improved over the last quarter, helped in part by the +1.6% increase in volume terms in June, which was buoyed by increases in infrastructure new work and non-housing repair and maintenance. We are also seeing inflation gradually coming down and the Consumer Prices Index easing – although too slowly to make any dramatic impact in the short term, at least.
Although it reported a six-point fall in July, consumer confidence, as recorded in GfK’s long-running Consumer Confidence Index, has been improving fairly steadily in the first two quarters of the year and is greatly improved since the lows of September 2022.
The other good news is that the industry is prepared for any upswing in demand as wood supplies are good. The industry has worked hard to replace the imported products which used to come from Russia and Belarus, and Timber Development UK (TDUK) reports that May was the best month for timber imports this year with volume growth across all major categories. Softwood imports were particularly strong, with volumes +8.0% higher than the 2023 average.
Blossoming trading partnerships with European countries, such as Sweden, Republic of Ireland and Finland, continue to ensure supply chains are robust and merchants have access to high quality wood products.
There are reasons for cautious optimism: the economy has proved to be more resilient than most of us expected, and although some forecasters still expect the worst, the balance of expectations seems to be shifting to a slow, moderate recovery in the rest of 2023 and 2024.