Wood is one of the most valuable of our natural resources. It has a wide variety of uses; it is a basic construction material, a source of energy and helps regulate the ecosystem and the climate. In contrast with many other raw materials, wood is a sustainable resource. This means that wood has now become one of the most important commercial and ecologically-friendly natural raw material. Experts believe that the demand for timber will grow as the world population expands and will thus escalate dramatically over the long term.

As an analysis and overview of the global demand for tropical hardwood shows, the demand is projected to increase by 25% between 1994 and 2010 (Source: International Forestry Review, 2002). In 1999, tropical hardwood sales constituted 15% of the industrial timber log market.

Total consumption has now increased to more than 130 million m3 annually. An enormous quantity in view of the fact that a systematically managed tropical teak plantation with 1000 trees (requiring an area of nearly 1 hectare) produces only approximately 17 m3 of timber per year.

The attractiveness of the timber market is reflected by the “timberland” investment sector: a retrospective analysis shows that investments in timber yield an average return of more than 12%, while the risk is lower than that of traditional investment instruments.  

(Source: Hancock Timber Resource Group).

Global timber consumption

 
Global timber consumption has more than tripled since 1960

Projected development of the

precious wood price