2014: a positive year for wood paneling
- Written by Fiammetta Regis
This figure was released at the annual assembly of the European Panel Federation that provided last June a timely update on the state-of-the-art in the sector and confirmed increases in sales for the principal types of wood paneling: +3% for chipboard, + 3% for Medium Density fibreboard, and + 6% for Oriented strand board.
These numbers are raising hopes for an immediate recovery in operators in the sector, even if industrialists are concerned about the scarce availability of raw materials (industrial wood residue and recycled wood) that are also in high demand for combustion at biomass power production plants. In this regard, the EPF asked the European authorities to solve this problem by promoting the use of these wood resources in “cascade” in order to give priority to the re-utilization and recycling of wood rather than its combustion.