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> Forest Report 2015 Condition and Use of Swiss Forests FOEN / WSL 2015
6.8 Foreign trade in raw timber and wood products
Tatiana Pasi
> Switzerland imports about the same amount of timber and products made of wood as it exports. However, the value of these imports is considerably higher than that of the exports.
> In 2012, the value of the timber and wood products accounted for about 3.4 per cent of the total goods imported and about 1.2 per cent of the total goods exported.
> The volume of the Swiss foreign trade with raw timber and wood products has risen since 1995, reaching a peak in 2006.
> Switzerland’s most important trade partners for wood and wood products are the EU countries: more than 90 per cent of the Swiss imports and exports of wood and wood products either come from or go to EU countries.
Raw timber and wood products
In comparison to the total Swiss foreign trade, the value of the imported and exported wood and wood products is low and has been sinking since the beginning of the 1990s, both for imports and exports.
The difference between trade with raw timber and with wood products is large. For raw wood, the value of the imports is about two-thirds of the value of the exports. For wooden products, this is reversed: the value of the imports is about five times higher than that of the exports. All in all, this means there is a foreign trade deficit for wood and wood products.
If the flow of raw timber and wood products is specified in cubic meters of solid wood, then the amounts imported and exported are about the same. Between 2008 and 2012, Switzer- land imported on average 6.4 million cubic metres (million m3) and exported 6.2 million m3. Most wood is imported as paper and cardboard products: they account for about 40 per cent of the imports. In second place, amounting to about 20 per cent, are processed products such as semi-finished goods, con- struction and packaging material, furniture and prefabricated wooden houses. Their proportion has been increasing since the beginning of the 1990s. Paper and cardboard products also make up most of the exports, accounting for 30 per cent of the total. The next largest export products are waste wood (processed wood that has become waste), which accounts for 18 per cent of the exports, and raw wood and recycled paper, which account for 15 per cent each (Fig. 6.8.1). The amount of exported scrap wood is striking: approximately 1 million m3.
Roundwood, stemwood, logs and sawn timber
Since 1995, an average of 1.3 million m3 of roundwood from the Swiss forests has been sold abroad every year, amount- ing to almost a quarter of all the harvested wood. After the windstorm ‘Lothar’ in 1999, the amount of exported round- wood increased dramatically and then sank again to the level before the storm (Fig. 6.8.2). Over 90 per cent of the round- wood is exported as stemwood and the rest mainly as indus- trial wood. The exported amount of roundwood was about 18 per cent of all the harvested wood in 2012. Compared to exports, imports are low. Since 1997, 270,000 m3 of round- wood have been imported on average every year. Since 2008, the amount imported has been decreasing. In 2012, it was only 170,000 m3. Half of this is imported as stemwood that is then Fig. 6.8.1 Imports and exports of raw timber and wood
products in 2012 (in million m3 solid volume).
Source: FSO and FOEN 2013
0.5 0.9
1.0 0.6
0.2 0.4
0.6 0.4
1.2 0.2
0.5 0.9 0.2
2.4 1.8
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Imports Exports
Paper and cardboard products Recycled paper
Semi-finished and finished products
Mechanical pulp, Chemical pulp Wood composites
Sawn timber, Veneer, Plywood
Waste wood Raw timber, including residuals
Million m3 (solid volume)
> 6 Social Economy 6.8 Foreign trade in raw timber and wood products 117
sawn up in the sawmills; the other half is industrial wood that is used to produce wood composites and paper. The amount of energy wood exported is negligible. The main reason for this is that the logistic costs are high and energy wood is there- fore normally obtained in the region. Around 90 per cent of the trade in roundwood is with neighbouring countries. Trop- ical roundwood is being imported less and less: in 2012 it accounted for less than 1 per cent of the entire quantity of imported roundwood.
The trade movements of stemwood and sawn timber were greatly influenced by the largest sawmill in Switzerland, in Domat-Ems (Canton Grisons): it was founded in 2007 and stopped working in 2010. Additionally, since 2007, the weak- ness of the Euro in comparison to the Swiss franc has had a strong influence since it favours imports and makes exports more difficult, including in the trade in logs and sawn timber.
Imports of stemwood increased between 2007 and 2010 and then sank again, and in 2012 were almost 40 per cent lower than the average of the last 20 years. This develop- ment reflects the fall in the domestic market for spruce and pine logs following the closure of the sawmill in Domat- Ems. Exports, by comparison, increased after the windstorm
‘Lothar’ to 1.7 million m3 and have fallen continuously ever since (Fig. 6.8.2).
Since 2000, sawn timber production has remained at an average of 1.5 million m3. The exported amount of sawn timber rose between 2002 and 2010 from 14 per cent to over 32 per cent, and then decreased until 2012 to a level of 18 per cent. The proportion of hardwood diminished between the beginning of the 1990s and the year 2012 from 50 per cent
of the sawn timber production to 7 per cent. The recipients of Swiss sawn timber are Italy, France and Germany. Imports of softwood sawn timber periodically rise and fall, but at a rela- tively high level. In 2012 it was almost 4,000,000 m3 – twice as much as was exported. In comparison, the import of hardwood sawn timber has fallen slightly. This timber is increasingly coming from East European countries. Little tropical wood is being imported. It accounted for 4 per cent of the sawn timber imports in 2012.
Wood composites and paper
In 2012, there were only 4 factories in Switzerland that pro- cessed industrial wood: one producing hardboard, one pro- ducing chipboard and two manufacturing paper. A further 8 factories produce paper products using cellulose and not wood. The last factory that produced cellulose in Switzerland closed in 2008. Since then, all Swiss cellulose requirements have been covered by imports.
In Switzerland, paper and cardboard are being used, produced, imported and exported less and less. The amount consumed is broadly covered by domestic paper factories pro- ducing for the national market. Switzerland exports 0.91 mil- lion tonnes of paper and cardboard and imports 0.82 million tonnes.
The national hard- and particleboard industry is tradi- tionally oriented towards exports. In 2007, 800,000 m3 were exported, more than ever before. After that, the amount fell continually until, in 2012, it dropped to 610,000 m3. Up until 2010, 80 per cent of the production was exported, but in 2012 it was only 60 per cent (a FOEN estimate).
Fig. 6.8.2 Roundwood balance of accounts between 1991 and 2012 (in million m3). Net amount: domestic timber harvest plus imports, minus exports: Source: FSO and FOEN 2013
0 2 4 6 8
1 3 5 7 9 10
1995 2000 2005 2010
Million m3
Domestic timber harvest
Imports roundwood Net amount
Exports roundwood
