Housebuilding blamed for wood pallet price rise
The Timber Packaging and Pallet Confederation (TIMCON) says there is “significant evidence” of a sustained increase in timber prices and shortages in supply for its sector.
Continued recovery in construction and particularly housebuilding has put further upwards pressure on prices and availability of wood.
TIMCON general secretary Stuart Hex said: “Competition and weak demand in recent years kept prices of timber pallets and packaging low. We are now facing increasing timber prices, which as an industry we cannot absorb.”
{EMBED(370525)}
The latest Markit/CIPS UK Manufacturing report (October) showed an increase in the prices of timber, pallet timber and pallets. The latest Poyry index for the price of pallet and packaging timber shows compound growth in the price of home-grown pallet timber for Q2 and Q3 of almost 10%, with a sharp acceleration in the rate of price increases in Q3.
“This is significant as 80-90% of the timber for the UK pallets sector comes from domestic sources,” added Hex. “In addition, non-standard pallet timber sizes are increasing at a rate much higher than 10%.”
TIMCON added that an upsurge in housebuilding globally means foreign timber is unlikely to alleviate the shortages faced by the UK.
