Wood-Based Panel Industry: An Analysis - Business Market Research Reports

Wood-Based Panel Industry: An Analysis

Published Date : 1 June 2009

Pages : 45

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The wood-based panel industry has failed to continue its growth momentum in the wake of the events on financial markets in 2008 that had a severe impact on the global economy. As the demand for wood-based panel products correlates to a significant degree to the level of residential construction activity, it is expected that there will be no near-term relief for the panel makers, both in North America and Europe from housing market pressures.

The North American wood panel market has seen stagnation since 2007 and this is evident from shrinking profitability of the panel makers. Also prices of panels have gone down recently. The demand for wood panels mainly comes from housing starts and so this industry is highly dependent on the construction sector. The North American market remains extremely challenging still driven by the US housing and credit crises.

In the United States, OSB and plywood are the dominant panels being utilized and the large capacity increase in OSB has resulted in declining prices for the panels, which in turn is impacting the margins of the panel makers.

One of the challenges that both the North American and European panel makers are facing is the increasing imports from China.

The European panel makers had generated huge profitability and strong growth in the last few years on the back of the growing construction industry and growth of the furniture sector. However, the challenges that European panel makers have been facing is the increasing costs of various inputs like wood, resin and energy. Also, the European panel makers are competing with the biomass industry for the procurement of wood.

The turnaround in the housing market in North America is not expected to be met until 2010 and experts believe that 2009 will be a transition year with tough conditions similar to 2008. In the year 2009, downward pressure is likely to continue but from 2010 onwards, demand is likely to catch up. Also the demand for wood-based panels in Europe is expected to decline significantly in 2009 but it would start reviving from 2010 onwards.

The report titled “Wood-Based Panel Industry: An Analysis” studies the overall wood panel industry with specific focus on the North American and European markets. The report analyzes the major segments of the wood-based panels –Particleboard (PB), Medium Density Fiber board (MDF), Oriented Strand Board (OSB) and Plywood for both the European and North American markets. It studies the major global trends in the demand for structural panels and also highlights the challenges faced by panel makers. Further, the report analyzes the competitive landscape of the industry and features three major panel makers – Sonae Industria, Pfleiderer and Louisiana Pacific. Moreover, the report analyzes the future of the industry for 2009 and 2010 in the context of global economic slowdown, slump in the housing and construction industry and prices of input products.

We have predicted the future growth of the wood-based panel industry by combining SPSS Inc.’s data integration and analysis capabilities with our relevant findings,. We employed various significant variables that have an impact on this industry and created regression models with SPSS Base to determine the future direction of the industry. Before deploying the regression model, the relationship between several independent or predictor variables and the dependent variable was analyzed using standard SPSS output, including charts, tables and tests.

Table of Contents :

1. Wood-Based Panels: Definition and Applications

2. Wood-Based Panel Market: An Overview

3. North American Wood-Based Panel Market

3.1 Particleboard (PB)
3.2 Medium Density Fiber board (MDF)
3.3 Oriented Strand Board (OSB)
3.4 Plywood

4. European Wood-Based Panel Market

4.1 Particleboard (PB)
4.2 Medium Density Fiber board (MDF)
4.3 Oriented Strand Board (OSB)
4.4 Plywood

5. Wood-Based Panels: Supply Chain Analysis

5.1 Industry Characteristics
5.2 Sourcing of raw materials
5.3 Sales and distribution

6. Market Trends

6.1 Trends in Wood Costs
6.2 OSB Pricing Trends
6.3 OSB substitution for Plywood
6.4 Consolidation of European Wood-based Panel Industry
6.5 Brazil – Strong performance in Wood Panel Sector
6.6 South Africa - Increased Input Costs
6.7 China – a Major Player in Wood Panel Industry

7. Market Challenges

7.1 Homebuilding Market and Economic Risks
7.2 Rising Input Costs

8. Competitive Landscape

9. Company Profiles

9.1 Sonae Industria
9.1.1 Company Description
9.1.2 Business Segments
9.1.3 Business Strategies

9.2 Pfleiderer
9.2.1 Company Description
9.2.2 Business Segments
9.2.3 Business Strategies

9.3 Louisiana Pacific
9.3.1 Company Description
9.3.2 Business Segments
9.3.3 Business Strategies

10. Industry Outlook

10.1 Market Forecast
10.1.1 Macro-Economic Environment
10.1.2 Housing and Construction Industry
10.1.3 Wood-based panel industry

10.2 Forecast Methodology
10.2.1 Dependent and Independent Variables
10.2.2 Correlation Analysis
10.2.3 Regression Analysis

Figures and Tables

Figure 1.1: Classification of Wood-based Panels
Figure 2.1: Global Wood-based Panel Production: 2003-2007
Figure 2.2: Global Wood-based Panel Production by Region: 2007
Figure 3.1: North American Wood Panel–Production & Consumption: 2003-07
Figure 3.2: United States Wood Panel–Production: 2003-07
Figure 3.3: North American Particleboard–Production & Consumption: 2003-07
Figure 3.4: North American MDF–Production & Consumption: 2003-07
Figure 3.5: North American Structural Panel Production: 2001-2008
Figure 3.6: North American OSB–Production & Consumption: 2003-07
Figure 3.7: US Housing Starts: 2004-2008
Figure 3.8: OSB & Plywood Production – North America: 2001-2008
Figure 3.9: North American Plywood–Production & Consumption: 2003-07
Figure 4.1: European Wood Panel - Production & Consumption: 2003-2007
Figure 4.2: European Wood Panel Volume by Type: 2007
Figure 4.3: European Particleboard - Production & Consumption: 2003-2007
Figure 4.4: European MDF - Production & Consumption: 2003-2007
Figure 4.5: European OSB - Production & Consumption: 2003-2007
Figure 4.6: European Plywood - Production & Consumption: 2003-2007
Figure 6.1: Historical OSB Pricing (North America): 2001-2008
Figure 6.2: European OSB Prices: 2004-2008
Figure 6.3: North American Structural Panel Production – OSB & Plywood Share: 2001-2008
Figure 7.1: US Housing Starts: 2004-2008
Figure 8.1: Leading global wood based panel players
Figure 8.2: Leading European wood based panel players
Figure 8.3: North America – OSB Market Share: 2008
Figure 8.4: North America – Installed Rawboard Capacity (Leading Players): 2008
Figure 8.5: Central Europe – Installed Rawboard Capacity (Leading Players): 2008
Figure 9.1: Sonae - revenue split by product: 2007
Figure 9.2: Pfleiderer - revenue split by segment: 2007
Figure 9.3: Pfleiderer - Revenue split by Industry
Figure 9.4: Louisiana Pacific - revenue split by segment: 2007
Figure 10.1: North American Structural Panel Production Forecast: 2009-2010
Figure 10.2: European Wood-Based Panel Production Forecast: 2008-2010
Table 1.1: Applications and Make of Wood-based Panels
Table 10.1 Dependent & Independent Variables (1998– 2007)
Table 10.2 Correlation Matrix
Table 10.3 Model Summary – Coefficient of Determination
Table 10.4 Regression Coefficients Output