The industry organization Svenskt Trä sees great opportunities with wood products from the country's hardwoods and forms the first committee to represent Swedish hardwood sawmills.
In addition to Svenskt Trä, the sawmill committee is represented by the following companies: KG List, Vanhälls Björkså, Specialträ, Kährs and Billingsfors Lövträ.
“By bringing together sawmills for hardwood, we strive to create dialogue and conditions for a long-term and sustainable hardwood industry. We see great potential in using more hardwood from Swedish forests and promoting that development is the purpose of the committee,” says Björn Nordin, head of architecture and design at Svenskt Trä and responsible for the new Hardwood Sawmill Committee.
The timber volume of the trees in the Swedish forest consists of 20% hardwoods and 40% each of spruce and pine, according to figures from the Skogsindustrierna. Despite that, the share of Swedish hardwood in domestic furniture and interior design products is marginal, and this is also the case for construction materials in the construction industry. Dependence on the outside world makes the industry vulnerable to, for example, price changes, an uncertain supply of raw materials and difficult supply chains. At the same time, consumers increasingly want to know which wood is used in the products they buy. Many actors are facing increased demands on resource efficiency, traceability and circular flows, and here hardwood can be an enabler.
According to the Norwegian Forestry Agency's analysis of future forestry, SKA 22, deciduous trees will also play an important role for the forestry industry going forward. A continued high pressure on wood products will require an increased use of hardwood, according to the analysis, and further emphasizes that more hardwood trees can contribute to biological diversity and promote a diversification of Swedish forests.
“The construction industry is also showing an increased interest in hardwood products and there is a demand for research projects around the use of hardwood for construction purposes. Promoting research in both the furniture and construction industries will therefore be an important issue for the Hardwood Sawmill Committee,” says Björn Nordin.
