Danzer, a hardwood company focusing on wood from temperate forests in the Northern hemisphere reports sales of EUR 210 million in 2017; a 6.5 percent growth rate after sales of EUR 197 million in the year 2016. The product category contributing most to the growth is flooring deck layers, even with the capacity additions at Danzer France mid of last year not yet fully effective in 2017; sales of flooring deck layers increased by 19 percent. Danzer’s North American lumber sales grew by 10 percent.
In 2017, Danzer shipped logs, sawn and sliced hardwood to 76 countries. The top 10 countries accounted for 77 percent of sales and were, in this order: USA, UK, China, Germany, Canada, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, India and Czech Republic. Sales to most countries stayed at comparable levels to 2016. Sales to China increased by more than 30 percent with largest growth in North American lumber and high-end specialty products.
Demand for sliced wood continuously high
52 percent of the primary hardwood products sold by Danzer in 2017 were sliced, 29 percent sawn; the remaining 19 percent of Danzer’s sales in 2017 were logs, specialties and services. The capacity addition in France increased Danzer’s production capacity by 20,000 m³. The new production line is heavily automated and uses six robots to simplify and optimize the production process. In North America, Danzer started to use synergies in procurement and production between sliced and sawn products by starting up a small lumber production line at its Edinburgh, Indiana facility.
Top species: Oak and Walnut
Danzer sold close to 200 different hardwood species, in 2017. 59 percent of the sales were North American species, 34 percent European, 6 percent African and 1 percent from other regions in the World. The top 10 species accounted for 82 percent of sales. Top three selling species were European oak, American walnut and American white oak, followed by hard maple, European ash, American black cherry, American red oak, American white ash and sapelli.