Wood being one of the primary materials required for construction and furniture industry. A major void created by demand & supply gap of wood due to growing real estate and housing sector. Architects preferences/suggestions on using more of wood (a sign of luxury) etc. is going to increase the demand of wood in India and it’s expected to grow more than 10% every year w.r.t to current supply. A certified wood is & will be major void filler so its demand is going to increase helping many industries to sustain their businesses for longer period. Although, imports of softwood in India in FY 19-20 were majorly from New Zealand followed by USA, Germany, Uruguay and Canada, the Finnish sawmills can be the reliable suppliers of customer-driven recyclable and lowcarbon footprint sawn softwood from sustainable and renewable resources. Two specie SPRUCE (a white wood with density of 540 to 560 kg/cbm) and PINE (red wood wood with density of 500 to 550 kg/cbm) are exported from Finland.
“The imports of certified wood have increased to nearly more than double in 2017-18 from 23000 cbm to 52000 cbm. “The availability of certified hardwood is less so the softwood imports are drastically increasing for furniture and kitchen manufacturing. We engineer the soft wood and create into long lasting by finger joining. The furniture industry is getting organized with time so the demand of certified wood in definitely going to increase. There will be good scope for Finnish saw millers,” said Mr Abrar Ahmed, Vice President, Total Environment Building Pvt Ltd, Bangalore.
“We need good timber as in India only UP, Tripura and Gujarat has availability of FSC certified timber so a number of customers are looking towards Finland but the price should be competitive. India has vast ready market with increasing demand for logs and custom sized sawn wood for pallets. There is likely to be a 15% growth in imports every year. India is developing country with increasing uses of wood in different industries but there is lack of adequate seasoning plant. Finland has 3/4th land area under forests, which can be used sustainably. It has customized swan wood in grade 2 and 3 (KD) for pallets, which has a high demand in India. Finland has excellent quality of lumber and logs for which India has a vast market, ”said Mr Naval Kedia, President, Federation of All India Tiber Merchant Saw Millers & Allied industries.