Globalisation Impacts on Timber Consumption in Slovakia

BioResources

International trade metrics can indicate the competitive advantage of the industry in international markets. However, the export of the raw materials utilized by the industry can influence company and industry performance negatively. This article assessed the effectiveness of the international trade with raw wood and its impact on the economic results of the industry. A system of indicators was formed to measure the international trade impact on the industry performance, and the following hypothesis was established: increasing the international trade with raw wood influences the economic growth of the industry negatively. The results confirmed the hypothesis, showing that the growth of export volume and also import of raw wood decreased industry performance during the monitored period. In the forestry sector, the more significant influence appeared in revenues, which influenced the profit most in the timber industry. Other findings demonstrated that the international wood trade in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic does not create a comparative advantage, but decreases competitiveness of the forestry sector.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the competitiveness of selected central European countries in the EU forest products market with the emphasis on Slovakia. The competitiveness is studied in the sectors of raw wood material and the products of primary wood processing. A set of competitiveness indicators is used to analyse the changes in competitiveness of the respective countries. Results of the analyses pointed out that the comparative advantages are changing with the level of wood products processing and, in particular, they decline with the increasing value added to the products. Trade specialisation is also influenced by the level of wood processing. While on the raw material level and the level of semi-finished mechanical wood products with low added value, such as sawnwood, the country is inter -industry specialised, with the increasing added value of products its trade turns to be intra-industry specialised.

2007

Type 2: Wood production-oriented regions/Central Europe ** *** ** Type 3: Plantation-oriented/(mainly) "Atlantic Rim" Western Europe * *** * Type 4: Broader, multifunctional forestry oriented regions/Western Europe ** *** ** Type 5: Urban society serviceinfluenced regions/Northwestern Europe ** *** * Type 6: "Countries in transition" regions/Eastern Europe ** *** Type 7: Low forest management intensity regions/Southern Europe

Procedia Economics and Finance, 2015

Current situation on the global timber market is influenced mainly by the turbulent development in economic as well as political environment. The paper analyzes the evaluation of the supply structure of raw-wood assortments in the Slovak Republic for the period 2000-2013. It shows that there was a significant decrease in the supplies mainly of the first two assortment classes of lower quality. Similarly it was evaluated the balance of Slovak foreign trade with raw wood assortments of the quality I. -III. from 2008. The last part of the article evaluate the prices development for the coniferous and deciduous trees, sawlogs spruce, fir and beech for the enterprises of state and private forests in Slovakia. Assessed period from 2001 to June 2015. Cooperation among all organs concerned, transparency, effectivity, higher work productivity, suppression of corrupt and lobbying practices as well as objective critique from own ranges will be essential in order to improve the conditions in the complex of forestry and wood processing industry.

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2015

The EU is an important market for both legally and illegally harvested timber entering international trade. The demand from the European countries for tropical wood for national consumption or for trade reasons possibly is connected with illegally harvested tropical timber from origin countries in the Tropics, with the known subsequent degradation of forestland. In this study the trade in tropical timber that takes place in the EU is analyzed, and more specifically with four separate tropical categories. The leading EU countries in imports, re-exports and consumption are presented in order to underline their basic trading role in the European tropical timber market. Belgium is indicated as one of these together with France, Italy, Netherlands and UK. Belgium's trade role was found to be significant, taking the leading role as re-exporter in sawnwood, veneer and industrial roundwood. The leader in consumption per capita seems to be the Netherlands regarding sawnwood and plywood, while Portugal ranked first in tropical industrial roundwood consumption per capita on average during the examined period. Italy seems to be a large consumer of tropical veneer. An analysis of some trade flows is also applied to better understand the role of the other trade partnerships inside the EU. The role of the EU in general with the parallel construction of policy instruments to combat illegal logging is also highlighted.

Forests

Foreign trade belongs among the main sources of economic growth as classical theories of international trade affirm. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the impact of trade balance flows on sectors generating different value-added in the wood-based industries (WBI) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. The multivariate regression method (MLR) was applied to identify the relationship between foreign trade and economic indicators and also specific indicators assessing impacts of foreign trade on the economy of wood-based industries. The results showed that the performance of high value-added production is only slightly affected by foreign trade. It means that both monitored countries do not utilize raw wood so intensively that the positive effects of foreign trade are manifested. Growth in net exports represents a positive influence on the economy of the sector regardless of the value-added rate only if the increase in imports is smaller than in exports. The contribution of the study to ...

USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration, 2013

Global economic crisis represents one of the causes why wood consumption is increasing especially in countries less developed. In countries where governments couldn’t improve the quality of life and unemployment rate is higher, local communities devastate a lot of forestry. In last thirty years we saw a deforestation process at the global level related to land being converted to other uses: agriculture and urbanization, which represent a positive trend of a negative use. The statistics reveal, on one hand, an increasing demand for paper, paper products, wood products and wood energy. So this point is important to analyze: where wood came from and where it is going as either raw material or processed goods? For undeveloped countries, like Romania, it is easy to export primary wood product without evaluating the consequences. On the other hand, developed countries like Sweden export value added products which brig them higher value and profits and require greater manufacturing and mar...

2015

The EU is an important market for both legally and illegally harvested timber entering international trade. The demand from the European countries for tropical wood for national consumption or for trade reasons possibly is connected with illegally harvested tropical timber from origin countries in the Tropics, with the known subsequent degradation of forestland. In this study the trade in tropical timber that takes place in the EU is analyzed, and more specifically with four separate tropical categories. The leading EU countries in imports, re-exports and consumption are presented in order to underline their basic trading role in the European tropical timber market. Belgium is indicated as one of these together with France, Italy, Netherlands and UK. Belgium's trade role was found to be significant, taking the leading role as re-exporter in sawnwood, veneer and industrial roundwood. The leader in consumption per capita seems to be the Netherlands regarding sawnwood and plywood, while Portugal ranked first in tropical industrial roundwood consumption per capita on average during the examined period. Italy seems to be a large consumer of tropical veneer. An analysis of some trade flows is also applied to better understand the role of the other trade partnerships inside the EU. The role of the EU in general with the parallel construction of policy instruments to combat illegal logging is also highlighted.

Forests

Research Highlights: One of the priorities of the European Commission is to build up an effective circular economy based on recycling and multiple use of materials. Wood biomass is a renewable raw material and can be used several times in a cascading sequence. Each country has a unique situation regarding the availability and utilization of wood sources. Background and Objectives: The objective of this study was to analyze wood flow in the Czech Republic using the cascading principle of biomass use. The specific situation in the Czech Republic lies in a lack of valid and reliable input data from official statistics. Therefore, the reverse input method was applied. Materials and Methods: Input data analyses of roundwood sources and foreign trade were based on official statistical data. The calculation of raw wood volume consumption in primary processing was performed based on the data after our own correction and recalculation. It was then possible to build up a basic model of multi-...

Sustainability, 2020

The forestry and forest-based sector play a significant role in climate change mitigation strategies and can contribute to the achievement of a climate-neutral economy. In this context, the ability of harvested wood products (HWP) to sequester carbon is of significant importance. The objective of this work is to make a projection of climate change mitigation potential of HWP, under different scenarios of wood utilization in Slovakia. This study builds on the comparison of different scenarios of industrial wood utilization till 2035 and presents the resulting impacts on the national carbon balance. The results suggest that the development of timber supplies after 2020 in Slovakia will be influenced, in particular, by the future changes in the age distribution and tree species composition as well as the extent of future accidental felling. Consequently, a predicted structure and availability of wood resources in Slovakia will be reflected in a higher share of the production of product...

Bioresources, 2019

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the price development of timber assortments in selected countries in Central Europe, to compare the prices and identify the factors influencing the prices, and to quantify the extent of their impact on the prices. A further aim is to predict the price development based on comparing various models for predicting time series of prices. The analyses of the price development was carried out for the assortments of spruce, fir, and beech sawlogs in Slovakia, Czech Republic, and selected Austrian provinces. The analyzed period covered the years from 2001 to 2017 per individual months. Following the selected factors, the study was focused on the timber price development, and subsequently the prediction up to the end of 2019 was calculated. The most significant factor having a negative impact on the price development was the global economic crisis. Following all the prediction methods, the next two years can expect an increase in the prices of sawlogs, except the beech sawlogs in Austria. Analysis of the price developments in the selected countries confirmed that all global factors reflected the price level trends approximately equally in all countries.

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