Wood Panel Industry - Written Answers

Written Question

Aviation: Fuels

Tuesday 11th March 2025

Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of a guaranteed strike price for sustainable aviation fuel on the (a) costs (i) of air fares and (ii) for (A) manufacturers and (B) the wood panel industry and (b) market for feedstock materials.

Answered by Mike Kane

We will be delivering a Revenue Certainty Mechanism to derisk Sustainable Aviation Fuel projects in the UK and encourage investment. This will play a key role in growing the economy and bringing down our transport emissions.

A cost-benefit analysis will be published alongside the introduction of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (Revenue Support Mechanism) Bill, which was announced for this Parliamentary session in the King’s Speech. This will include its potential impact on air fares. We will control the cost of the revenue certainty mechanism by managing the scale and number of contracts entered into, as well as the prices negotiated, thereby helping protect consumers and airlines from price increases and fluctuations. We therefore expect any rises to be in line with the usual market variation of ticket prices. We have not assessed its impact on manufacturers, the wood panel industry or the market for feedstocks as these effects will depend significantly on the plants that are supported through the mechanism.

We will regularly monitor the costs and impacts of the Revenue Certainty Mechanism to avoid undue burdens across the economy.

Written Question

Timber

Tuesday 16th October 2018

Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the available supply of UK-sourced virgin and waste wood that has been used for (a) wood panel manufacturing, (b) sawmill products, (c) paper manufacturing and (d) wood fuel in each of the last five years.

Answered by David Rutley

This data is published in Forestry Statistics 2018.

Table 1	Inputs to Wood-based Panel Mills, 2013-2017
thousand green tonnes
Year	UK roundwood¹	Sawmill products	Imports²	Recycled wood fibre^3,4	Total
2013	1,263	1,709	0	853	3,825
2014	1,283	1,809	0	812	3,904
2015	1,334	1,687	17	852	3,890
2016	1,248	1,749	39	838	3,874
2017	1,059	1,726	22	923	3,730

Source: Forestry Statistics 2018 (Forestry Commission, September 2018),

based on data from: Wood Panel Industries Federation

Notes:

UK roundwood derived from stemwood.
Imports include roundwood, wood products and products from imported wood.
Recycled wood fibre is wood fibre recovered from both pre- and post-consumer wood waste for use in woodbased panel production. It comprises wood originally grown in the UK and wood originally grown in forests outside the UK.
Quantities are as delivered, with an assumed average moisture content of 25%. To convert to green tonnes (assuming moisture content of 52%), multiply by 1.56.

Table 2	Inputs to Wood-based Panel Mills, 2013-2017
thousand green tonnes
Year	UK roundwood¹	Sawmill products	Imports²	Recycled wood fibre^3,4	Total
2013	1,263	1,709	0	853	3,825
2014	1,283	1,809	0	812	3,904
2015	1,334	1,687	17	852	3,890
2016	1,248	1,749	39	838	3,874
2017	1,059	1,726	22	923	3,730

Source: Forestry Statistics 2018 (Forestry Commission, September 2018),

based on data from: Wood Panel Industries Federation

Notes:

UK roundwood derived from stemwood.

Imports include roundwood, wood products and products from imported wood.

Recycled wood fibre is wood fibre recovered from both pre- and post-consumer wood waste for use in woodbased panel production. It comprises wood originally grown in the UK and wood originally grown in forests outside the UK.

Quantities are as delivered, with an assumed average moisture content of 25%. To convert to green tonnes (assuming moisture content of 52%), multiply by 1.56.

Table 3 Inputs for the integrated pulp & paper mills¹, 2013-2017
thousand green tonnes
Year	UK roundwood²	Sawmill products	Total
2013	465	83	548
2014	465	97	562
2015	435	101	536
2016	423	82	505
2017	442	61	503
Source: Forestry Statistics 2018 (Forestry Commission, September 2018),
based on data from: UK Forest Products Association

Notes:

Excludes inputs of recycled paper and cardboard. All inputs are softwood.

UK roundwood derived from stemwood.

Table 4	Inputs for woodfuel¹, 2013-2017
Thousand green tonnes
Year	UK roundwood^1,2	Sawmill products³	Recycled wood^4,5,6	Total
2013	1,650	302	830	2,782
2014	1,900	439	1,340	3,679
2015	2,000	534	1,450	3,984
2016	1,950	624	1,550	4,124
2017	2,200	705	1,660	4,565

Source: Forestry Statistics 2018 (Forestry Commission, September 2018),

based on data from: industry surveys, industry associations, Wood Recyclers Association.

Notes:

Woodfuel derived from stemwood. Includes estimates of roundwood use for biomass energy. The figures are estimated by the Expert Group on Timber and Trade Statistics, and make use of wood fuel data reported in the Private Sector Softwood Removals Survey.

The apparent increase in woodfuel from 2016 to 2017 partially reflects a new estimate of the level of hardwood deliveries for woodfuel and should not be interpreted as an increase in a single year. This figure is currently under review.

Material reported as sales/use for woodfuel by sawmills and round fencing manufacturers, but may have been used for other purposes.
Post consumer recovered wood, comprising wood originally grown in the UK and wood originally grown in forests outside the UK.
Figures for 2014 to 2017 relate to capacity, rather than consumption.
Quantities are as delivered, with an assumed average moisture content of 25%. To convert to green tonnes (assuming moisture content of 52%), multiply by 1.56.

Written Question

Biofuels

Tuesday 1st July 2014

Asked by: Susan Elan Jones (Labour - Clwyd South)

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the effect of Government subsidies for the generation of biomass power using domestic wood feed stocks on the UK's wood panel industry; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Lord Barker of Battle

At the request of the wood panel industry, the Department carried out an analysis of domestic wood use by biomass generating stations, both through their returns on actual use under the sustainability reporting requirements of the renewables obligation and through the forecasts large scale generators provided to the Department as part of a voluntary exercise. Generators provided information on the amount of domestic and imported woody biomass that is likely to be used for electricity generation up to 2017. We published the aggregated results of last years' analysis at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/246006/UK_wood_and_biomass.pdf

These data support the Department's initial estimates of the amount of UK biomass that is expected to be used for electricity generation up to 2017 (of between 2.5 and 3.5 million oven dried tonnes (modt)). Use of UK biomass for electricity has remained stable over the 2009-12 period at between 2.3 and 2.5 modt (of which between 1.3 and 1.6 modt was wood).

We intend to repeat this exercise this year.