Public construction thanks to the EU
Despite all the uncertainties, investments which are made as part of the “NextGenerationEU” plan are expected to bring about moderate growth until 2026, especially in infrastructure.
Private construction will likely face difficulties in the near future, too, which is also due to the lower financial resources available for building renovations. According to Micali, the growing interest in sustainable construction is encouraging, as this helps drive demand for wood products, and those include construction timber as well as glulam and CLT.
Price fluctuations and differences are disruptive
Micali criticized the inconsistent pricing policy of key supplier Austria and the resulting market disruptions. “When you look at the price trend, the constant ups and downs of the large companies really stand out. Those lead to a price reduction rather than an increase. All of this is also due to the fact that in the timber business, large Austrian companies often come into contact with smaller timber trading businesses. The latter regularly plan their purchases and stock up on goods. Massive price fluctuations always hit buyers hard,” Micali explained in Klagenfurt.
Micali highlighted that recently, there have been an increasing number of “faulty adjustments of prices for one and the same product”. In his opinion, this severely impacts the willingness to buy and keeps inventories at unnecessarily high levels.
Call for more professionalism
As a long-term buyer of Austrian wood and wood products, Micali is familiar with the varying log prices in the neighboring country. “What we don’t understand at all are the strategic motives behind a constantly changing marketing policy. It has proven to be ineffective a while ago and it’s harming both producers and the Italian trade sector.”
Micali hopes for a more transparent, long-term and constant pricing policy and “appropriate self-regulation on the part of Austrian companies so that a professional and far-sighted sales policy becomes a reality.”
