Sawmills in France, and in Franche-Comté in particular, are going through a critical economic period. Every three days, a sawmill closes its doors, a victim of an unfavorable economic climate marked by the continuing crisis in the construction industry. This crisis is reflected in a significant drop in new building construction, weighing heavily on the sawmills that supply the materials needed for architectural structures.
The drop in activity in the construction sector has affected softwood sawmills, which are seeing their orders decline, as are new carpentry orders. Softwoods, such as fir and spruce, which are the main materials used for carpentry, find themselves in overproduction in the face of eroding demand. This situation has been exacerbated by a strict banking environment with high requirements, making financing for new construction difficult to obtain. The result is an increase in financial difficulties for sawmills, which are struggling to sell off their stocks of sawn timber.
Hardwood sawmills are also facing economic challenges. Species such as beech face fierce competition from the massive export of logs to Asian markets. This dynamic reduces the availability of wood for local processing, creating a shortage of raw material for French sawmills. The fact that hardwood trees require special equipment adds a further layer of complexity to their processing and recovery.
The modernization of sawmills involves the use of numerically-controlled saws to optimize the cutting of boards from logs, but this technological advance alone is not enough to offset the challenges of the global market. The sector is subject to competition on an international scale, fuelled in part by Asia's ever-increasing demand for French wood. These massive imports distort the domestic market, making it difficult for sawmills to compete with export products, which are often more lucrative for wood producers.
Limited access to raw materials, linked to the export of logs, combined with global trends, highlights the fragility of the sector. The difficulties encountered by sawmills reveal a complex interdependence between the various economic, ecological and social components of the forestry sector. France's ability to overcome these obstacles will depend on its ability to innovate, regulate exports and strengthen its local infrastructures to guarantee a sufficient and sustainable wood supply. Assertive policies could then help revitalize a sector that is suffering not only from the current economic climate, but also from the imbalances created by globalization.
