After steady growth since 2006, the Arab Spring of 2011 brought about a temporary cessation of timber deliveries to Uni4 Marketing, a company in which SCA Timber has a shareholding. However, 2012 saw volumes increase again, primarily to the Egyptian market.

The markets for sawn solid wood products in North Africa and the Middle East continue to be of great importance to the Swedish sawmilling industry. During 2008, timber exports to North Africa surpassed the total amount of sawn timber that Swedish sawmills exported to European customers. The ports of the region are awash with pallets of timber from sawmills based throughout northern Europe.

Increased market share

A significant proportion of the timber from Sweden coming into these ports is handled by sales company Uni4 Marketing, which is jointly owned by SCA Timber, Holmen Timber, Södra Timber and Martinsons. Uni4 Marketing was formed in 2000, but has existed under other names since 1991. Its business concept is to marry knowledge about the local business culture with efficient logistics and a wide range of products, in order to sell timber in countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and other countries in the region, in which the owner companies have no representation of their own. In 2011, this approach resulted in the sale of just under 600,000 cubic metres of sawn timber.

"2012 saw us increase our market share and our volumes," says CEO Anders Marklund. The turbulent spring of 2011 saw a significant temporary break in exports to the markets in North Africa. However, 2011 was, on the whole, still a good year, but the current year has been slightly flat. "We havent noticed any particular fall off," says Marklund.

Read the whole article and much more in Timber News 4 / 2012

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