The wood industry or timber industry (sometimes lumber industry – when referring mainly to sawed boards) is the industry concerned with forestry, logging, timber trade, and the production of primary forest products and wood products (e.g. furniture) and secondary products like wood pulp for the pulp and paper industry. Some of the largest producers are also among the biggest owners of forest. The wood industry has historically been and continues to be an important sector in many economies.
Distinction In the narrow sense of the terms, wood, forest, forestry and timber/lumber industry appear to point to different sectors, in the industrialized, internationalized world, there is a tendency toward huge integrated businesses that cover the complete spectrum from silviculture and forestry in private primary or secondary forests or plantations via the logging process up to wood processing and trading and transport (e.g. timber rafting, forest railways, logging roads).
Processing and products differs especially with regard to the distinction between softwood and hardwood. While softwood primarily goes into the production of wood fuel and pulp and paper, hardwood is used mainly for furniture, floors, etc.. Both types can be of use for building and (residential) construction purposes (e.g. log houses, log cabins, timber framing).
Production chain Lumber and wood products, including timber for framing, plywood, and woodworking, are created in the wood industry from the trunks and branches of trees through several processes, commencing with the selection of appropriate logging sites and concluding with the milling and treatment processes of the harvested material. In order to determine which logging sites and milling sites are responsibly producing environmental, social and economic benefits, they must be certified under the Forest Stewardship Council Forests For All Forever (FSC) Certification that ensures these qualities.
Harvesting Mature trees are harvested from both plantations and native forests. Trees harvested at a younger age produce smaller logs, and these can be turned into lower-value products. Factors such as location, climate conditions, species, growth rate, and silviculture can affect the size of a mature tree.
Timber mills The native hardwood saw-milling industry originally consisted of small family-owned mills, but has recently changed to include a small number of larger mills. Mills produce large volumes of material and aim to ensure delivery of a high quality standard of product. Their goal is to do this efficiently and safely, at low cost, with rapid production time and high output.
Production and use Once the timber has been manipulated in the required fashion, it can be shipped out for usage. There are many different purposes for wood including plywood, veneer, pulp, paper, particleboard, pallets, craft items, toys, instrument-making, furniture production, packing cases, wine barrels, cardboard, firewood, garden mulch, fibre adhesives, packaging and pet litter. Western Australia has a unique substance called ‘biochar’, which is made from jarrah and pine and sometimes from crop and forestry residues, along with the former materials. Biochar can be used to manufacture silicone and as a soil additive.
Softwoods, such as the Australian eucalyptus, are highly valued, and are used mainly for construction, paper making, and cladding. The term 'round wood' describes all the wood removed from forests in log form and used for purposes other than fuel. Wood manufacturing residues, such as sawdust and chippings, are collectively known as "pulp". The United States industrial production index hit a 13-year high during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Transport Originally, trees were felled from native forests using axes and hand-held cross-cut saws – a slow process involving significant manual labor. Since sawmills were traditionally located within forests, milled timber had to be transported over long distances via rough terrain or waterways to reach its destination. Logs were later transported via train and tram lines, first by steam-powered log haulers then by steam-powered locomotives, and finally diesel and petrol-powered locomotives. Even in the modern era, timber is dried in kilns. When the first steam railway in Australia opened in Melbourne in 1854, timber transportation changed dramatically. Trains made the transportation of lumber quicker and more affordable, making it possible for the Australian sawmill industry to move inland.
Wood is transported by a variety of methods, typically by road vehicle and log driving over shorter distances. For longer journeys, wood is transported by sea on timber carriers, subject to the IMO TDC Code.
Top producers
The main industrial roundwood producers are all countries with a large forest area and a well established logging industry. In the case of coniferous industrial roundwood, the top producers in 2023 were the United States of America, with a production of 274 million m3 (26% of the total production), followed by the Russian Federation with 142 million m3 (13%) and Canada with 105 million m3 (10%). China led the production of non-coniferous industrial roundwood in 2023, with 141 million m3 (17% of the global production), followed by Brazil (138 million m3, 16%) and Indonesia (74 million m3, 9%).
As of 2019, the top timberland owners in the US were structured as real-estate investment trusts and include:
Weyerhaeuser Co. Rayonier PotlatchDeltic
In 2008 the largest lumber and wood producers in the US were Boise Cascade North Pacific Group Sierra Pacific Industries
As these companies are often publicly traded, their ultimate owners are a diversified group of investors. There are also timber-oriented real-estate investment trusts.
According to sawmilldatabase, the world top producers of sawn wood in 2007 were: + Company Production or Capacity in m3/yrWest Fraser Timber Co Ltd 8,460,000 Canfor 6,900,000Weyerhaeuser 6,449,000Stora Enso 4,646,000Georgia Pacific 4,300,000Resolute Forest Products 3,760,000Interfor 3,550,000Sierra Pacific Industries 3,200,000Hampton Affiliates 3,100,000Arauco 2,800,000Tolko Industries Ltd 2,500,000Pfeifer Group 2,200,000
Issues
Safety
Noise Workers within the forestry and logging industry sub-sector fall within the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting (AFFH) industry sector as characterized by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has taken a closer look at the AFFH industry's noise exposures and prevalence of hearing loss. While the overall industry sector had a prevalence of hearing loss lower than the overall prevalence of noise-exposed industries (15% v. 19%), workers within forestry and logging exceeded 21%. Thirty-six percent of workers within forest nurseries and gathering of forest products, a sub-sector within forestry and logging, experienced hearing loss, the most of any AFFH sub-sector. Workers within forest nurseries and gathering of forest products are tasked with growing trees for reforestation and gathering products such as rhizomes and barks. Comparatively, non-noise-exposed workers have only a 7% prevalence of hearing loss.
Worker noise exposures in the forestry and logging industry have been found to be up to 102 dBA. NIOSH recommends that a worker have an 8-hour time-weighted average of noise exposure of 85 dBA. Excessive noise puts workers at an increased risk of developing hearing loss. If a worker were to develop a hearing loss as a result of occupational noise exposures, it would be classified as occupational hearing loss. Noise exposures within the forestry and logging industry can be reduced by enclosing engines and heavy equipment, installing mufflers and silencers, and performing routine maintenance on equipment. Noise exposures can also be reduced through the hierarchy of hazard controls where removal or replacement of noisy equipment serves as the best method of noise reduction.
Injury
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has found that fatalities of forestry and logging workers have increased from 2013 to 2016, up from 81 to 106 per year. In 2016, there were 3.6 cases of injury and illness per 100 workers within this industry.
Illegal logging
Economy The existence of a wood economy, or more broadly, a forest economy (in many countries a bamboo economy predominates), is a prominent matter in many developing countries as well as in many other nations with a temperate climate and especially in those with low temperatures. These are generally the countries with greater forested areas so conditions allow for development of local forestry to harvest wood for local uses. The uses of wood in furniture, buildings, bridges, and as a source of energy are widely known. Additionally, wood from trees and bushes, can be used in a variety of products, such as wood pulp, cellulose in paper, celluloid in early photographic film, cellophane, and rayon (a substitute for silk).
At the end of their normal usage, wood products can be burnt to obtain thermal energy or can be used as a fertilizer. The potential environmental damage that a wood economy could occasion include a reduction of biodiversity due to monoculture forestry (the intensive cultivation of very few trees types); and CO2 emissions. However, forests can aid in the reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide and thus limit climate change.
Paper is today the most used wood product.
History of use of wood The wood economy was the starting point of the civilizations worldwide, since eras preceding the Paleolithic and the Neolithic. It necessarily preceded ages of metals by many millennia, as the melting of metals was possible only through the discovery of techniques to light fire (usually obtained by the scraping of two very dry wooden rods) and the building of many simple machines and rudimentary tools, as canes, club handles, bows, arrows, lances. One of the most ancient handmade articles ever found is a polished wooden spear tip (Clacton Spear) 250,000 years old (third interglacial period), that was buried under sediments in England, at Clacton-on-Sea.Tecnologia Dalle Origini al 2000, pag. 18
Dimensions and geography The main source of the lumber used in the world is forests, which can be classified as virgin, semivirgin and plantations. Much timber is removed for firewood by local populations in many countries, especially in the third world, but this amount can only be estimated, with wide margins of uncertainty.
In 1998, the worldwide production of "Roundwood" (officially counted wood not used as firewood), was about , amounting to around 45% of the wood cultivated in the world. Cut logs and branches destined to become elements for building construction accounted for approximately 55% of the world's industrial wood production. 25% became wood pulp (including wood powder and broccoli) mainly destined for the production of paper and paperboard, and approximately 20% became panels in plywood and valuable wood for furniture and objects of common use (FAO 1998).FAO 1998
By 2001 the rainforest areas of Brazil were reduced by a fifth (respect of 1970), to around 4,000,000 km2; the ground cleared was mainly destined for cattle pasture—Brazil is the world's largest exporter of beef with almost 200,000,000 head of cattle. The booming Brazilian ethanol economy based upon sugar cane cultivation, is likewise reducing forests area. Canadian forest was reduced by almost 30% to 3,101,340 km2 over the same period.
Importance in limiting climate change