Only slow growth in German demand for lumber

Even though the Easter holidays are over, there has not yet been any fundamental upswing in business activity on the German softwood lumber markets. A seasonal increase in demand from the building and building-related sectors is evidently still coinciding with an adequate and partly still relatively high supply of lumber in spite of a slight reduction in cutting activity in some places. Manufacturers are working from the assumption that the situation could return to normal during the course of the next four to six weeks, however, particularly since cuts in output over the Easter holidays played a major part in running down any surplus stocks that had still existed. Added to this is the fact that there are only 20 working days in May and that some sawmills will also be using the forthcoming bridging days between the bank holidays at the end of April and in May to carry out stoppages by the day again.