In variance to the original forecasts, the output of sawn hardwood in the twelve member of countries of the European Organisation of the Sawmill Industry (EOS) in 2020 was only 4.8% lower than a year earlier at 5.73m m³. At a webinar on developments on the international sawn hardwood markets held by the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) in November 2020, it was still being assumed that the figure was going to fall by 20.5% to 4.32m m³. The figure of 5.43m m³ presented at that time for 2019 has also been adjusted in the meantime. Nevertheless, the reduction in output that had begun in 2019 continued for the second year in succession last year. 6.14m m³ and 6.12m m³ of sawn hardwood were produced in the EOS member countries in 2016 and 2018, respectively, and 6.04m m³ in 2017. It must be noted here, however, that the countries of relevance for the European output of sawn hardwood such as Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are not members of the EOS. 1.39m m³ of sawn hardwood were produced in Croatia in 2019. Following the extensive enlargement of capacity until 2016, Bosnia-Herzegovina achieved a sawn-hardwood output of between 1.04m m³ (2018) and roughly 1.30m m³ (2019) in the years thereafter.
Transferring these official reported volumes would put Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina behind Romania and ahead of or on an equal footing with Germany and France in the EOS statistics. In the EOS survey, Romania remained the biggest sawn-hardwood producer in 2020 at 1.62m m³. In France, the reduction in output over the last few years continued to 1.24m m³. In Germany, at 991,000 m³, sawn-hardwood production fell below the 1m m³ mark again in 2020 for the first time in many years.
