The board sector employs 8,600 people on the Peninsula and annually invoices 4,373 million

This Thursday and Friday, Santiago is hosting the annual meeting of the European Record Manufacturers Federation (EPF), attended by 200 representatives of 50 companies from 32 countries on the continent. The meeting is organized by the Iberian Association (Anfta) and focuses this Thursday on specific working meetings for each product line by EPF members, with the exchange of information from the sector, as well as the challenges they face in terms of sustainability in the value chain from furniture manufacturers to experts in architecture and interior design.

On Friday, an open assembly will be held where representatives of the institutions will join experts from the sector and experts in architecture and interior design who will deal with sustainable construction and the application of the standards of the new Bauhaus in construction, its transfer to the furniture and home industry and the contribution of the panel sector to the bioeconomy, circularity and wood recycling.

Panel manufacturers have a turnover of 22,000 million euros per year in Europe, of which Spain and Portugal contribute 4,373, employing 8,600 workers (100,000 across the continent). European production reached 60.9 million cubic meters of panels produced in 2022, a figure to which both countries contributed 4.82 million. The sector recycles 1.8 million cubic meters of wood waste per year in the Iberian Peninsula (equivalent to filling 168 football fields at a height of one meter).

The sector points out that wood panels combine this raw material in different forms (particles, fibres, boards or shavings) with glue, resulting in a technical product with multiple finishes and features, which enables various applications in architecture and interior design. And they highlight the substitution effect that wood can have compared to more energy-intensive and emission-intensive materials, such as steel and concrete.

Genoveva Casals, general secretary of Anfta, points out the interest that the meeting has caused, in times of uncertainty such as the current one, and that in a sector that has a strong presence in Germany and Eastern Europe. He indicates that, as a consumer sector, it is affected by the paralysis that has been experienced: “2021. went incredibly well; The summer of 2022 went very well; and after that date, with the uncertainty of gas and price increases, it started to stagnate. It continues in that phase of slowing down, although Casals explains that expectations were worse than reality. One of the shortcomings in the sector is the increase in the price of wood, which is used as an energy source, due to the lack of other sources and the closure of Russia, “which was the world’s largest producer of pellets”.