MDF - world trend

In 1993, the share of MDF of the global woodpanel market was 6%. Based on the announced new plants, the production will exceed 20 million m3 by the year 2000 equalling some 14% of the world woodpanel market. Because of the good physical properties and favourable machinability, MDF has a large variety of uses for the end-product. MDF even has advantages over wood, because it is free from natural faults, it has a high dimensional stability and is available as large size panels. MDF offers direct savings to the users of solid wood and plywood due to its lower volumetric price and very competitive quality and attractive technical properties. The substitution of MDF for uses traditionally using solid lumber has greatly expanded the market opportunities and provided the largest growth opportunity. MDF, using cellulose fiber as its raw material, is not limited to wood fiber as its only source of raw material. Today Europe is the most important MDF producer with a present annual capacity in Europe which has increased since 1980 from 0.6 million m3 to 3.3 million m3 in 1993 as production has reached 2.5 million m3, led by Italy, Germany and Spain. The number of ongoing projects in Europe is eleven. These projects increased the European capacity to 5.5 million m3 by the end of 1996. Asia has experienced the most notable consumption growth of the world markets. The average annual consumption increase since 1980 until 1992 was over 30%. The biggest exporter in the world is New Zealand, and Taiwan is the biggest importer in the world.