Australia’s housing construction sector faces a critical timber shortage and our reliance on imported timber will double by 2050 if our nation falls short of the plan to plant an additional one billion production Trees, a new interim report by Forest & Wood Products Australia has found. Source: Timberbiz
The Australian Forest Products Association says the report reveals the demand for new housing will rise from 183,000 new dwellings per annum now to 259,000 per annum by 2050, driving an increase of almost 50 per cent in demand for timber.
International demand for timber continues to surge and, coupled with the COVID-led worldwide construction boom, Australia has not been able to source around 20 % of our housing requirements, needed from imports.
The report, prepared by Tim Woods and Jim Houghton, says that taking immediate action to establish new softwood plantations, Australia can mitigate the risk and increase its sovereign supply capability for its most critical and sustainable building resource.
The report found that by no later than 2050, Australia will have:
- A population between 33.62 and 39.97 million people
- New housing demand around 259,000 dwellings per annum
- 175 million additional households whose demography will demand a marginally different housing mix to the current distribution of housing formats
- Sawn softwood demand of 6.507 million m3 per annum – almost 2.0 million m3 per annum higher than 2021
- Local sawn softwood production static at between 3.600 and 3.800 million m3 per annum due to constraints on sawlog supply
- An Implied Gap between demand and local production of 2.638 million m3 per annum, equivalent to 40.5% of total demand
To bridge the Implied Gap, Australia could establish as much as 468,000 hectares of additional softwood plantations, commencing immediately.
The FWPA report expects reliance on imports to double by 2050 if we do not grow our plantation estate and meet the One Billion new Production Trees goal.
“The critical timber shortages of the past two years have exposed Australia’s over-reliance on timber imports, which have become more expensive and difficult to source, which has driven up building costs and significantly delayed construction,” AFPA CEO Ross Hampton said.
“The finding that our reliance on timber imports could blow out to double over the next 30 years should be ringing alarm bells among policy makers.
“Furthermore, the global push for more fibre to transform building systems, the pivot away from plastics and move to sustainable biofuels, along with the need to halt deforestation internationally, will only make gaining imports even more difficult.
“The good news is that there is time to avert this crisis if all levels of government work with industry to ensure Australia reaches its one billion new production trees goal and fill more of the supply gap with Aussie grown, renewable timber, and in the process support the hundreds of thousands of jobs forest industries underpin.”
The Coalition’s recently announced $305 million forest industries package to support new plantations and drive forestry and timber innovation was an excellent start delivered in the campaign.
Mr Hampton said the AFPA looked forward to seeing Labor’s response to Our Plan for Growth, including measures to achieve the One Billion Trees Goal.
