"It's very cyclical: there is a shortage of wood products because it is the aftermath of the Covid crisis. Everything has resumed suddenly with the various recovery plans in the world. It has created a call for air huge in terms of the number of sites and the need for wood products ", analyzes Jérôme Martinez, development manager of the Bois de France label, present like many players in the sector at a forum this week in Paris.
This resumption of activity on the hats of wheels is reflected in sawmills which run at full speed like that of Frédéric Blanc in the Drôme, currently at 130% of its usual production.
The price of KVH solid construction timber has tripled, while the price of glued laminated timber has doubled, according to industry professionals.
Large price fluctuations can occur in the same day, assures Augustin Malavaud, in charge of price studies at Eiffage Construction Bois. "It's the race to who will be able to sign the order form as quickly as possible to make the price firm. What is difficult today is to have suppliers who are committed to keeping their prices. deadlines and keeping their prices. "
Reluctant customers
While timber construction is faster on the construction site, it requires more design time. Building with wood was therefore already around 30% more expensive than with traditional materials before the shortages. Added to this are now longer lead times and even higher prices, which are causing reluctance.
Hervé Ravenet, of the Weber Saint-Gobain company, fears that he will no longer be able to absorb the price increases and the delays: "The demand is there, but is it not the last straw that will make that in certain projects, instead of having a wooden skeleton, we are going to go back to a concrete post-beam structure? ".
Virginie Wolff, director of the Alsatian company for the manufacture of wooden structures, Les Bois du Ried, is already observing postponements and transformations of construction sites. "Customers planned in wood frames go to hard houses so as not to have these additional costs and these delay problems", she assures us.
"It's dramatic, we have sites that are at a standstill," she says, and some customers have suffered 7.000 to 10.000 euros in additional costs for a house, regrets the business manager.
New standards in 2022
The impact of the building sector on the climate is heavy: it is responsible for 19% of greenhouse gas emissions in France.
A new environmental regulation, known as RE2020, more demanding on emissions, will come into force on January 1, 2022. By taking into account all the emissions of a building from its construction, it should place cork, hemp, straw and other biobased materials with wood at the heart of the design of new buildings. "With the RE2020 we can get out of the game", hopes Virginie Wolff.
The proof is that the building giants now all have a foot in biobased, like Vinci with its subsidiary Arbonis or Bouygues Construction and its wood construction brand WeWood, launched in 2020.
Bouygues aims to reach 30% of wood projects by 2030, according to Fabrice Denis, of WeWood.
And biobased non-wood is already in demand. Yves Hustache, founder of Scop Karibati specializing in these materials, noted an 87% growth in the sector between 2019 and 2020. Bio-based products now represent 10% of the insulation market.
A wooden frame filled with bales of straw, insulation made from hemp, flax or rice husks: despite the uncertainties about costs, such could be the greener face of the house of tomorrow.