Sawmill Machinery Market

Market Overview

The global sawmill machinery market size is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 2.9% during the forecast period (2019–2026) and reach an estimated value of USD 475.1 million by 2026.

Sawmill machinery is used in woodworking facilities for processing lumber from felled trees. It is designed to reduce manual labor in the sawing of wood. A majority of today’s sawmill machinery is automated, and manufacturers are channelizing efforts for the development of advanced machinery in order to boost the speed and efficiency of sawmills.

Market Dynamics

Rising population is leading to an increase in construction activities, particularly in the residential housing sector. This grow in construction activities is expected to boost the demand for lumber/wood. Furthermore, the use of automation in sawmill machinery is expected to boost the global market. Sawmill machinery offers various versatile features such as sensors and scanners for measurement to optimize cutting patterns & log rotation.

Regional Analysis

Geographically, the global sawmill machinery market has been studied across four regions, namely North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America and the Middle East and Africa.

North America is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.  The strong presence of leading manufacturers such as Compact and Norwood makes the region a highly competitive market for sawmill machinery manufacturers. Additionally, these manufacturers are also undertaking extensive research to cater to developed foreign markets such as Germany by adding more automated sawmill machinery in their product lines. Moreover, North America is among the leading countries in the woodwork industry, which is evident from the data provided by the Organization of Economic Complexity, which stated that North America contributed to around 16% of the total sawn wood exports.

Europe is another region anticipated to witness considerable market growth. The European Union has close to 182 million hectares of forests, spanning over around 43% of its land area. The EU has come up with Forest Strategy 2014–2020, which aims to safeguard forests while efficiently using forest resources. This is expected to lead to an increase in forests, which could lead to an increase in wood production. These elements are expected to aid the market growth in Europe.

Asia-Pacific is expected to witness notable growth during the forecast period, 2019–2026. Economies such as Malaysia and Japan have the highest forest areas of 67.6% and 68.5% respectively. The construction work done in Malaysia in the first quarter of 2019 was valued at USD 9000 million. This high growth in the construction sector is expected to lead to an increase in the consumption of wood, which is likely to lead to the consumption of sawmill machinery in the region.

Latin America is expected to witness healthy growth in the sawmill machinery market. The region is home to around 25% of the world’s forest cover. Additionally, the presence of industrially emerging economies such as Brazil and Argentina is expected to lead to an increase in the consumption of wood to support the growing manufacturing industry in Latin America.

The Middle East and Africa region is expected to witness substantial growth in the sawmill machinery market. Presence of economies with significant forest areas, such as Tanzania that has a forest cover of around 51.6%, is expected to drive the sawmill machinery market in this region.

Segmental Analysis

The global sawmill machinery market can be segmented on the basis of product type, type of headrig, mounting type, and end user.

By product type, the market can be segmented into fixed sawmill and portable sawmill. The fixed sawmill segment is expected to remain dominant during the forecast period, 2019–2026. Fixed sawmills are economically viable for use in countries with a high unfragmented forest cover. Owing to its nature of being fixed on-site, it must be provided with an efficient transport system for supplying logs for cutting and trimming. Economies such as Finland and Sweden, with high forest covers of 73.1% and 68.9% respectively, and other similar economies are expected to promote the growth of this segment.

On the basis of type of headrig, the market can be segmented into frame saw, circular saw, and band saw. For high accuracy application, such as in crafting furniture, wooden flooring, and wooden frames, circular sawmill machinery is used. The demand for wooden flooring has increased significantly around the globe in order to achieve comfortable indoor environments in cold weather conditions and increase aesthetic value. The consumption of shaped wood, also known as flooring wood, has increased to some extent with the increase in construction activities.  

Based on mounting type, the market can be segmented into horizontal and vertical. Horizontal mounting type sawmill machines are used in large-scale lumber companies, which – as of now – are producing better outputs. Lumber companies that are working on a large scale witnessed a production rise of around 2.3% in 2017, as per Forest Economic Advisors (Canada). It should be noted though that horizontal machines have limited use since they cannot form curved lines or complicated shapes in the wood, which is likely to restrict the growth of the segment in the coming years.