Wood products

GDF produces around 13,2 million m³ round wood each year. (7-7.5 million m³ industrial and 7-8 million steres fuel-wood ). This production meets about 75 % of the domestic round wood consumption. Private forests and agricultural land (mostly private eucalyptus and poplar plantations that are not considered to be forest) provide 3.3 million m³ industrial wood and of 1.9 million steres fuel-wood to market. The remaining demand is met from imports.

Production of round-wood from state forests has dropped from 23,2 million m³ to 13,2 million m³ since 1980. This drop mainly occurred in fuel-wood production (%64). At the same time, the share of thin material has increased and the share of logs has decreased (from 5.5 million m³ to 3 million m³) in total production. This drop has mainly attributed to the increasing use of metals and plastics in the construction sector and introduction of new technologies that uses chipboards, MDF and OSB in the furniture sector.

Production of paper wood reached a peak with 1,5 million m³ in 90s, but then, it dropped to 250.000 million m³ in 2003. Competitive weakness of the sector, lack of state-of-art technologies and finally the prolonged privatization of state paper factories have hampered the demand for pulpwood.

Chip and fibre sector, on the other hand, has dramatically developed. In the recent years Turkey has found a place among leading countries in Europe in terms of the production capacity. The annual domestic processing capacity reaches 10 million steres (80 % of this capacity is used).

The production trend signals a stable curve with a slight increase in 20 years, the increase will mainly be in chip & fibre wood and pulpwood. Fuel-wood production is expected to decrease while wood production for energy purposes may increase (depending on the development of plants that uses wood for energy production).

The study named “Development of European Forests Until 2050” projects the future development of wood production in Turkey as follows:

“Results for Turkey may indicate that the present fellings are at their biological maximum, or slightly above. However, the result should be viewed with care as we have covered only part of the forests available for wood supply, and the increment data seemed to be quite uncertain.

Taking all these into account, the projections indicate that under the present fellings level, the average growing stock may decline from 153 m³/ha at present to 140 m³ ha in 2050. The projections for the 5.5 million ha of forests show that a maximum sustainable production of 13.6 million m³/yr may be achieved, which is a moderate decrease from the present level of around 14.2 million m³/yr. By 2050 the growing stock under the MTF scenario may amount to 162 m³/ha. .......”