There is a shortage of birch wood for sawmills in Sweden. These last years birch has become a very popular wood for interior decoration and design, but most of that wood is consumed in the pulp industry.
This shortage is most evident in the sawmills. Some of them have come to a standstill for lack of raw material. Raw material is the core problem. For example the company Dahlgrens Bygg och Trä in Arbr? buys birch wood from Härnösand in the north to the Dalälven river in the south. The company's annual production of sawn birch wood is 13 000 - 15 000 cubic metres, i.e. the equivalent of about 350 timber lorries. Production volume increases every year.
Birch grows and regenerates very well all by itself. For that reason it gives good quality timber, but it requires active care and attention.
The latest estimates made by the Swedish forest industry concerning timber consumption in Sweden indicate that almost 70 per cent of all birch wood is consumed by the pulp industry. About 30 per cent is consumed as firewood in private households and only about 1 per cent becomes sawn wood.