Sales of treated structural softwood (H2F) achieved their second successive monthly record in September 2015, with sales reaching 551,038 m3. Monthly H2F sales have only exceeded 50,000 m3 on three occasions, all of them in the last eighteen months. Emphasising the performance of this grade and expectations of its future growth, annualised sales amounted to 550,170 m3 for the year-ended September 2015. This was also a record and one that looks set to be broken repeatedly over coming months.
The chart below shows sales of H2F over the last four years. It shows clearly the rise in both monthly and year-end sales.
To go straight to the dashboard and take a closer look at the data, click here.
To provide a more complete picture of the growth in demand for and sales of H2F, the table below displays sales to the year-ended September since 2005, along with the growth rate from the prior year.
| YE September | Sales Volume (m3) | % Change on Prior Year |
| 2005 | 85,474 | – |
| 2006 | 210,864 | 146.7 |
| 2007 | 297,291 | 41.0 |
| 2008 | 314,492 | 5.8 |
| 2009 | 278,988 | -11.3 |
| 2010 | 386,928 | 38.7 |
| 2011 | 363,437 | -6.1 |
| 2012 | 364,912 | 0.4 |
| 2013 | 402,564 | 10.3 |
| 2014 | 500,432 | 24.3 |
| 2015 | 550,169 | 9.9 |
As the table shows, sales growth has not been consistent over the decade. The demand crunch of the GFC, the high Australian Dollar and slow housing approvals, have at different periods, resulted in soft growth and even negative demand in some years.
However, the trend is a very strong 20.5% per annum growth in sales. The factor that tempers this analysis is that participation in the sales survey has changed over time.
A different measure of the importance of H2F is the proportion of total sales it has represented over time. For the year-ended September 2005, H2F sales amounted to 3.7% of total sawn softwood sales. Year-ended September 2015, H2F accounted for 20.9% of total sales. It is now the second largest product by sales, bested only by its untreated sibling (Structural <120 mm).
The interesting question is when sales of H2F will become the most significant product in Australia’s sawn softwood market.
