Our survey of the OSB industry in 2009 outside North America showed a distinct upturn in both volumes sold and producers’ levels of optimism, compared with a dismal year in 2008.

The relative calm in the North American OSB market during the past year has brought welcome respite after the roller-coaster ride of the preceding five or so years, which saw mill after mill shut down – some for good – and removed billions of square feet of capacity.

After last year’s universally downbeat assessment of the markets in 2008, the European industry is mainly in a very positive, if somewhat surprised, frame of mind about 2009 – and many are optimistic for 2010

Production is running some 12 billion ft2 below the boom in the middle of the last decade, with another four mills permanently closed last year and about 7.8 billion ft2/year of non-permanent, market-related shutdowns ongoing.  Audrey Dixon, senior editor with Forestweb, reviews the ups and downs of 2009 and what the experts are forecasting for the year ahead

More than 10 billion ft2 of capacity – about a third – has been removed from the North American market in the last two to three years, as manufacturers desperately try to restore some equilibrium to their businesses. Audrey Dixon, senior editor with Forestweb, reports

You would not expect a happy story from the producers of OSB in Europe and Latin America and so this survey will not come as a surprise. It is, inevitably, for the most part a story of holding tight and waiting for the upturn