Serendipity, timber statistics and the search for a better understanding of construction output
Serendipity led me from some UNECE Timber Committee forecasts released today to some timber usage data I wasn’t all that familiar with, more of which later. First the forecasts. It’s important to know that UK construction accounts (on the last count) for about 84% of imported softwood. This proportion is up on earlier years when the share tended to be in the low 70s as a percentage. Either way any forecast for imported softwood will be heavily influenced by the…