Forest economic research
2020
A framework for developing medium term projections of traded wood products
Forest and Wood Products Australia commissioned ABARES to develop a quantitative framework for projecting future exports and imports of selected wood
Published: 4 August 2020
Productivity and efficiency of the Australian sawmilling industry
This study, commissioned by Forest and Wood Products Australia, is the first comprehensive productivity and efficiency analysis of the Australian sawmilling industry at the mill level.
Published: 10 July 2020
Bushfires and pandemic spell tough road ahead for forestry and wood processing sectors
Major challenges for forestry and wood processors loom in the wake of summer’s bushfires and COVID-19, according to analysis in our latest ABARES Insights report.
Published: 30 June 2020
2019
This report was jointly commissioned by Forest and Wood Products Australia and the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) to estimate the area of new softwood plantations required to support a world-scale softwood sawmill in selected National Plantation Inventory (NPI) regions.
Published: 26 February 2019
Economic potential for new plantation establishment in Australia: Outlook to 2050 report
This report explores the economic potential of establishing new commercial timber plantations in Australia, between 2020 and 2050, under current and alternative market conditions. The findings of the report are intended to assist industry and policymakers anticipate and adapt to expected changes in the industry.
Published: 26 February 2019
2018
Future opportunities for using forest and sawmill residues in Australia
This report presents estimates of the potential production and use of harvest and sawmill residues in Australia in 2050. It provides insights into what the production and use of wood residues may look like in decades to come, once any required investment in infrastructure has taken place.
Published: 6 November 2018
This technical report estimates the responsiveness of demand for structural pine to changes in timber and steel prices. Measures of demand responsiveness can provide valuable insights into the potential implications of changes in policy or market settings on volumes and prices received by producers. The analysis focuses on estimating short-term price elasticities of demand--a formal measure of the sensitivity of demand--to changes in prices in the same quarter or recent past.
Published: 12 July 2018
2016
Short-term forecasts of selected wood product sales volume: Method and assumptions
As part of a three year (2015-16 to 2017-18) joint project between Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA) and ABARES, ABARES developed quarterly sales volume forecasts for selected wood products from the FWPA Softwood Data series. This technical report documents the methods and assumption underlying ABARES forecasts.
Published: 23 August 2016
2015
Illegal logging regulation: analysis of regulated importers by business size
This report builds on previous work ABARES undertook on the Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation 2012. It investigates differences in the characteristics of importers of regulated timber products for four different business size categories. ABARES also conducted sensitivity testing to examine the potential impact of changes to the Regulation's key eligibility criteria.
Published: December 2015