A total of 169 sawmills processed UK roundwood in 2016 (Table 2.8). Most mills (83%) produced less than 25 thousand m3 sawnwood (softwood and hardwood) during the year.
Over the past ten years, the number of active sawmills has reduced by 18%. Most of this decrease has occurred in the smallest size categories.
YearSize of mill (total production)1 Total
< […]
A total of 171 sawmills processed UK roundwood in 2015 (Table 2.8). Around three quarters (73%) of sawmills produced less than 10 thousand m3 sawnwood (softwood and hardwood) during the year.
Over the past ten years, there has been a reduction in the number of mills producing less than 25 thousand m3 sawnwood, while the number […]
A total of 164 sawmills processed UK roundwood in 2017 (Table 2.8). Most mills (84%) produced less than 25 thousand m3 sawnwood (softwood and hardwood) during the year.
Over the past ten years, the number of active sawmills has reduced by 17%. Most of this decrease has occurred in the smallest size categories.
Table 2.8 Number of sawmills by size […]
A total of 328 thousand green tonnes of softwood (UK grown and imported) was purchased by softwood fencing manufacturers in 2015 (Table 2.26). This represents a decrease of 2% from the 2014 total of 336 thousand green tonnes.
Table 2.26 Total roundwood purchased by softwood round fencing manufacturers, 2006-2015
Year
Size category (consumption)1
Total
< 1
1 – […]
A total of 303 thousand green tonnes of softwood (UK grown and imported) was purchased by softwood fencing manufacturers in 2016 (Table 2.26). This represents a decrease of 4% from the 2015 total of 316 thousand green tonnes.
Table 2.26 Total roundwood purchased by softwood round fencing manufacturers, 2007-2016
YearSize category (consumption)1 Total
<1
1 – <5
5 – <10
10+
thousand green […]
A total of 295 thousand green tonnes of softwood (UK grown and imported) was purchased by softwood fencing manufacturers in 2017 (Table 2.26). This represents an increase of 6% from the 2016 total of 277 thousand green tonnes.
Table 2.26 Total roundwood purchased by softwood round fencing manufacturers, 2008-2017YearSize category (consumption)1 Total
<1
1 – <5
5 – <10
10+
thousand green […]
Around one half (53%) of the 169 active sawmills in 2016 were in England, around one third (33%) were in Scotland, 9% in Wales and 5% in Northern Ireland (Table 2.9).
YearEnglandWalesScotlandNorthern IrelandUK
2007
105
20
70
10
205
2008
103
18
68
8
197
2009
101
17
68
9
195
2010
98
17
65
9
189
2011
96
16
64
9
185
2012
95
15
62
9
181
2013
92
15
60
9
176
2014
92
15
58
9
174
2015
91
15
56
9
171
2016
90
15
55
9
169
Source: Sawmill Survey
Data: Longer time series of the above table, and for mills in England by region, are available from the Data Downloads web […]
Around one half (53%) of the 171 active sawmills in 2015 were in England, around one third (33%) were in Scotland, 9% in Wales and 5% in Northern Ireland (Table 2.9).
Table 2.9 Number of sawmills by country, 2006-2015
Year
England
Wales
Scotland
Northern
Ireland
UK
2006
108
21
71
13
213
2007
105
20
70
10
205
2008
103
18
68
8
197
2009
101
17
68
9
195
2010
98
17
65
9
189
2011
96
16
64
9
185
2012
95
15
62
9
181
2013
92
15
60
9
176
2014
92
15
58
9
174
2015
91
15
56
9
171
Source: Sawmill Survey
Data: Longer time series of the above table, and for mills in […]
We use 3 types of cookie. You can choose which cookies you're happy for us to use.
Strictly necessary cookies
Always On
These essential cookies do things like remember your progress through a form.
They always need to be on.
Cookies that measure website use
We use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website so we can improve it based on user needs.
Google Analytics sets cookies that store anonymised information about:
how you got to the site
the pages you visit on forestresearch.gov.uk and how long you spend on each page
what you click on while you're visiting the site
Cookies that help with our communications and marketing
Some forestresearch.gov.uk pages may contain content from other sites, like YouTube or Flickr, which may set their own cookies. These sites are sometimes called ‘third party’ services. This tells us how many people are seeing the content and whether it’s useful.
