Despite accounting for only 16% of all sawmills (see Table 2.8), those with total annual sawnwood production of 25 thousand cubic metres or more accounted for 85% of the total softwood consumed by sawmills in 2017 (Table 2.11).
Table 2.11 Consumption of softwood by size of mill, 2008-2017
Year | Size of Mill (total production)1 | Total | ||||||
<1 | 1 – <5 | 5 – <10 | 10 – <25 | 25 – <50 | 50 – <100 | 100+ | ||
thousand green tonnes | ||||||||
2008 | 31 | 215 | 172 | 599 | 660 | 1548 | 1881 | 5107 |
2009 | 35 | 201 | 145 | 664 | 670 | 1323 | 2253 | 5291 |
2010 | 35 | 194 | 147 | 744 | 537 | 1373 | 2689 | 5719 |
2011 | 32 | 188 | 148 | 685 | 615 | 830 | 3486 | 5984 |
2012 | 33 | 185 | 175 | 539 | 738 | 1133 | 3395 | 6198 |
2013 | 36 | 185 | 169 | 578 | 702 | 777 | 4085 | 6532 |
2014 | 36 | 167 | 156 | 588 | 731 | 1090 | 4117 | 6884 |
2015 | 31 | 168 | 196 | 553 | 795 | 801 | 3805 | 6350 |
2016 | 29 | 155 | 191 | 588 | 372 | 1117 | 4270 | 6720 |
2017 | 29 | 170 | 164 | 671 | 339 | 1352 | 4122 | 6848 |
Source: Sawmill Survey
Notes:
1. Categories are based on total sawnwood production (softwood and hardwood), in thousand m3.
Data: Longer time series of the above table are available from the Data Downloads web page at: www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/data-downloads/.
Sources chapter: Sawmill Survey