Diversification of the forest industries: role of new wood-based products

This study identifies new wood-based products with considerable potential and attractive markets, including textiles, liquid biofuels, platform chemicals, plastics and packaging. We apply a mixed methods review approach to examine how the position of forest industry in respective value chains determines the production value. Consequently, an assessment is provided as to the degree these emerging wood-based products could compensate for the foreseen decline of graphic paper markets in four major forest industry countries: USA, Canada, Sweden, and Finland. A 1–2% percent market share in selected global markets implies a potential increase in revenues of 18-75 billion euros per annum s in the four selected countries by 2030. This corresponds to 10–43% of the production value of forest industries in these countries in 2016. This range compares to a projected decline of graphic paper industry revenue of 5.5 billion euros by 2030. The respective impact on wood use are manifold, as many of the new products utilize byproducts as feedstock. The impact on primary wood use, almost entirely attributable to the construction and to some extent to textile markets, would be in the range of 15-133 million m3, corresponding to 2-21 % of the current industrial roundwood use in these four countries..JRC.D.1-Bio-econom