Sentiment across the German timber industry steadied in April after sliding continuously since October 2025, even as companies turned more downbeat about trading conditions over the coming six months. That is according to the latest Konjunkturindikator published by the Hauptverband der Deutschen Holzindustrie, the country’s peak timber industry body, which draws on the ifo Institute’s monthly survey of representative firms across every segment of the sector.
Companies reported a noticeably better read on their current business position, with the assessment improving to minus 28 points from minus 34 in March, whilst their outlook for the coming half year slipped to minus 32.2 points from minus 29.4. The composite indicator, which combines both measures, edged up to minus 30.1 points from minus 31.7, leaving the sector parked at an unchanged low level on a scale from plus 100 to minus 100.
The timber industry continues to trail the wider economy, with the ifo Institute’s reading for German manufacturing slipping only slightly in March yet remaining well clear of the figure recorded for wood products firms. That gap has persisted throughout the downturn, underlining how exposed the sector remains to weak construction activity and soft consumer demand.
The mood remains split across industry segments, reflecting how unevenly the slowdown has fallen across different parts of the sector. Averaged over the past three months, only firms in prefabricated timber construction judged their current position positive, whilst sawmilling, furniture, and wood packaging companies rated conditions distinctly weaker.
Expectations for the next six months follow a similar divide, holding positive in prefabricated construction, the construction-supply segment and the wood-based panels industry, but staying negative in furniture, sawmilling and wood packaging. The HDH attributes the firmer tone in the building-related segments chiefly to recovering demand in residential construction.
Approvals tell much the same story, with permits for detached and semi-detached houses rising 15.6 per cent across the first two months of 2026 and approvals for multi-unit dwellings climbing 20.4 per cent over the same period. Those gains have lent cautious optimism to the timber-frame building trade, even as completions across the wider market continue to lag.
The furniture industry remains the weakest link, weighed down by falling building completions and a subdued consumer climate across Germany, with the HDH pointing to fresh pressure since the outbreak of the Iran war. Rising energy and raw material costs and fears of supply chain disruption now sit alongside the compliance bill bearing down on the sector from the EU’s deforestation regulation, compounding an already fragile picture for manufacturers.
