The value of timber and joinery product sales at UK builders merchants rose by 1.8% in Q4 2025, according to the latest figures from the Builders Merchants Building Index (BMBI).
December finished the year on a high note, with sales up +8.6%, providing a more positive close for timber sales at builders merchants.
Overall, the BMBI Index shows that like-for-like value sales for Q4 2025, adjusted to account for trading days, were -1.2% lower than Q4 2024, while like-for-like volume sales fell by -2.9%.
Volume sales dropped -2.9%, even as prices rose by +1.8%. Meanwhile, the value of heavy building materials sales fell by 3.9%.
Compared with Q3 2025, like-for-like sales in Q4 were down -9.0%, with volume decreasing by 13.1%.
“Demand from construction sites for engineered timber products slowed at the back end of the fourth quarter and businesses also took proactive steps to reduce their inventories in the run up to their financial year ends,” said James Davenport, managing director of Metsä Wood UK and BMBI’s expert for softwoods and engineered timber.
“There are still pockets of activity in certain regions, and surely this is linked to affordability. Could it be that in 2025 we actually ended up building fewer new homes than in 2024?
“There is still demand for softwood products in the market. Projects are being started and, of course, the need to repair and maintain will always continue. Reports from our customer base are that their customers are extremely cost conscious and are shopping around to get the best possible price. Unfortunately, this is often a symptom of businesses’ weak order books and subsequently having time on their hands.”
“In Europe, where a lot of the UK’s strength graded timber, joinery grade softwood, and engineered wood products are supplied from, log supplies reduced in both the Nordic countries and central Europe because the primary consumers of round wood are no longer willing to pay the extremely high prices forest owners have been demanding.
“This, together with weak demand across most main European markets, resulted in production curtailments being taken, many in the form of extended Christmas holidays.
“We start 2026 with supply chain inventories in relative balance. Should either a lack of production, or excessive demand materialise in the first quarter, we can expect to see very aggressive moves to push prices up in the second quarter.”
