Timber Trade Practice

The history of the timber trade is as old as the history of commerce. Timber was perhaps the first building material used by man. It is mentioned in Biblical times; the Egyptians were acquainted with the finer techniques of the use of veneers; and the buying and selling of timber in the history of man has been as important as the buying and selling of foodstuffs and clothing.

Forests cover a quarter of the earth’s land surface, although only a proportion are in positions where it is economical and practical to fell and extract the timber, and for this reason only a fraction of these resources is being utilised. The volume of roundwood being removed from the forests is steadily increasing, owing to the development of industries, improvement in transportation, growth in population and rise in the level of living in most regions. The trees from which we obtain our timber vary considerably in size and quality, depending upon their environment. The many varied conditions of weather, soil, altitude and location each has its effect on the growth of the tree and, hence, on the quality of the timber it produces.

The timber trade must surely be one of the most intricate of trades, dealing as it does with hundreds of species of timber, each of which can be supplied in three variable dimensions of thickness, width and length. Timber is not a homogeneous product like woodpulp or steel, and it requires an elaborate system of shippers, agents, importers, merchants and brokers to arrange its transport and distribution.

Importing softwood is the largest section of the UK timber trade, in numbers of firms engaged, in volume of timber handled and in overall finance involved. (It accounts for approximately 54 per cent of the value of all timber imports.) The seasonal nature of the trade introduces its own problems, which are not reproduced to the same extent in the hardwood and plywood panel products importing trades. It is useful, therefore, to consider the special problems of the softwood trade.

The imported trade is bound up closely with shipping and marine insurance, which must be fully understood if pitfalls are to be avoided. The following simplified definitions will help to explain the clauses and conditions appearing in shipping and marine insurance documents.

Marine insurance is a contract of indemnity whereby one party (the insurer), in consideration of a specified payment (the premium), undertakes to guarantee another party (the assured) against risk of loss through maritime perils. It dates back to the earliest days of trading between countries and the carriage of goods by sea. Since it is a contract of indemnity, the assured can only recover from the insurer the amount of loss actually sustained.

All transactions involving the purchase and sale of timber are governed by the law of the land. While the great majority of these transactions progress without difficulty, there are inevitably times when differences arise between buyers and sellers. These are settled according to the law, which provides for the protection of the interests of both buyers and sellers. It is necessary, therefore, for any party in commerce to have an understanding of the simple elements of the law affecting the transactions they make, in order that they may benefit fully from the particular protection they receive under the law, and at the same time be fully aware of pitfalls and circumstances where they are not protected.

Since the last edition of this book there have been many changes in the timber trade, each necessitating some alteration in the wording of the various contract forms.

This chapter covers those contracts which are for both softwood and hardwood, and describes the essential or significant differences between them and the previous chapter on the Albion and Uniform contracts and their terms and conditions. It also covers resale and ex-ship contracts associated with them. Chapter 10 covers the panel product contracts.

This chapter covers the official Contract Forms for Panel Products. With the exception of the Britfibre contract, all are adopted by the Timber Trade Federation of the UK. These are as follows:

The importer of any goods into the UK is required by law to deliver a written declaration to Customs in respect of them. Under Section 28 of the Customs and Excise Act, 1952, the ‘entry’ (– that is, Customs declaration) must be in such form and manner and contain such particulars as the Commissioners may direct.

There have been many developments during the past 10–15 years in connection with the transport of timber from the mill to the ultimate end user’s yard.

Timber may be bought and sold in this country at several stages varying from the purchase of it while it is still in transit to this country to the purchase of it delivered to the ultimate user’s factory or yard.

Since the last edition of this book was published, two most significant changes have taken place in the trade under the heading of this chapter. In the UK decimal currency has been introduced and, with few exceptions, which will be mentioned later, the trade has changed from Imperial to metric measure. Despite opposition from some quarters, this was a logical change, because at least 85 per cent of the world’s population operates under a metric system and 75 per cent of the world’s trade is transacted in metric terms. There is no doubt that world metrication will be achieved in due course.

It will be seen from chapter 3 (section on ‘Grading and Shippers Marks’) and chapter 8 (section 8.2 Albion 1980) that the classification of timber into various qualities and grades is of major importance. In the early days of any timber-producing country the grading of the timber into qualities must have been purely by experience and rule of thumb. In many countries it remains that way, and up to quite recently there have been few basic changes. The most significant of these is stress grading, which is covered in chapter 21.

The surfaces of imported sawn and planed wood goods are a matter of interest and may be of importance where there is an undertaking that the goods shall be produced in one particular way or another, but it is sometimes a little difficult to determine how they were produced from the appearance of the finished product.

In the years up to 1939 less than 10 per cent of the timber consumed in the UK was home grown. During the Second World War over 60 per cent was home grown. These two figures express the relative importance commercially and economically of the home grown timber trade in peace and war. There was an immense increase in the home production of softwood, hardwood, pitwood and plywood during the war years. At the same time, it should be remembered that the proportion of land area, about 6.5 per cent, under forest in the UK is very low compared with the timber-producing countries of Europe (Sweden 56.5 per cent, Norway 23.8 per cent, France 19 per cent).

The word ‘plywood’ generally covers the following products.

Established in 1892, the Federation has long been recognised by governments, professional bodies, industry and commerce throughout the world as representing the interests of the UK imported timber trade.

There has been tremendous expansion in the timber preservation industry in the UK during the post-war years. The increased importance of timber preservation as an ancillary industry to the timber trade and to the timber-using industries has been due to a number of reasons. Timber is no longer a cheap material and has been subjected to intense competition from other materials, such as steel, concrete, aluminium, etc., so that the user now demands the maximum possible life from timber with the minimum expenditure on maintenance. With the shortages of timber during the Second World War and the post-war years timber was used very much more scientifically than in the past. This helped it to compete more successfully with other materials and opened up new markets, but it meant also that if used untreated under conditions where there was a danger of insect or fungal attack, there was no longer the safety margin which had existed in the past when normally far larger timber sizes had been used than were actually required for a specific end-use in the constructional industries. In addition, whereas in the past much of the softwood for constructional purposes had come from the natural forests where the trees had taken from 200 to 600 years to grow and where there was a small proportion of sapwood, in the post-war period most of the softwood has come from plantations where the aim has been to produce a marketable tree in 90–120 years or less.