Industrial wood
Every dispute on a chip or log cargo is a dispute about how it was measured.
Not about quality, and rarely about price. Wood in the round and wood in bulk are sold under measurement conventions that differ between markets, and two honest parties applying different conventions to the same pile arrive at numbers that differ by double figures.
The programme
Fibre for mills, and logs for sawmills.
Two products, two entirely different customers. Chips go to pulp and panel mills that will measure the fibre and pay for the dry substance in it. Logs go to sawmills and veneer mills that will break them down and pay for what comes out.
- Wood chips
- Pulpwood chips for chemical and mechanical pulping, and chips for particleboard, MDF and OSB production. Softwood and hardwood, screened, by species or as a declared mix.
- Sawlogs and round logs
- By species and diameter class, cut to specified lengths, debarked or in bark according to the destination requirement.
Chips
A chip cargo is bought on four properties, and paid for on one.
Species, size distribution, bark content and moisture describe the cargo. Dry substance is what the mill actually buys. Getting those two things aligned in the contract is the whole job.
| Property | Why the mill cares | How it is set |
|---|---|---|
| Species and mix | Fibre length and chemistry differ between softwood and hardwood, and a pulp line is tuned to a furnish. An undeclared mix changes yield. | Declared per cargo, single species or a stated proportion with a tolerance. |
| Size distribution | Accepts, oversize, pin chips and fines. Oversize does not cook through; fines consume chemicals and give poor yield. The distribution, not the nominal size, is the specification. | Screened at the source and reported as a fraction distribution — ISO 17827-1 and -2 give the sieving methods; pulp mills commonly work to a classification such as SCAN-CM 40. |
| Bark content | Bark carries extractives and dirt, darkens pulp and increases chemical demand. It is the property most often out of specification on a cheap cargo. | Stated as a maximum percentage, verified on sampling. |
| Moisture | It is what you are shipping instead of fibre, and it drives self-heating in the pile. | Determined by oven-drying a composite sample — and it is the number that converts the weighed tonnage into what the mill pays for. |
Chips are normally traded on bone-dry metric tonnes. The cargo is weighed wet and the moisture content is determined by sampling, and the payable quantity is the dry substance. A price quoted “per tonne” without stating whether it is green or bone-dry is not a price — at 45% moisture the two differ by nearly a factor of two. The sampling protocol, the number of increments, who witnesses it and which laboratory determines the moisture all belong in the contract before loading.
Logs
Diameter class is the price, and where you measure it is the argument.
A log's value is set by what a sawmill can cut out of it, which is a function of diameter, straightness, taper and defect — and diameter is quoted at different points on the log in different markets.
- Where the diameter is taken
- Top diameter under bark is the common European convention. Mid-diameter is used elsewhere and produces a different number on the same log. Some markets measure over bark. The convention has to be named in the contract, along with whether it is rounded up, down, or to the nearest class.
- Length and overlength
- Nominal length plus a trim allowance. Both figures belong in the specification, because a log cut to nominal with no allowance is short after trimming and unusable at the specified length.
- Quality features
- Straightness, taper, sweep, knot size and frequency, rot, shake and end splitting. Sawlog grades are written as limits on these, and they are what separate a veneer log from a pallet log at the same diameter.
- Bark
- Debarked or in bark. This is a phytosanitary decision as much as a commercial one — see below — and it also changes the measured diameter and the weight.
Measurement
Solid, stacked, weighed — three answers to one question.
Roundwood and chips can each be quantified three ways, and the conversion between them is an assumption, not a measurement. Most commercial disagreements in this trade are a conversion factor that was never agreed.
- Solid cubic metre
- Actual wood volume, calculated log by log from measured dimensions. The most accurate and the slowest.
- Stacked or loose cubic metre
- The volume of the stack or the hold, including the air in it. Converted to solid volume by a factor that depends on log size, straightness, stacking method and, for chips, on species and chip geometry. The factor is a convention — if it is not written into the contract, both parties will assume a different one and both will be acting in good faith.
- Weight
- Fast, verifiable at a weighbridge or by draught survey, and meaningless without moisture. Weight-based contracts need the moisture determination method, the sampling protocol and the conversion stated explicitly.
Phytosanitary
Round logs are the highest-risk plant product in this book.
Wood in the round, particularly in bark, can carry bark beetles, wood-boring insects, nematodes and fungal pathogens. Importing countries regulate it accordingly, and the requirement is set by the destination, not by the exporter.
- Treatment
- Debarking, heat treatment, kiln drying or fumigation, singly or in combination, according to the destination's import requirement and the species. Some destinations prohibit certain species in the round outright.
- Certification
- A phytosanitary certificate issued by the exporting country's plant protection authority, stating the treatment applied. Where an import permit is required, it has to be in place before shipment.
- ISPM 15 is a different thing
- It governs wood packaging material — dunnage, bearers, crating. It does not certify a cargo of logs or chips, and the two are routinely confused in enquiries.
- Timing
- Treatment and certification are pre-shipment steps with lead time attached. A cargo that reaches a load port before the permit position is settled is a cargo waiting at demurrage.
Origin and legality
European forests, documented to the source.
Roundwood and chips sit closest to the forest of anything in this division, which makes the origin evidence both the most scrutinised and the most straightforward to produce.
- EUDR
- Wood and wood products placed on the EU market or exported from it must be deforestation-free and legally produced, evidenced by a due diligence statement carrying geolocation data for the harvest plots. Application starts 30 December 2026 for large and medium operators and 30 June 2027 for micro and small operators. Roundwood and chips are where the geolocation data originates, so a supply chain that can produce it here can produce it downstream.
- Sanctions
- UK and EU prohibitions apply to wood originating in, located in or consigned from Russia and Belarus, irrespective of the route taken. We do not source Russian or Belarusian wood, and origin is documented to the forest and the mill rather than to the port of loading.
- Chain of custody
- FSC or PEFC where the supply chain holds it and the cargo is sold as certified, with the certificate number on the documents. Claimed per cargo or not claimed at all.
Straight answer
What it is not, said before you find out.
- A tonne is not a quantity until the moisture basis is stated
- Green tonnes and bone-dry tonnes differ by nearly a factor of two on wet chips. Any price without the basis attached is a number, not an offer.
- Stacked volume is a convention, and conventions differ
- The conversion factor from stacked to solid depends on the material and the stacking. Agree it in writing or accept that both sides will be honestly wrong.
- Chips lose substance in storage
- A wet pile heats, and heating consumes dry substance. Discharge, pile management and turnover after delivery are the buyer's, and they materially affect what the buyer ends up with.
- Log quality follows the forest, not the order
- Diameter classes and grade recovery reflect what the stands actually produce that season. Where a class is short we will tell you rather than take an order we would have to fill with the class above or below.
- Phytosanitary requirements can prohibit, not just condition
- Some destinations do not accept certain species in the round on any treatment. We check the destination requirement before quoting, and where the answer is no, the answer is no.
- Freight is the larger half of this trade
- Low value per tonne, high volume. Vessel size, discharge rate, port restrictions and demurrage terms move the delivered cost more than the material price does, which is why we ask about the route before we quote.
How to specify
Eight lines, and we can price it properly.
- 1 · Product
- Chips or roundwood, and the end use — chemical pulp, mechanical pulp, panel production, sawmilling or veneer.
- 2 · Species
- Single species or a declared mix with proportions and a tolerance.
- 3 · Specification
- For chips: size distribution with the screening method, maximum bark content, maximum fines, moisture range. For logs: diameter class with the measuring convention, length and trim allowance, and the quality limits.
- 4 · Quantity basis
- Bone-dry tonnes, green tonnes, solid cubic metres or stacked cubic metres — with the conversion factor where one applies.
- 5 · Sampling and analysis
- Who samples, how many increments, which laboratory, and whose result governs payment.
- 6 · Bark and treatment
- Debarked or in bark; the phytosanitary treatment the destination requires.
- 7 · Certification
- FSC or PEFC required or not; EUDR data required if the cargo may reach the EU.
- 8 · Logistics
- Load and discharge ports, vessel size limits, discharge rate, laycan, and the demurrage terms.
Enquiries
Every enquiry is answered by the desk that handles it.
Send the product, quantity, delivery basis, destination and timing. We revert with availability, an indication and the documentation that accompanies it. Specifications are released once we know who we are speaking with.