Brussels, 15 January 2024

To the Executive Vice-President, Mr Valdis Dombrovskis,
To the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Commissioner, Mr Thierry Breton
Cc: DG GROW, Deputy Director-General, Mrs Maive Rute

Statement of the European Woodworking Industries and the Timber Trade: Red Sea crisis escalation jeopardizes trade with Asia and Africa

The Red Sea route is a pivotal maritime route for global trade, including for the European woodworking industries and the timber importers. The escalating crisis in the Red Sea has profoundly negative implications for the European economy, not least for the European wood sector. At a time of subdued demand for wood products across Europe, swift and unimpeded access to Asian and African countries is vital to keep our businesses afloat. As a result of the crisis, our companies are confronted with many issues that are making extremely challenging the sourcing and supplying of our products from and to Asian and African markets. Some of our challenges are listed below:

• Higher costs for insuring vessels transiting the Red Sea
• Partly as a consequence, shipping companies are introducing extremely high surcharges
• Very high uncertainty and price volatility
• Cargo delays and cancellations
• Extended transit time, lack of information about delivery time

The European Wood industries and the trading sector demand that urgent action be undertaken by the European institutions and relevant partners to ensure that safety and stability in the Red Sea is restored. Targeting cargo ships is unacceptable and should be suppressed – not least to ensure that firing rockets at cargo vessels is not an inspiration for other terrorist groups.
For both imports and exports, the overseas markets especially in Asia are crucially important and, together with trade routes to east-African ports, the Red Sea route is by far the most important connection and needs to be safeguarded.

CEI-Bois – The European Confederation of Woodworking Industries – Transparency register n° 470333818389-37
EOS – European Organisation of the Sawmill industry – Transparency register n° 024776016336-52
ETTF – European Timber Trade Federation – Transparency register n° 151485550468-20