PARIS, FRANCE—The effects of the strong U.S. dollar are many, one of which is a revival in the French beech sawn timber market. While French exports are booming to China, some of France's main competitors, including Romanians and other producers outside the Euro area, are seeing their beech timber prices rise because they sell in U.S. dollars.

It's not just the U.S. dollar that's a problem in Romania. Prime Minister Victor Ponta said his country will suspend exports of timber, log and firewood until August 31 in a meeting today, hoping to avoid sanctions from the European Commission. The Government launched Emergency Ordinances, due to the “magnitude of illegal logging in the last 10 years”, according to the Romanian Environment Ministry.

End markets in France have seen beech prices rise since 2010, but at a slower rate than log prices, reports The National Forests Office (French: ONF). In the past two years beech is up 29.5% for standing timber and 10.5% for processed timber.

While French millers have to be pleased with the renewed interest in beech, they should be aware that production of sawn timber is still less than half of what it was two decades ago. According to Agreste-FCBA, in the 1990s French beech production stood at 700,000 m3 of sawn timber, whereas by 2012 that figure had dropped to 300,000 m3.

One French lumber mill, Lapassade Group in Artiguelouve, France, says it produces unedged, one side edged, and square edged beech lumber.

Options for preparation include steaming to bring an attractive pink color to the beech lumber, and which makes kiln drying more successful. It can also be kiln-dried (KD) in our dryers (2 units of 150 and 200 M3), or air-dried (AD).

Lapassade is also equipped with a high–tech sprinkling machine. Fully automated and complying with the latest environmental requirements, it can handle up to 150 m3 of beech (insecticide-fungicide-anti blue), ensuring better stability during the storage of goods before shipment.

"Most of our production is exported surface dried, steamed or KD, in homogeneous packages (one thickness and length per package)," says the lumber company.