The European sawn timber markets are experiencing unprecedented M&A activity spanning 2024-2025 while industry leaders race to secure scale and strategic positioning. The consolidation wave spans from Stora Enso’s €137 million acquisition of Finland’s Junnikkala, adding 700,000 cubic meters of capacity, to Austrian HS Timber Group’s aggressive Baltic expansion through dual Latvian acquisitions totaling 550,000 cubic meters combined capacity. Meanwhile, regional participants like Estonia’s Combiwood are making strategic moves, acquiring AS Toftan to create a €276 million revenue entity.
Distressed asset opportunities in European sawn timber industry
Distressed asset opportunities have also emerged. The collapse of Germany’s Ziegler Group in late 2024 created significant distressed acquisition opportunities. Another German company, Rettenmeier Holding AG acquired substantial portions of Ziegler’s wood processing division in January 2025, taking over operations of Ziegler Holzindustrie GmbH & Co. KG and related companies, preserving nearly 770 jobs.
Separately, Kronospan acquired ZG Timber’s Sebeș plant in Romania in March 2025, safeguarding 500 local jobs and expanding Kronospan’s product portfolio to include sawn timber for the first time.
This flurry of deals, concentrated within an 18-month period from 2024 through early 2025, represents the industry’s response to margin pressures, supply chain uncertainties, and the need for operational scale in increasingly challenging market conditions.
Commenting on the recent spike in M&As, Alexey Beschastnov, senior manager at StepChange Consulting, says: “The recent M&A activity in the sawn timber industry reflects a mix of motivations: while some deals were clearly opportunistic – often tied to the downturn in the sawmilling business cycle in Europe and North America – others were more strategic in nature.”
According to Beschastnov, the opportunistic transactions are frequently linked to low profitability, insolvency risks, or distressed asset sales, creating acquisition opportunities.
“Strategic acquisitions, in contrast,” he added, “are typically independent of the cycle and driven by long-term fit, wood supply security, or vertical integration goals—as seen in recent moves by Stora Enso and Kronospan.”
Historical context behind the current M&A surge
The current consolidation wave, in fact, builds upon a decade-long trend of M&A activity that has steadily reshaped European timber markets. Key historical transactions set the stage for today’s aggressive deal-making and (for example in the Nordics) these included Binderholz’s acquisition of Finland’s Vapo sawmills in 2016; Canada’s Canfor, which acquired 70% of the Swedish company, VIDA in 2019, and recently increased its stake to 77%; and the Austrian major HS Timber (Group), which bought Finland’s Luvian Saha in 2022. This historical activity may have established the strategic precedent for vertical integration and scale consolidation that defines the current M&A surge.
The current aggressive consolidation wave can potentially alter European timber supply dynamics. Binderholz’s emergence as the continent’s largest producer with 4.5 million cubic meters capacity across 15 sawmills creates unprecedented market influence. This scale advantage becomes critical as raw material costs remain elevated relative to sawn timber prices – a margin squeeze that has defined recent market conditions.
Stora Enso’s €137 million Junnikkala acquisition exemplifies the vertical integration strategy driving deals. By securing 1.7 million cubic meters of additional wood procurement annually, Stora Enso insulates itself from log supply volatility while generating €15 million in synergies. (Incidentally, Stora is also reported to be considering a project to build what could be Finland’s largest sawmill in Imatra in southeast Finland).
For traders, the vertical integration trend suggests tighter control over upstream supply chains, potentially reducing spot market availability of both logs and finished products.
The distressed acquisitions add another dimension: opportunistic buyers like Kronospan are using market disruption to enter new product segments, while established participants like Rettenmeier consolidate their positions during competitor weakness.
Baltic region evolving as sawn timber production hub
HS Timber Group’s dual Latvian acquisitions (Vika Wood and Kurekss) adding 550,000 cubic meters combined capacity signals Baltic states becoming Europe’s new production frontier. These facilities offer competitive labor costs, modern infrastructure, and crucially, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)/Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) certification meeting EU sustainability mandates.
The strategic positioning could prove significant for European buyers. While Baltic mills face similar raw material cost pressures as other European regions, they have competitive advantages through modern, efficient facilities built or upgraded since the 1990s and strategic access to quality regional timber resources. Their geographic positioning provides optimal logistics for serving both European and global export markets spanning 30+ countries.
For producers outside the Baltic region, this geographic shift could create competitive pressure. Mills in higher-cost jurisdictions must either consolidate for scale efficiencies or risk margin squeezes as Baltic capacity expands market share.
Strategic outlook amidst timber market consolidation
The consolidation wave can help reduce extreme price volatility that has characterized recent sawn timber markets, although such volatility is also caused by shifts in global market dynamics. Larger, integrated players possess greater financial resources to weather demand fluctuations without panic selling. But this stability comes with trade-offs
Fewer independent mills could mean reduced competition for log purchases, potentially moderating raw material price spikes that have been squeezing margins in several markets, notably in Finland and Sweden, where high log prices still prevail. Conversely, downstream buyers face fewer supplier options, particularly for specialized products or large-volume contracts.
The timing proves strategic given that North American mill closures have continued to reshape supply dynamics in global markets. While significant mill closures have occurred across the US West and British Columbia – with over 1.7 billion board feet of capacity permanently or indefinitely shut since 2022, this has been partially offset by substantial new capacity additions in the US South. Since 2015, the US South has added approximately 8.0 billion board feet of new Southern Yellow Pine sawmill capacity, with companies announcing an additional 4.5 billion board feet to come online by 2024.
But this regional shift from high-cost western regions to the more cost-competitive US South can still create opportunities for European consolidated participants to capture displaced demand from traditional suppliers, particularly in transatlantic export markets where logistics and species specifications may favor European producers.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the Ziegler Group’s collapse illustrates the vulnerability of smaller, less-integrated participants in challenging market conditions, while the rapid acquisition of its assets demonstrates how consolidation accelerates during industry stress.
Are these new market realities?
The days of quick spot deals may be ending. As giants like HS Timber absorb multiple Baltic mills, Combiwood builds its Estonian empire, and opportunistic participants like Kronospan enter new segments through distressed acquisitions, buyers face a new reality: fewer sellers, longer contracts, and relationships that matter more than ever
These consolidated participants want predictable volumes to justify their acquisition sprees, not the volatile spot trading that has traditionally defined timber markets. Price discovery may be shifting from what desperate mills need to survive toward what integrated giants calculate as sustainable returns.
Clearly, the consolidation wave isn’t slowing down. In some instances, market stress creates acquisition opportunities, as demonstrated by the Ziegler situation, where insolvency proceedings led to rapid asset transfers within just two months. This speed of distressed transactions suggests more opportunities may emerge as margin pressures continue affecting smaller players.
Yet experts caution that it might be too early to expect big upheavals in market dynamics because of the heightened wave of M&A activity. Beschastnov, for instance, thinks that “the overall scale of recent M&A remains too limited to meaningfully alter industry dynamics such as buyers’ or suppliers’ bargaining power.” Price developments, he says, will continue to be governed more by core market factors: macroeconomic growth, construction trends, trade flows, and regulatory impacts.
Still, if this trend gathers more momentum, for buyers, it could mean trading volatile pricing for supplier stability. For traders, fewer quick opportunities but stronger counterparties. The European timber industry is shedding its fragmented past for a concentrated future – one that may prove more resilient against global competition but less forgiving to those slow to adapt.
Want the latest news in the global timber market? Visit our forest products hub for updates.
