Bralitz banks on wood

Brandenburg’s forests are its greatest natural resource. No less than 37% of the surface area of the state – an amazing 1.1 million hectares – is covered by forests, making it the most highly wooded of the new federal states. These forests are a major source of raw materials and both Brandenburg’s timber and wood-processing industries have a long tradition. In 2004 the timber industry accounted for 6% of the state’s commercial economy.

By tradition too Brandenburg’s timber industry has been a domain for small and medium sized enterprises. A case in point is HBB Holzbearbeitung GmbH in Bralitz. This medium-sized enterprise operates a sawmill for the production of various qualities of steamed and kiln-dried trimmed timber from native hardwoods (beech, hornbeam, red oak, basswood, birch, ash and alder). Each year the mill turns between 10 – 12 thousand solid cubic meters of round timber into trimmed timber. Although hardwood only makes up 16% of the actual forestry stock, all the unprocessed timber for Bralitz comes from neighbouring forests. The remaining approximately 80% is composed of pinewood trees which have become one of Brandenburg’s landmarks.

Yet in contrast to other federal states, Brandenburg has as yet only exploited a small fraction of the vast capacities available to it for felling. Huge reserves still lie untapped and in fact Brandenburg has the lowest timber harvesting quota of all the federal states. This means that a window of opportunity lies wide open for investors in the timber industry. Apart from a thoroughly modern infrastructure and a highly skilled workforce, investors in Brandenburg can also benefit from a range of business development grants and subsidies.

To give an example: of the 1.61 million invested in HBB Holzbearbeitung GmbH between 2000 and 2006, approximately 460.000 came from the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRD). Such funding prevented the closure of a sawmill, and also enabled investment in facilities and the purchase of new machinery, thus safeguarding seven jobs and creating four new ones plus one traineeship. Subsequent stages of the project will involve restructuring for the manufacture of high value-added semi-finished products and the creation of four further permanent jobs.

Trimmed timber from Bralitz is extremely versatile and in high-demand as a pre-product and semi-finished product. It is mainly exported to foreign customers in Scandinavia, Western Europe and the Far East where it is used for making furniture and slats. No less than 70% of the total production from Bralitz is shipped to south-east Asia for further processing. And this, if nothing else, goes to show that investors in Brandenburg’s timber industry are on the right path!