Executive Director’s Report / September Newsletter 2025

We are now well over the hump of 2025, with the final quarter, and the final roll towards Christmas, is upon us.

Reports coming from millers in the districts is encouraging in that many of them are reporting reasonably good sales in terms of volume. However, there is still dissatisfaction around pricing. One might say millers are never entirely happy with prices — but in this case, we share their concern, as prices have been depressed for quite some time.

All things bright, beautiful and made from timber
The Timber Construction Colloquium and Conference held earlier this month highlighted the magnificent strides being made in the timber space by academics, architects and construction professionals. It is an annual two-day event hosted by Growing Timber Connections, an alliance between the York Timbers Chair in Wood Structural Engineering at the University of Pretoria and various partners from academia, industry and government.

Unfortunately, I could not attend in person, but by all accounts, the event showcased some outstanding case studies and inspiring projects. Our own Samantha Choles served as programme director for the day, gathering a wealth of insights, making valuable new connections, and identifying promising opportunities that we look forward to exploring.

But…I must add that I was more than a little disappointed by the attendance of our sawmillers. Given that the sector has been struggling with sales over the past four or five years, we expected stronger interest and support from millers for the considerable efforts being invested in promoting timber and timber products in the built environment.

Come on, colleagues — we cannot keep complaining that “nothing is being done” to assist us, while at the same time sitting on our hands and not showing up for initiatives that are designed to benefit us all in the long run. The days are long gone when we could simply blame “the economy.” If we want to see real progress, we must back efforts being made by academia and industry with our presence and participation.

So mark your diaries for next year’s event 14-15 September 2026, Future Africa, Pretoria!

On a more positive note, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the teams at our partner universities — Pretoria and Stellenbosch. Your dedication to advancing research on the use of timber, and growing new talent, will undoubtedly help take our sector to new heights — pun very much intended.

Talking Timber Webinar
Please save the date for the next Talking Timber Webinar on 6 November. Once the team has finalised arrangements we will send out the registration link.

That was my rave for the month, sorry but sometimes you have to be brutally honest with your selves.

Tackling timber theft
In September, Forestry South Africa, sawmillers and key stakeholders in Mpumalanga met with the provincial head of SAPS to address the escalating challenge of timber theft. The illegal trade and use of logs in Mpumalanga – and indeed across other provinces – remains a deeply concerning issue. Gaining a clearer understanding of the scale of the problem, while pressing the authorities to act, is very much in the sector’s collective interest.

To this end, we are drafting a clear definition for what constitutes as a “legal sawmill”. Once approved, it will be circulated to relevant authorities to strengthen their ability to curb this economic threat to our sector.

Send us your news
We always appreciate any news from your respective businesses, so please send any content our way for publishing on our website and on social media.

Cheers,
Roy Southey
Executive Director: Sawmilling South Africa

Source: SSA Newsletter - September 2025