Between November 2011 and March 2012, ABARES undertook a survey to up-to-date mill-specific data, including mill inputs, production and employment. This survey updates the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARES) 2007 national sawmill survey. Source: ABARES
The results provide consistent and reliable estimates of the production of broadleaved and coniferous wood products, using standardised approach and definitions across each state of mainland Australia.
Mill survey results for Tasmania have been adopted from a survey undertaken Schirmer and colleagues in 2011.
Excluding sawmills in Tasmania, ABARES received a survey response from around 36% of broadleaved sawmills, 57% of coniferous sawmills and 52% of cypress pine sawmills.
While the survey results are broadly consistent with comparable datasets, such as the estimated volumes of logs harvested in Australia in 2010-2011, some discrepancies remain, and future surveys will work toward resolving these.
Because of regular changes that occur in Australia’s forest sector, the ABARES database of wood processors was validated before undertaking the survey. This involved consulting industry associations and directly contacting many mills.
The validated database includes 332 sawmills, more than half of which are small processors of broadleaved sawlogs, each with an annual processing capacity of less than 15,000 cubic metres of sawlog.
It is estimated there were 241 broadleaved and 91 coniferous sawmills comprising 68 sawmills based on the coniferous plantation resource, and 23 cypress pine sawmills in Australia in 2010-2011.
The number of sawmills in Australia has fallen significantly, with broadleaved sawmills falling by 72% and coniferous sawmills by 67% since 1999-2000.
The results of the survey, combined with data for Tasmania, show that around two million cubic metres of broadleaved sawlogs, over eight million cubic metres of coniferous sawlogs, and 186,000 cubic metres of cypress pine sawlogs were processed in Australian sawmills during 2010-2011.
Broadleaved sawnwood production in 2010-2011 was estimated at around 730,000 cubic metres, coniferous sawnwood production at around 3.7 million cubic metres, and cypress sawnwood production at around 81,000 cubic metres.
It is estimated that 28% of broadleaved sawnwood output from Australian sawmills was produced as dry appearance grade sawnwood, while green structural, green other and dry structural grade sawnwood also accounted for significant shares of final broadleaved sawnwood production.
In contrast, it is estimated that more than half of all final coniferous sawnwood output was produced as dry structural timber.
According to the ABARES wood processing database, the broadleaved sawmilling industry is characterised by a large number of relatively small mills in New South Wales and Queensland.
Compared with other states, both average mill size and sawnwood recovery rates were estimated to be relatively low in Tasmania.
The coniferous industry, excluding cypress pine mills, is more uniform, with mill size averaging above 100,000 cubic metres across Australia.
The cypress sawnwood industry consists of relatively small mills in New South Wales and Queensland only.
The post and pole industry is more evenly distributed across Australia, with average mill size similar to that of the cypress industry.
The wood-based panel industry is also distributed fairly evenly across the states, with more than half having a processing capacity of 100,000 cubic metres or greater.
This information was taken from an ABARES report. More information is in the ABARES report titled ABARES National Wood Processing Survey 2010-201, which is available for download from daff.gov.au/abares/publications
