Luxembourg has a first-rate forest estate covering an area of about 90,000 hectares. Its forests cover more than a third of the national territory, with a very high proportion of hardwoods (64% of the total surface area) compared to softwoods (36%).
The wood sector in Luxembourg is constantly evolving. In order to understand the full scope of the sector’s value chain, Luxinnovation has produced a detailed mapping of the wood sector with data from December 2022.
The maping covers over 1,500 companies, of which half have wood business as their main activity. The parts of the value chain with the highest number of companies are interior construction and joinery (41% of all companies), planning and civil engineering (22%) and timber construction and carpentry (19%).
The number of companies has increased by 234 compared to the previous mapping that we produced in 2019. Over 60% of the Luxembourg wood value chain is made up of small businesses with up to 10 employees. 225 of the identified companies were incorporated between 2019 and 2022.
The companies that make up the wood value chain are located all over Luxembourg. The number of wood companies in the northern part of the country is almost the same as that in the south, but they are not engaged in the same activities everywhere. The majority of sawmill companies – 77% – for example, are located in the Northern part of the country, as are almost half of forestry operations and one-third of wood energy businesses.
An additional study based on the mapping shows how the wood value chain contributes to several of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) defined by the United Nations. It contributes in particular to 5 specific SDGs.