Following two years of moderate growth in 2010 and 2011, MDF production in Europe contracted by 6% in 2012, reaching almost 11 million m³, excluding Turkish and Russian production. This production level is significantly lower than the peak of 2007 at 13.3 million m³. Despite a decline by 17% of its output, Germany remains the larger European MDF producer in 2012 with a production of 3.5 million m³. Poland consolidates further its second position while Italy, France and Spain, which fell from the third to the fifth position, follow and complete the top five of the European MDF producers. Their outputs accounted for an increasing share, 78% of the overall European MDF production in 2012. The capacity utilisation rate decreased from 76% in 2011 to 72% in 2012. In 2012, MDF consumption in Europe decreased further by 3.3% and amounted to 10.3 million m³.
