PW Trading

Necessary adjustments impact business performance

The Trading segment achieved revenues of EUR 4.2 million in 2024 (previous year: EUR 6.8 million). EBITDA declined to EUR -1.0 million (previous year: EUR 0.1 million), primarily due to necessary inventory adjustments at our Dutch subsidiary, Precious Woods Europe.

The trading business with logs from Europe and sawn timber from Africa once again delivered very attractive margins in the 2024 financial year. However, the scope of these activities had to be somewhat reduced. On the one hand, adverse weather conditions in Europe led to a lower availability of logs. On the other hand, the company’s restructuring required capital, leaving fewer resources available for trading operations.

We further reduced the activities of our branch in the Netherlands and cut down on inventories. The Dutch inventory had been built up in recent years to enable faster and more direct customer deliveries. As part of the restructuring, we decided at the end of 2023 to reduce this inventory, not least to improve our liquidity position. Some of these sales incurred losses, which contributed to the reported negative EBITDA.