Sawing Capacities in the Czech Republic

The author recapitulates the development of the sawmilling in the Czech Republic after the World War II, and describes the major investments in the nineties of the past century and since 2000 until today. The paper shows the main timber-processing plants bordering with the surrounding countries, which fundamentally affect the exports of the logs from the Czech Republic. In the next part the author presents the summary of roundwood cutting in the period 1991 to 2009, and describes the creation of the database of the important sawmill plants in the Czech Republic. These plants are then divided into 7 groups according to the size, and their list is available in Table 2. Subsequently the paper provides a general division of the sawmill plants into individual groups according to the used technology. Then the author compares the sawmill sawing of more than 50,000 m3 of logs per year in the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The conclusion of the paper deals with the potential future development of the sawmill capacities in the Czech Republic and with the level of their expected concentration.