Case study of the public tenders’ analysis for the sale of timber assortments in 2022 in Croatia and Slovenia

Abstract

The process of selling wood raw materials (timber assortments) through public tenders is an established procedure and a daily process in the Western countries of Europe, while in the Republic of Croatia it has been gaining more and more importance over the last decade. Although most of the timber assortments produced by Hrvatske šume Ltd. is sold to the processing industry according to predefined quotas through multi-year framework contracts, only a small part of timber is offered, especially that of exceptional value, through public tenders. As part of the research, public tenders held in Croatia in 2022 were analyzed by tree species and assortment classes in relation to the initial and selling price (€/m³) and the percentage achieved above the initial price. Furthermore, the achieved selling price (€/m³) in Croatia in 2022 was compared with the prices achieved at the public tenders of the most valuable logs in Slovenia for the same year. The second chapter presents the procedure for conducting public tenders for the sale of wood assortments in Croatia, which is defined by the Decree on the Auction of Certain Wood Assortments (Official Gazette No. 100/15). The method of analysis, synthesis, compilation, comparison and description was used in the processing and analysis of the research results. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis with appropriate parametric and/or non-parametric models were used in data processing. Through the results of the research, 45 public tenders held in Croatia, and one public tender for the sale of the most valuable logs from private forests in Slovenia in 2022, were analyzed. Table 1 shows descriptive values of public tenders of timber assortments held during 2022 in Croatia. The testing of strength and direction of the connection between the basic indicators of the implementation of the public tender and the grouped realization of the percentage above the initial price for the pedunculate oak is shown in table two. Table 4 shows descriptive values of the achieved percentage above the initial price according to the class of wood assortments at the public tender during 2022. Presentation of realized quantities and prices at public tenders in 2022 for two most common types of broad leaves is visible in table 5 and for the two most common types of conifers in table 6. The results of public tender for the sale of timber assortments in Slovenia are presented in subsection 4.2. Table 7 shows the results of the sale of logs by species at the public tender in Slovenia in 2022. The results of the analysis of public tenders in Croatia show that a higher average percentage above the initial price is achieved if the timber assortments are more differentiated (better classified) within the offered sales groups. In the analyzed period, for the pedunculate oak, bidders made an offer 12 times for certain groups that amounted to more than 2 000 €/m³. In addition, it has been shown that to achieve the highest possible sales price for the pedunculate oak, the formation of groups containing a combination of veneer and sawmill assortments (F-III) should be avoided. In addition to pedunculate oak, record selling prices were also achieved by sycamore maple, which had four record offers ranging from 2 752.92 €/m³ to 4 692.00 €/m³. Comparatively, in Slovenia, it was determined that the average sales prices of logs (€/m³) are significantly higher for coniferous timber species compared to the realized sales prices at public tenders in Croatia. The analysis of realized sale prices of timber assortments at public tenders in Croatia in 2022 compared to initial prices revealed a statistically significant difference, which indicates the future need to form prices of all produced assortment classes in step with market opportunities.