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In short, the 2025/2026 year has been one of resilience, advocacy, and quiet but meaningful progress. Despite a difficult trading environment, SSA has continued to deliver value to its members across every dimension of the association’s mandate.
Government relations have been actively maintained across multiple departments, ensuring the sector’s voice is heard where it matters. The launch of the Forestry Value Chain Forum has created a powerful new platform for cross-sector collaboration, and SSA was well represented at its inaugural session.
I believe that SSA has remained the ‘lignin’ of the formal sawmilling sector – advocating, promoting, educating, and building the relationships that individual mills cannot build alone.
As green shoots continue to emerge in the market, the association is well positioned to support its members through the recovery and into a stronger future.
Craig Rance
It is my privilege to present the Chairman’s Report for the South African sawmilling industry for the 2025/2026 year. Reflecting on the year under review, it is evident that our industry has continued to navigate a complex and demanding operating environment. Economic uncertainty, infrastructure challenges, logistics pressures, input cost escalation, criminal activity and a lack of compliance enforcement have tested the resilience of businesses throughout the forestry value chain.
Thankfully the lumber market has seen an uptick since the middle of 2025 onwards which has brought some optimism back into the sawmilling sector.
Annual Reports