Just today I was listening to a German podcast on this topic ("Warum Bauholz zurzeit knapp und teuer ist") [1]. Main explanation of it having become so expensive in Germany as well is the high demand in the US, China and in Germany itself. Russia has set an export ban on wood, so China is buying more from Germany.<p>Germany currently has a surplus of wood, yet the prices aren't low. Sawmills are the main benefactors of the current situation, they're processing wood like never before, also because last year a lot of trees were affected by beetles, fungi, storms and the like. So this lower quality wood (which is perfectly fine to use) has been mainly exported. 40% of the processed wood is exported.<p>Sawmills are buying the trees for cheap due to the surplus that the forest owners (around 96% of the owners own less than 20 ha) are saying that they're now considering to stop selling wood and wait for the fall or next year if they can handle it.<p>Then again, if they stop selling the wood, the state- or community-owned forest owners (around half of the German forests are privately owned, the other half by the state or communities) might not be able to to pay for the machinery and workers which usually work the entire year around. Also private owners have got together and share machinery and personell which needs to get payed during the entire year. So to some degree they are forced to continue cutting down trees to sell them.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/probleme-der-baubranche-warum-bauholz-zurzeit-knapp-und.724.de.html?dram:article_id=498705" rel="nofollow">https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/probleme-der-baubranche-warum...</a>