This is one of the biggest increases on the Paris Stock Exchange since the start of the year, alongside companies in the oil industry. And this is not surprising since, in an environment of strong inflationary pressures, investors protect themselves from soaring prices by buying the shares of commodity players who, precisely, are benefiting from this soaring. Moulinvest, which sells wood, recently reached new stock market records (63.4 euros, during the April 21 session). Since then, share prices have barely come back (59 euros today, +47% since the start of the year), even though the prices of construction timber abroad are now far from their highest. The cubage denominated in 1,000 board feet is trading today at less than 800 dollars on the Chicago futures market.
At the end of the 2020-2021 financial year, which ended at the end of August, the construction timber activity represented just under half of the turnover (45.8%). The company, which operates forests sustainably in the Massif Central, also sells heating pellets and, for wood treated against bad weather, poles used by telecoms and the deployment of fiber optics as well as blades of wood for landscaping (notably terraces). By valuing all the parts of a tree, Moulinvest addresses different markets, which gives the company a more defensive profile than if it were only exposed, for example, to the strong demand for sawn timber for construction. from China or the United States, or only to the very seasonal heating activity.
In view of the soaring prices of oil, electricity and gas, wood pellets offer a less expensive alternative, in addition to being ecological (they emit less CO2, and that which is rejected is absorbed by the trees used for their production). Their price has certainly increased, but less rapidly. And the French State pays aid to households that equip themselves with a pellet stove.
Auspicious customs flows
Moulinvest will publish its accounts at the end of February in a month, on June 10. The customs flows of French wood (+36% between September and February) suggest that the company’s performance should have improved further, especially since, over the shifted semester, the average prices of wood are almost identical. .
The 2020-2021 financial year ended with a record net profit of nearly 11 million euros, from a turnover growing by more than 40%, to around 94 million euros. In May last year, lumber prices hit a record high of $1,670 as the health crisis created logistical imbalances and disrupted production in Canada. A context that made the business of Moulinvest. French market shares have increased. This contributes to the national influence abroad. Timber exports accelerated in April (+43%). Happy are the shareholders who, in March 2020, bought Moulinvest on the stock market at a price of just over 3 euros per share. The price went from a historic low to a record in the space of two years.