Estimating the glued-laminated timber demand in non-residential buildings in Chile

Abstract

Glued laminated timber has taken center stage in recent years in Chile. The non-residential building sector is attracting the attention of local architects and builders, possibly due to the multiplicity of types of buildings, in which the attributes and advantages of this product are expressed. There is no record of the amount of glued laminated timber that is consumed annually in the country. The present study is a contribution to the knowledge of the demand, from the point of view of the potential that the non-residential construction market would offer. The main result indicates that, if all the potential non-residential area use glued laminated timber as a structural element, the associated demand would be in the range of 192 to 220 thousand cubic meters. This volume accounts for the enormous space that exists in the construction market to position this product, since production does not exceed 25,000 m3.