Africa and Asia buoy Swedish exports

1 March 2013


Sweden’s sawn and planed softwood export volume fell 15% in December compared with December 2011, but was up 2% for the whole of 2012.

According to Statistics Sweden, exports to Europe were down 3.1%, with sawn redwood falling 8.3% and whitewood by 1.1%. But although overall exports to Europe declined, some countries - Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey - all increased their purchases.

Trade volumes to the UK were down by 1.3%, with redwood imports falling by 3.1% and whitewood by 3.4%.

In contrast to business with Europe, volumes to Africa rose by 12.7%, to Asia by 8.3% and to North America by 17.1%.

In Africa, the growth was sustained by an increase in shipments to Egypt and Tunisia.

Exports to China rose by 33.8%.