The price drop reflects falling demand and the biggest log price decreases occurred in Sweden, Germany and Poland where sawmills were running at lower operating rates.

Sawlog prices in western US have been flat for more than a year but there are now signs that the market is changing. In November, for example, there was upward pressure on prices from Chinese log buyers, some of whom were offering US$10-15/m3 more for logs than they did in the spring.