Timber Trade Federation’s latest statistics reveal that solid wood imports rose by 28% and panel products by 23%. It is the fifth consecutive month where imports were substantially higher than the corresponding month a year earlier.
Softwood import volumes were up 29%, while the value of whitewood imports was 53% higher and redwood 42% higher.
The US and Cameroon accounted largely for the 14% increase in hardwood import volumes. Italy, France and Malaysia all lost some market share.
Hardwood plywood imports were largely unchanged on January 2013, although the market share changed as China shipped 5,000m3 more to the UK and Malaysian, Finnish and Russian volumes all dipped.
However, China’s softwood plywood volumes were down by just over a fifth, to just 12,000m3, and the 28% growth in softwood plywood imports was driven by Brazil and Chile.
Chipboard imports rose 39% and France emerged the clear market share leader as it more than doubled volumes to 20,000m3.
OSB import volumes were up 37.8% and MDF by 34.6%, while exports for the latter were down 37%.
