The latest Timber Development UK (TDUK) trade stats show volumes of the main timber and panel product UK imports in the 11 months to November 2024 were down by just 0.2% (around 20,000m3).
Solid wood imports between January and November 2024 were 0.3% higher than over the same period in 2023, while imports of panel products were 1.3% lower (down from 2.5% in the previous month).
The improvement during October and November, when compared with the same months in 2023, has sharply reduced the overall deficit in volume for the year as a whole, says TDUK.
Better import volumes in the second half of 2024 have placed volumes of softwood, plywood, OSB and engineered wood products ahead of 2023 for the year-to-date.
Softwood import volumes by the end of November 2024 were 0.2% higher than over the 11 months of 2023 – the first time in 2024 that year-to-date growth was recorded. A number of supplying countries outside of the leading group have supplied significantly more volume in 2024, including Norway, Austria, Lithuania, Netherlands and Canada. Along with Latvia and the Irish Republic, the improvement in volume from these countries has marginally outweighed the lower volumes in 2024 to date from countries such as Sweden, Finland and Germany.
The deficit in hardwood volume imports in the 11 months to November 2024 fell to around 11,000m3, when compared to the 18,000m3 deficit in volume reported for the 10 months to October.
Imports of hardwood plywood in the 11 months of 2024 to November grew by around 1.6% (around 15,000m3). Imports from China fuelled this growth with an increase in the year-to-date of just over 30,000m3. Around 3,000m3 of growth was also realised from Latvia.
“The growth we’ve seen in October and November has almost completely wiped out the import deficit as we approach the end of the year, making it likely that the full-year results will see either no deficit or perhaps even some growth once December’s results are published,” said TDUK Head of Technical and Trade, Nick Boulton.
“This is encouraging news considering the challenging period we’ve seen in 2024, and supports the Construction Products Association’s (CPA) latest winter forecast, which has predicted growth for 2025 after two years of falling outputs.”
