Wood Resources International LLC: North American Log & Lumber Exports to Asia Fell by 33% from 2013 to 2015, with the 2016 Ex...
August 30 2016 - 6:18PM
Business Wire
The major wood products exports from the US Northwest (logs) and
British Columbia (lumber) to Asia have fallen in value by 18%
during the first half of 2016, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly.
The biggest decline has been of softwood lumber from BC to China,
which is on pace to be down by 50% in 2016 as compared to 2014.
Exportation of wood products from the North American west coast
to Asia was fairly uneventful up until 2010 when shipment of
particularly logs from the US and lumber from British Columbia took
off to levels not seen for almost 20 years. From 2009 to 2013, the
value of logs and lumber shipped over the Pacific Ocean surged from
1.7 billion dollars to 4.9 billion dollars. Since the record high
in 2013, the total export value has fallen quite substantially and
was just over 3.3 billion dollars in 2015.
Customs data for the first six months of 2016 show a continued
decline by 18% in the exportation value for Canada, while US
exports were up three percent year-over-year, as reported in the
Special Report in the latest issue of the Wood Resource Quarterly
(WRQ). The biggest change the past year has been the substantial
decline in Canadian shipments of softwood lumber to China because
of sawmills in British Columbia directing their sales to the
healthy US market. The export value for BC lumber shipped to China
in 2016 is on pace to decline by 50% as was exported in
2014.
The two neighboring regions, British Columbia and the US
Northwest (the states of Washington and Oregon), have chosen two
quite different paths regarding the mix between logs and lumber
exports to Asia. The US has exported mostly softwood logs valued at
about 77% of the total value of shipped logs and lumber the past
few years, while Canada’s major export product has been softwood
lumber, accounting for just over 75% of total exports in 2015 and
2016, reports the WRQ (www.woodprices.com).
Not surprisingly, a shift in destination for North American logs
and lumber has occurred the past five years. For many decades,
Japan was the major consumer of forest products from the US and
Canada, but in 2011 China surpassed Japan as the major trading
partner of wood products. In 2015, North American logs and lumber
exported to China and Japan were valued at 1.9 billion dollars and
1.2 billion dollars, respectively. This “gap” between the two
countries is likely to shrink in 2016.
Global lumber, sawlog and pulpwood market reporting is included
in the 52-page quarterly publication Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ).
The report, which was established in 1988 and has subscribers in
over 30 countries, tracks sawlog, pulpwood, lumber and pellet
prices, trade and market developments in most key regions around
the world. To subscribe to the WRQ, please go to
www.woodprices.com
Wood Resources International LLC (WRI), an internationally
recognized forest industry-consulting firm established in 1987,
publishes two quarterly timber price reports and have subscribers
in over 30 countries. The Wood Resource Quarterly, established in
1988, is a 52-page market report and includes sawlog prices,
pulpwood and wood chip price and market commentary to developments
in global timber, biomass and forest industry. The other report,
the North Americam Wood Fiber Review, tracks prices of sawlogs,
pulpwood, wood chips and biomass in most regions of Canada and the
US.
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