According to the Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ), the Chinese softwood log imports hit new high during the previous year. This is the third year in a row that the country has reported year-on-year increase in log import volumes. The imports totaled just over 40 million cubic metres, higher by 37% when compared with 2015 levels. Meantime, imports declined slightly in Q4 ’18, upon comparison with the prior quarter.
WRQ reports that log imports from key suppliers including Russia and Canada extended decline during the year. On the other hand, New Zealand and Australia expanded their market share. In fact, 44% of the total log imports by China during Q4 last year were from these two countries. The combined supplies from New Zealand and Australia have surged higher by almost 30% over the past three years.
Meantime, Russia’s market share witnessed sharpest decline, falling from 36% in 2015 to as low as 18% in 2018. Uruguay emerges as the fifth largest log supplier to China, with log supplies totaling almost 2.5 million cubic metres in 2018.
The Chinese average log import prices recorded notable increase in 2018. Despite recording increases during the past three years, the average import prices are still below the levels of 2013 and 2014, WRQ noted. Meantime, average log import prices declined by 3% quarter-on-quarter in Q4 last year.
The country to report biggest jump in log exports to China was Japan. The country almost tripled its log export volumes to China in 2018. The other countries to report notable increase in log supply were Poland, Chile, South Africa and Germany.
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