Austrian softwood lumber exports up 4%

With 3 million m³ of softwood lumber, Austrian exporters were able to increase shipments in the first seven months by 4% over last year’s figures, according to data from Statsistics Austria. Half of the surplus volume of 120,000 m³ was garnered by Italian customers: Austria’s main lumber market absorbed almost 1.5 million m³ – 4% more than a year ago.

Exports to Germany posted a particularly sharp increase: +25% to 415,000 m³. The negative counterpart to this is Japan, which until the end of July imported only 160,000 m³ of softwood lumber from Austria – or 34% less than before. With 25,000 m³ decrease, China continues to play an insignificant role in the Austrian foreign lumber trade. For comparison, during the same period, Germany exported 172,000 m³ to China.