The 'biggest loser' in this scenario is at the same time the biggest European supplier to China: Finland. Instead of 1.7 million m³, last year saw a loss of almost 700,000 m³ (-40%). Not quite as strong was the impact for Swedish exporters in 2018 who sold 630,000 m³ (-30%).
Constant levels were achieved by Germany with delivering almost 150,000 m³ to China in the past years as well as in 2018.
The rising star in Europe were the Netherlands with 120,000 m³ (+44%) of exported lumber followed by a large margin by Austria (86,000 m³; -14%) and Czech Republic (72,000 m³; +380%).
| Chinese imports of European softwood lumber in m³ | |||
| Country | 1–12 2017 | 1–12 2018 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland | 1,740,375 | 1,075,180 | –38 |
| Sweden | 877,553 | 626,929 | –29 |
| Germany | 150,784 | 143,269 | –5 |
| Netherlands | 84,405 | 121,917 | 44 |
| Austria | 100,151 | 85,927 | –14 |
| Czech Republic | 15,145 | 72,437 | 378 |
| Latvia | 77,159 | 54,623 | –29 |
| Estonia | 73,806 | 47,939 | –35 |
| Romania | 32,894 | 38,583 | 17 |
| Lithuania | 30,105 | 27,044 | –10 |
| Spain | 218,025 | 24,089 | –89 |
| Slovenia | 38,750 | 15,195 | –61 |
| Belgium | 1,694 | 5,548 | 228 |
| Poland | 4,632 | 4,032 | –13 |
| France | 1,391 | 1,736 | 25 |
| Croatia | 935 | 590 | –37 |
| Slovakia | 1 | 389 | – |
| Italy | 2,170 | 40 | –98 |
| Portugal | 1 | – | –100 |
| Total | 3,449,976 | 2,345,467 | –32 |
