This increase was mainly driven by India, which purchased a total of 850,000 m³ of softwood lumber from Europe in 2023. South Korea increased its imports by 6% compared to 2022 to a volume of 560,000 m³.
Despite the growing export volumes, prices fell sharply by 32% in 2023. European softwood lumber achieved an average price of just €193/m³ in Southeast Asia, compared to €284/m³ in 2022. A striking example of this downward trend in prices is main market India, where the average price fell from €243/m³ in 2022 to €165/m³ last year. In South Korea, European suppliers even lost nearly €100/m³ in revenue, with the price decreasing from €328/m³ in 2022 to just €229/m³ in 2023.
With total imports of 2.5 million m³, Southeast Asia is the fourth most important sales market for European softwood lumber behind the MENA region (approx. 9 million m³ a year), the US (about 4.7 million m³ in 2023) and China (3.6 million m³ in 2023). For comparison: Japan only imports around 2 million m³ from Europe in an average year.
| Shipments of the EU-27 countries to Southeast Asia, definition of countries acc. to EOS | ||||||
| Country | 2022 | 2023 | 2022 | 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in m³ | in € | in m³ | in € | in €/m³ | ||
| India | 648,000 | 157,651,000 | 849,000 | 140,246,000 | 243.4 | 165.3 |
| South Korea | 552,000 | 180,949,000 | 585,000 | 133,780,000 | 327.7 | 228.9 |
| Pakistan | 317,000 | 82,882,000 | 254,000 | 51,209,000 | 261.6 | 202.0 |
| Philippines | 206,000 | 113,906,000 | 205,000 | 67,042,000 | 553.6 | 327.0 |
| Taiwan | 328,000 | 84,348,000 | 396,000 | 69,614,000 | 257.0 | 176.0 |
| Thailand | 159,000 | 12,212,000 | 157,000 | 7,690,000 | 76.6 | 49.1 |
| Vietnam | 103,000 | 25,854,000 | 83,000 | 16,893,000 | 250.8 | 202.7 |
| Total | 2,313,000 | 657,801,000 | 2,527,000 | 486,474,000 | 284.3 | 192.5 |
