3.3 million m³ of softwood lumber imported

Article by Philipp Matzku (translated by Eva Guzely) | 02.12.2024 - 09:09

In the first ten months, Japan’s softwood lumber imports totaled 3.3 million m³ and thus increased by 26% compared to last year. Of the Top 10 supplying countries, Chile was the only one to record a decrease. Nearly three quarters of Japan’s total imports come from the four main suppliers Canada, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

The ranking of the ten most important suppliers of softwood lumber has remained more or less unchanged over the past months. Only Romania (129,000 m³; +136%) managed to switch places with Germany (123,000 m³; +97%) back in September.

Canada remains Japan’s number one supplying country with a trade volume of 711,000 m³ (+18%), followed by Sweden (658,000 m³; +45%), Finland (597,000 m³; +23%) and Russia (457,000 m³; +13%). In total, these four countries delivered 2.2 million m³ and thus accounted for 73% of Japan’s total imports in the first ten months. 160,000 m³ (+22%) were imported from Austria.

Imports from Chile are still decreasing. From January to October, Japan purchased 140,000 m³ of softwood lumber from the South American country, which corresponds to a 9% decrease compared to 2023. Data published by Statistics of Japan were used for this analysis. As always, you can find more detailed figures in our Datacube.