Global

The world's 20 biggest flows of softwood lumber in 2018

Article by Günther Jauk, translated by Susanne Höfler | 08.09.2019 - 18:25

Last year, the biggest volume of softwood lumber (incl. planed goods) by a long way was exported by Canada to the United States. With a total of 32.1 million m³, deliveries however shrank 4% compared to 2017.

Russia exported 17.3 million m³ to China (+8%) in 2018. Canada delivered 5.1 million n³ (-8%) during that period to the Asian giant. Fourth place in the global softwood lumber flow ranking goes to the volumes delivered from Austria to Italy. Totaling 2.6 million m³, it remained stable in the past two years.

Significant increases, however, were registered for the volumes from Russia to Uzbekistan (increasing 20% to 2.6 million m³), from Brazil to the US (+39%; 1.2 million m³), as well as exports from Germany to the United States (980,000 m³; +35%).

The biggest decline was observed for deliveries from Finland to China: Softwood lumber exports of 2018 dropped 38% compared to the previous year to a total of 1.07 million m³.

The world's 20 biggest flows of softwood lumber in 2018
Trade flows incl. planed goods

 

No.

 

Exporter

 

Destination

Volume in 1,000 m³

 

Change in %

2017 2018
1 Canada USA 33,530 32,054 –4
2 Russia China 16,055 17,297 8
3 Canada China 5,597 5,144 –8
4 Austria Italy 2,604 2,608 0.2
5 Russia Uzbekistan 2,165 2,588 20
6 Sweden Great Britain 2,648 2,556 –3
7 Canada Japan 2,223 2,183 –2
8 Finland Egypt 1,297 1,280 –1
9 Russia Egypt 1,148 1,230 7
10 Brazil USA 849 1,176 39
11 Latvia Great Britain 1,029 1,117 9
12 Finland China 1,736 1,070 –38
13 Austria Germany 955 1,026 7
14 Germany USA 723 978 35
15 Sweden Netherlands 982 952 –3
16 Finland Japan 988 919 –7
17 Finland Great Britain 891 910 2
18 Germany Netherlands 843 904 7
19 Sweden Egypt 1,285 901 –30
20 Germany Austria 894 897 0.3