Global markets have been booming since 2015. Within five years, the export volume grew by 20 million m³ a year, bringing the total to already 131 million m³ in 2019. But then came COVID-19.
Holzkurier now analyzed the first half year, the data for which are already available. As in the year before, the focus is on the following three regions:
- the US as the biggest consumer market
- China as the second biggest importing country
- the Levant region as the European sawmill industry’s most important overseas market so far
World’s biggest market in contraction
In the first half year, the US imported 16.2 million m³ from the 15 biggest supplying countries. Year on year, this corresponds to a decrease of 8%. This development is mainly due to fewer shipments from Canada which declined by around 10%. The development of European exports to the US is the complete opposite.* In the first half year, they rose by a marked 56% year on year to a total of 1.5 million m³.
Germany in particular is gaining considerable ground in the US. In the first six months, German exports grew by 48% reaching 779,000 m³. Russia (+71%), Sweden (+82%), Finland (+88%) and Austria (+31%) also recorded marked increases.
Germany in fourth place
The success in sales on the other side of the Atlantic made Germany the fourth biggest softwood sawn timber exporter in the world. Traditionally, the fourth place was always held by Finland.
Slowdown in China as well
In the first half year, China imported considerably smaller volumes of softwood sawn timber. Instead of 14.1 million m³, only 12.7 million m³ were imported this year. While big supplying countries like Russia (-12%) or Canada (-40%) suffered significant losses, European suppliers saw their exports grow considerably. China bought more softwood sawn timber from nearly all European countries, with the exception of main supplier Finland, from which China received 524,000 m³, i.e. 17% less year on year. The main reason for this decrease were strikes by Finnish sawmill workers at the beginning of the year.
Chinese imports from all other European countries, such as Sweden (484,000 m³; +50%), Ukraine (466,000 m³; +25%) and Germany (440,000 m³; +48%), saw double-digit increases.
Levant region a surprise
Eurostat data show that exports to the Levant region have been surprisingly stable so far. European supplying countries shipped 1.6 million m³ to this region, which is only a slight decrease of 1% compared to last year.
By keeping its overall export volume at 1.4 million m³, Ukraine managed to rise from 14th place in 2019 to eighth place in the ranking of exporting countries.
*Exports from: Germany, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Czech Republic and Belgium
GLOBAL FOREIGN TRADE | Q2 2020
| Table of softwood sawn timber trade flows from the 15 biggest exporting countries to the 15 biggest importing countries as well as to the Levant region (volumes in 1,000 m³). | ||||||||||||||||||
| National statistics on sawn timber exports in 2020 were used as sources (as of September 2020). | ||||||||||||||||||
Importing countries --------------- Exporting countries |
Total |
1. USA |
2. China | 3. Japan | 4. Great Britain | 5. Germany | 6. Egypt | 7. Italy | 8. Netherlands | 9. France | 10. Uzbekistan | 11. South Korea | 12. Saudi Arabia | 13. Austria | 14. Belgium | 15. Estonia | Other countries | Levant region |
| 1. Canada | 17,252 | 14,145 | 1,741 | 744 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 5 | 0 | 94 | 26 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 449 | 44 |
| 2. Russia | 14,790 | 26 | 9,011 | 512 | 156 | 305 | 413 | 47 | 163 | 104 | 1,121 | 174 | 16 | 75 | 59 | 333 | 2,274 | 581 |
| 3. Sweden | 7,406 | 450 | 612 | 474 | 1.148 | 463 | 873 | 28 | 553 | 181 | 0 | 70 | 176 | 19 | 177 | 34 | 2,148 | 1,595 |
| 4. Germany | 4,526 | 779 | 540 | 57 | 226 | – | 0 | 232 | 455 | 349 | 0 | 91 | 53 | 394 | 404 | 6 | 938 | 240 |
| 5. Finland | 3,854 | 32 | 586 | 432 | 279 | 220 | 600 | 53 | 97 | 190 | 0 | 14 | 255 | 72 | 41 | 172 | 811 | 1,323 |
| 6. Austria | 2,796 | 118 | 64 | 135 | 12 | 514 | 4 | 1,101 | 3 | 32 | 0 | 34 | 93 | – | 1 | 0 | 685 | 423 |
| 7. Belarus | 2,060 | 0 | 215 | 3 | 0 | 253 | 0 | 25 | 109 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 95 | 62 | 1,275 | 17 |
| 8. Ukraine | 1,442 | 2 | 468 | 11 | 0 | 58 | 0 | 87 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 4 | 3 | 14 | 3 | 745 | 69 |
| 9. Latvia | 1,404 | 25 | 101 | 58 | 470 | 64 | 78 | 8 | 78 | 48 | 0 | 103 | 7 | 9 | 17 | 114 | 225 | 123 |
| 10. Czech Republic | 1,393 | 39 | 24 | 113 | 16 | 265 | 0 | 357 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 3 | 260 | 2 | 0 | 291 | 7 |
| 11. USA | 1,322 | – | 151 | 98 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1,031 | 22 |
| 12. Chile | 1,310 | 91 | 291 | 97 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 186 | 93 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 550 | 143 |
| 13. Belgium | 1,180 | 1 | 147 | 0 | 46 | 159 | 18 | 1 | 173 | 410 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | – | 0 | 221 | 44 |
| 14. Brazil | 1,175 | 415 | 169 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 95 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 479 | 180 |
| 15. New Zealand | 736 | 91 | 206 | 24 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 22 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 333 | 28 |
| TOTAL | 62,646 | 16,214 | 14,326 | 2,760 | 2,378 | 2,309 | 1,997 | 1,947 | 1,701 | 1,334 | 1,131 | 862 | 847 | 835 | 826 | 725 | 12,456 | 4,840 |
The table contains the 15 biggest softwood sawn timber exporting countries and the 15 biggest importing countries as well as the Levant region.
National statistics on exports in 2020 are the basis. When consulting national statistics, Holzkurier looked for softwood sawn timber including planed timber. In order to avoid confusing softwood sawn timber with other products, research was done using the Harmonized System Code (HS Code) for softwood sawn timber. According to the World Customs Organization, this group of products is defined as a six-digit code “440711, 440712, and 440719” since 2017.
According to Holzkurier’s definition, the following countries are part of the Levant region: Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Ethiopia, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Yemen, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates.
