By far the largest trade volumes were recorded between Sweden and Egypt (1.4 million m³) and between Finland and Egypt (1.3 million m³). These two trade flows are among the ten largest worldwide. The North African country sources around three quarters of its total softwood lumber imports of 3.6 million m³ from Scandinavia. At the same time, almost half of Swedish and Finnish shipments to the MENA region are headed for Egypt.
Saudi Arabia imported the second-biggest volume softwood lumber, i.e. 1.6 million m³. Besides Scandinavian countries Finland (403,000 m³) and Sweden (254,000 m³), Austria (192,000 m³) and Chile (174,000 m³) were Egypt’s most important trading partners in 2024.
Algeria completes the Top 3 importing countries in the MENA region, with a demand of 1.1 million m³ of softwood lumber in 2024. Algeria satisfied its demand almost entirely through imports from the EU. In addition to Sweden (382,000 m³) and Finland (273,000 m³), Austria (210,000 m³) was also a key player in trade with Algeria in 2024. In fact, these three countries accounted for 81% of total Algerian softwood lumber imports last year.
Apart from Algeria and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (156,000 m³) and Morocco (92,000 m³) were the largest buyers of Austrian softwood lumber. Compared to 2023, Austria was able to increase its trade volume in the region by 16% to 941,000 m³.
Romania recorded the largest increase in trade with the MENA countries. The trade volume grew by 42% year on year to 572,000 m³ in 2024. The southeastern European country’s main trading partners were the United Arab Emirates with 185,000 m³ and Saudi Arabia with 142,000 m³.
Outside the EU, Russia and Chile were major suppliers of the MENA region. The former exported 1.7 million m³ there, according to Holzkurier estimates, while Chile’s trade volume increased by 15% to 331,000 m³ last year.
In addition to Sweden, which saw its deliveries decrease by 3% in 2024, Germany (438,000 m³; -11%) and Brazil (318,000 m³; -16%) also exported smaller volumes of softwood lumber to the MENA region compared to 2023.
© Timber-Online.net
© Timber-Online.net
| Shipments of the biggest global softwood lumber exporters to North Africa and the Middle East (in 1,000 m³) | ||||||||||||
| Horizontal: Importing countries | Vertical: Exporting countries | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Countries | Egypt | Saudi Arabia | Algeria | Morocco | UAE | Israel | Libya | Tunisia | Other MENA countries | 1-12 2023 | 1-12 2024 | Diff. in % |
| Sweden | 1,438 | 254 | 382 | 376 | 5 | 52 | 89 | 59 | 82 | 2,819 | 2,737 | –3 |
| Finland | 1,282 | 403 | 273 | 203 | 0.4 | 338 | 17 | 80 | 61 | 2,636 | 2,656 | 1 |
| Russia | 550 | n/s | n/s | n/s | n/s | n/s | n/s | n/s | n/s | 1,620 | 1,700 | 5 |
| Austria | 6 | 192 | 210 | 92 | 156 | 19 | 64 | 13 | 189 | 814 | 941 | 16 |
| Romania | 5 | 142 | 1 | 19 | 185 | 18 | 0.2 | 0 | 202 | 402 | 572 | 42 |
| Germany | 36 | 101 | 80 | 31 | 99 | 14 | 7 | 0.4 | 69 | 493 | 438 | –11 |
| Chile | 0 | 174 | 0 | 0 | 91 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 66 | 287 | 331 | 16 |
| Brazil | 1 | 148 | 0 | 12 | 112 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 379 | 318 | –16 |
| Canada | 11 | 23 | 0 | 0.3 | 36 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 85 | 89 | 6 |
| USA | 18 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 50 | 41 | –18 |
| EU (excl. Top 5) | 239 | 166 | 111 | 222 | 96 | 83 | 19 | 29 | 133 | 1,089 | 1,098 | 1 |
| Total | 3,586 | 1,604 | 1,062 | 957 | 783 | 531 | 200 | 184 | 732 | 10,672 | 10,920 | 2 |
