China's Timber Imports Are Down From A Year Earlier

After ending a decade-long downward trend last year, China's softwood lumber imports reversed course in the first half of 2024, with shipments through June down 6 percent compared to shipments in 2023.

As of June, China's total imports fell to 8.87 million cubic meters, down from 9.47 million cubic meters in the first half of 2023. Wood deliveries from European suppliers fell to 1.79 million cubic meters, down 16 percent from a year earlier.

Europe remains the main foreign supplier to China, but the region's share of the Chinese import market slipped to 20 percent from 22.5 percent in the first half of 2023. Meanwhile, North America's share of the Chinese market reached 9 percent, up slightly from the first six months of 2023. While the increase in North America is gradual, it marks a reversal of more than a decade of European and Russian species severely displacing U.S. and Canadian lumber.

In 2023, China's total timber imports reached 18 million cubic meters, an increase of 4 percent over 2022. The gain ends more than a decade of steady annual declines that included a 10 percent decline in 2022 and a 23 percent decline in 2021.

However, this momentum faded in early 2024 as the construction slump weakened China's overall demand for imported timber in the first half of the year. Higher log and shipping costs have prompted European exporters to raise prices. In addition, security concerns have led shipping companies to avoid the Red Sea, which has delayed the delivery of goods.

A lack of demand, resistance to rising prices offered by European shippers and longer delivery times have prompted some importers to switch to competitively priced Canadian standard prices. However, the weak Canadian lumber market has prompted large-scale production cuts in western Canada. As a result, less supply was available to exporters, leading to lower exports to China in the first half of the year.

As usual, pine dominates US exports to China. In the first half of this year, the Chinese market's imports of pine from other major pine suppliers decreased significantly. Radiata Pine exports from Chile, for example, fell 32% to 148,053 m3. Shipments of Radiata Pine from New Zealand decreased by 25%.

China's softwood log imports fell even more sharply, down 11% to 13.25 million cubic meters. Roundwood shipments from Europe fell 58 percent to 1.67 million cubic meters, offsetting a 5 percent increase in imports from New Zealand to 9.15 million cubic meters. Canadian log exports to China surged 19 per cent to 580,000 cubic metres.

Log imports from "other" suppliers increased by 22 percent to 1.18 million cubic meters. Most of the suppliers in this category are located on the Pacific Rim.