Press release: North American sawmills are losing market shares in Asia

6/21/2016

"With continued low construction activity in Europe it is no surprise that European sawmills are looking for new markets," says Jenny Wessung, CEO at Woodstat. Southeast Asia is one of the markets in focus and not just China. South Korea, India, Taiwan and other countries in the region are increasing the import of softwood lumber from Europe. This is clearly seen in the chart below, which shows the monthly European export to Southeast Asia (China and Japan excluded). According to a new forecast from Woodstat, softwood lumber consumption in Europe will increase slowly the next coming years.

Canada is the main exporter of softwood lumber to the region with a market share of 45% (deliveries from leading European exporters, Canada and U.S.). However, ten years ago Canada had a market share of 60%. The European market share has increased from 30% in 2007 to more than 45% during the first quarter of this year. The U.S. has lost market shares during the past two years.

Two countries in Europe export more to the region than other European countries: Germany and Russia. The exports from these countries increased by 500% each during the first quarter of this year compared with same period ten years ago. The Swedish market share has increased since 2011 and has a share of 6% today. It is however slightly less than in early 2009 when Sweden had a higher market share. The Finnish market share has been relatively stable during the last five years, but slightly lower than prior to that. Austria-Slovenia slowly increased the market share to 5% from less than 2% in 2010.

For more information contact:
Jenny Wessung, CEO
Woodstat AB
jenny.wessung@woodstat.com
https://www.woodstat.com 


About Woodstat
Since 2007 Woodstat delivers comprehensive statistics and analysis to sawmills, forest owners and banks across the world. Woodstat publishes approximately 400 issues of the newsletter "Market News" every year. The Market News are concise and contain the latest market statistics for the manufactured lumber product industry. Woodstat's charts collection is available at www.woodstat.com and contains hundreds of relevant diagrammatic data for anyone working in the wood or forest industry.