The latest available TTF Timber Statistics – Industry Facts & Figures, April 2019 reveal that import volumes in the first month of the year were up on January 2018 by 124,000m3.

Solid wood imports in January were almost 22% up on those for January 2018, while panel products were up 4%. And the TTF notes that January 2019 was a better month for imports than January 2007, the best January since before the 2008/2009 recession.

Softwood imports for January were up 21.2% year-on-year to 572,000m3 (January 2018: 472,000m3). The leading countries of supply – Latvia, Finland, the Republic of Ireland, Germany and Russia – all upped their volumes to the UK with the exception of Sweden, whose share of the total dropped from 52% to 40%.

The value of softwood imports in January 2019 was 17% higher than in January 2018. This, said the TTF, was driven by higher volumes and the average prices were actually lower by about 3% in the month.

The value of sawn goods for the same comparative months was up by 18%. The value of planed goods was 15% higher in January 2019 than in January 2018. The value of whitewood was more than 13% higher in January 2019 over January 2018 while redwood values were up by 25%.

Hardwood imports in January this year were substantially up on the same month last year – by 28.3% to 45,000m3 (2018: 35,000m3). The US lost its leading position to Estonia and was the only country to make losses rather than gains in share of the imports that month, down from 23% in 2018 to 15% this January (Estonia was up from 9% in January 2018 to 17% this January).

The European share of hardwood supply in the month increased to 67%.

Plywood imports were up by 3.2% in January over January 2018 (2019: 202,000m3; 2018: 195,000m3). Within that, hardwood plywood imports rose by 6.7% (2019: 90,000m3; 2018: 84,000m3). China still dominates the UK’s supply of hardwood plywood, although this fell slightly, from 53% share in January last year to 50% this year. In fact, within the top five hardwood plywood suppliers to the UK, only Russia recorded a slight increase of 1% (from 8% to 9%), while Finland, Malaysia and Indonesia either fell slightly or remained the same.

Softwood plywood imports were up only marginally in January 2019 over January 2018 – by 0.5% (2019: 112,000m3; 2018: 111,000m3). Brazil is still by far the biggest supplier, accounting for 68% of imports in January (down slightly from 70% in January 2018), with China up to 15% (from 9% in January 2018). Finland’s share rose from 7% to 10% in the same comparison months, while Chile’s fell from 4% to 2%.

Chipboard imports were up by 11.5% in the January year-on-year comparison (2019: 85,000m3; 2018: 76,000m3), with most of the top six supplying countries increasing their share. The exception was Belgium, whose share fell from 22% to 15%. France and Germany occupied the top slots, accounting for growth of 6,000-7,000m3 between them (30% and 27% share respectively.

In contrast, particleboard exports were down by 1.8%.

OSB imports were up 22.7% in January 2019 over January 2018 (2019: 42,000m3; 2018: 34,000m3) while exports were up from the very low volume of 1,000m3 in January 2018 to 11,000m3 in January this year.

MDF imports were down by 12.1% (2019: 60,000m3; 2018: 68,000m3) while exports were significantly up – by 24.7% (2019: 5,000m3; 2018: 4,000m3).