After hitting a record high in 2008, the Japanese pulp industry’s woodchip imports are expected to hit a 20-year low in 2009.
According to Wood Resource Quarterly, Japan’s pulp sector imported 72% of its raw material requirement last year, pushing total wood chip imports to 19.1 million tons, the bulk in hardwood. This meant it accounted for 84% of the total chip trade in the Pacific Rim, china, Taiwan and Vietnam taking the rest.
Most of its imports came from plantations in Austrialia, Vietnam, Chile and South Africa.
The high demand pushed hardwood fibre prices to a peak of US$201/odmt (oven dry metric tonne ) in the third quarter of 2008. However, since then the international recession has hit, demand has fallen away sharply and prices have retreated in the first quarter of this year to US$187odmt.
