Solid wood imports were 4% higher than the same period in 2011, while panel product imports were nearly 9% lower. In overall product volumes, total volumes were down 0.3%.
The increase in November’s import volumes represented the first time in five months (since May) that volumes had been higher than the coreesponding month in 2011.
Softwood imports from Sweden, Russia and Germany all registered increases, while Latvia recorded a reduction in volume by nearly one-half during the month.
Swedish softwood achieved a 49% share of the UK softwood import market for January-November – a growth of 11% (nearly 250,000m3) on 2011. Ireland , the fourth largest softwood exporter to the UK, saw its January-November UK-bound shipments up nearly 50,000m3.
Hardwood imports were up 3.7% to 401,000m3 for the 11 months.
Lower volumes from France and Italy were recorded in November, while higher volumes arrived from Germany. Imports from the US, Cameroon and Malaysia were also up in January-November by 5%, 11% and 14% respectively.
Imports of all plywood products were down 4.1% to 1.2 million m3 for the period. Hardwood plywood imports were down 0.6% to 844,000m3, with Malaysia, Finland and Russia continuing to lose ground to China and Uruguay.
