Brazil’s domestic consumption of wood due to slackening construction activity may have reaped poor results for the second year running but its sawnwood is doing impressively well in the international market.
Sawnwood exports rose 39 per cent compared to 2015. 2016 exports totalled 2.2 million cubic metres. According to the Brazilian Tree Industry’s (IBA) 2016 report, exports are doing well due to the depreciation of Brazilian Real against the US Dollar. Domestic consumption of sawnwood on the other hand fell from 7.2 Mn cbm in 2015 to 6.4 Mn cbm in 2016.
However, total production of plywood panels from planted forests increased by only 3.8 per cent in 2016, reaching 2.7 Mn cbm, of which 1.8 Mn cbm was destined for export.
Meanwhile, sales of this product in the domestic market fell almost 12 per cent compared to 2015, totalling 900,000 cbm in 2016.
