2017 has been a pretty good year for timber and wood-based panel imports to the UK so far, according to the latest statistics from the Timber Trade Federation (TTF). Import volume in the first month of 2017 was 26 per cent higher than 2016, amounting to a 186,000 cbm increase.
Solid wood imports were 18 per cent higher year-on-ear while panel products rose 45 per cent.
Although the figures are considered outstanding for the industry’s overall performance, last January saw low volumes of timber imports in comparison to the same month in previous years.
Other highlights of the TTF’s data:
– UK imports of the main timber and panel products rose in 2016 by 5.2 per cent to reach 9.8 million cbm.
– Europe accounted for the great majority of the volume of timber imported to the UK, supplying 86 per cent of all imports. Volume from Europe was 8.4 million cbm, an increase of just over 6 per cent compared to the same period in 2015.
– The volume supplied specifically from the EU amounted to 7.9 million cbm, or 93 per cent of all volume from Europe including Russia.
– The share of supply from Asia fell from 8.7 per cent in 2015 to 8.0 per cent in 2016, mainly due to lower plywood volumes shipped from China.
– The share of supply held by North America fell for the third year in a row, down from 2.3 per cent in 2014 to 1.9 per cent in 2016.
