Press release: Finnish sawmills winner in the Middle East

10/24/2016

The import of softwood lumber in the Middle East from the main European exporters and North America was 2.62 million m³ (-14% compared to 2015) during January-August. The import from Russia during the same period was 646,000 m³ (-17%), Romania 510,000 m³ (-27%), Germany 413,000 m³ (-10%), Finland 335,000 m³ (+10%) and Sweden 296,000 m³ (-17%).

After a rapid increase in imports 2007-2011 the volume has fallen and actual import is the smallest since 2009. Among the five largest exporters, Finland is the only country that is shipping larger volumes during January-August 2016 compared to 2015.

In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is the leading importer and United Arab Emirates is the second largest followed by Iran, Jordan and Lebanon. All main importers have imported smaller volumes during January-August compared to the same period previous year. "With falling import in the Middle East and also smaller volumes to North Africa, demand for pine lumber now is smaller," says Jenny Wessung CEO at Woodstat. 

For more information contact:
Jenny Wessung, CEO
Woodstat AB
jenny.wessung@woodstat.com
https://www.woodstat.com 


About Woodstat
Since 2007 Woodstat delivers comprehensive statistics and analysis to sawmills, forest owners and banks across the world. Woodstat publishes approximately 400 issues of the newsletter "Market News" every year. The Market News are concise and contain the latest market statistics for the manufactured lumber product industry. Woodstat's charts collection is available at www.woodstat.com and contains hundreds of relevant diagrammatic data for anyone working in the wood or forest industry.