The age-old adage 'what goes up must come down' has played out as expected with the New Zealand export log market in recent weeks.
Export sales prices during May were the highest since the global financial crisis and were basically an anomaly with low shipping costs and foreign exchange rates reducing the costs of getting the logs to market. This was expected to be short-lived — and was.
New Zealand A-grade export logs have dropped from around $153/m3 in May to $117/m3 in July, with the potential for further downward price pressure in August.