According to the statistics released by China Customs, China’s import volume of softwood lumber decreased by nearly 10% in 2020. Furthermore, there has been a decline of 23% in the first two months of this year compared with the same period of last year, compounding the very low lumber inventories in China from the end of 2020. The current softwood lumber inventory at Taicang was at 700,000 m3 at the end of March, well below the average normal inventory of 800,000 – 1 million m3 in previous years.