UK's timber and panels trade have started strong in 2016, as shown in the latest Statistical Bulletin published by the Timber Trade Federation (TFF).
The import volume in the UK for January 2016 went up by 1.6%, compared to December 2015. The increase was somewhat similar with the one registered in January 2015.
The 2016 start continues buoyant market trends experienced throughout the year 2015, as shown by the Source of Supply section of TTF Bulletin. For example, China and Brazil kept on increasing their share of UK timber and panels market.
China, in particular, grew its imports of hardwood plywood on the UK market, while Brazil has achieved a similar domination of the softwood plywood imports.
As explained in the Chart above, the 2015 overall share of timber and panels imported by the UK from Europe was 84.9%, 0.5% lower than 2014. A similar drop affected North American share of supply (-0.2%) as well as Africa, Middle East and Oceania (-0.2%).
Conversely, 2015 saw an increase of supply from Asia (+0.5%) - mainly due to the growth of hardwood plywood from China - and Central & South America (+0.4%), fed by Brazilian exports of softwood plywood.
Nick Boulton, Head of Technical and Trade at TTF said: “These statistics show a continued positive trend for the UK timber trade. It is interesting to see growth of Softwood plywood imports from Brazil, where the major manufacturers have made significant investment in strong third party Quality Assurance for their products enabling UK buyers to have greater confidence in their purchases. We will be addressing this theme with future TTF projects.”
