According to the Chinese Customs, China imported approximately 1.53 million m³ of softwood lumber in July (+20% compared to 2022). The import totaled 11.0 million m³ during January-July (+15%). The trend line for the import of softwood lumber in China is decreasing.

China imported approximately 1.09 million m³ of softwood lumber from Russia in July (+8% compared to 2022), 248,000 m³ from main European exporters excluding Russia (+97%) and 97,000 m³ from Canada (+45%). During January-July China imported 6.99 million m³ of softwood lumber from Russia (+7%), 2.33 million m³ from main European exporters (+45%) and 828,000 m³ from Canada (+7%). The trend lines for the Chinese import of softwood lumber from Russia and main European exporters are decreasing. The trend line for Canada is increasing from a low level for the country.

The Russian market share in the Chinese lumber market is at a lower level than a year ago, but remains at a high level. The smoothed trend line for the European market share is decreasing. The smoothed line for the Canadian market share is increasing from a very low level for the country. Note that these are smoothed series that result in lagging trend lines that do not reflect major changes in individual months.

Among the European exporters, the smoothed trend line for the market shares for Finland and Belarus are increasing. The smoothed trend lines for Germany and Sweden are decreasing.

The import of softwood logs from New Zealand was 1.49 million m³ in July (-16%) and 271,000 m³ from main European exporters (-59%). The trend line for New Zealand is increasing at a high level. The trend line for main European exporters is decreasing. The trend lines for the U.S. and Canada are increasing from low levels. 

When we look at the import of softwood logs from Europe, the trend line for the import from Germany is decreasing and at a clearly lower level than the record high level seen during the beginning of 2021. The trend lines for Poland, the Czech Republic, France and the Baltics are also decreasing.