In a mixed picture, imports of softwood, oriented strand board (OSB) and engineered wood products increased slightly but these increases were counterbalanced by falls elsewhere in the market.
Softwood imports in Q3 2024 were 1% higher compared to Q3 2023, and OSB and engineered wood products (EWP) also recorded growth.
But there was still an overall deficit of 1.2%, due to volume reductions of the other main products, especially hardwood plywood and medium-density fibreboard (MDF).
Average prices of timber and panel products slowly edged upwards in the nine months to September 2024, confirming the end of a sustained period of price volatility between 2000 and 2023.
During the first nine months of 2024, solid wood imports were 1.7% lower than over the same period of 2023, while imports of panel products were 5.2% lower. In fact, across the first three quarters of 2024, UK imports followed a very similar pattern to that seen in the nine months of 2023, with the exception of March 2024, which saw a significant fall that accounted for most of the 2.9% volume deficit.
The cumulative volume reduction of 2.9% for the first three quarters of 2024 was broadly spread across the main imported timber and panel products.
More than 90% of the volume of softwood imported to the UK is sourced from just five countries – Sweden, Latvia, Finland, Germany and the Irish Republic. Despite this, during 2024 there has been a growing trend of sourcing more volume from countries outside of this core group.
During the three quarters of 2024, the volumes supplied by the top five fell by 3%, whereas volumes coming from other countries increased by 18%. In total, softwood imports from the top five fell by around 120,000 m3, while volumes from other countries grew by around 60,000 m3.
The value of softwood imports in the first nine months of 2024 was 2.7% lower than during the same period in 2023. The value of planed softwood fell by 1.1% compared to 2023, while the value of sawn goods was 4.3% lower. In the first three quarters of 2024, the average price for a basket of softwood imports stood at £254 per m3 compared to £258 per m3 during the same period of 2023.
Meanwhile, tropical hardwood imports were around 6,000 m3 down in the first three quarters of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Cameroon alone accounted for nearly 5,000 m3 of this total, while the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) and Malaysia also supplied around 4,000 m3 less over this period. Hardwood import growth in 2024 came from the Congo Republic, which increased its exports to the UK by 2,000 m3, and Poland, which saw a 3,000 m3 volume increase in its UK shipments.
Imports of temperate hardwoods in the first nine months of 2024 were also around 6,000 m3 lower. The USA was the largest contributor to this decline, with Germany and Croatia also exporting around 2,500 m3 less to the UK. A small increase in volumes from France raised its share of supply to 22% of the total of all temperate species supplied, as did a 14% increase in volumes from Romania. Outside of the leading groups of supplying countries, Poland, Canada, Lithuania and Italy all also increased their volumes during 2024.
The volume of mixed hardwoods imported to the UK in the first nine months of 2024 fell by around 9% (8,000 m3). However, each of the top three supplying countries actually increased their supplied volumes by a cumulative total of 2%. The 9% total reduction in volume comes from the smaller supplying countries, which collectively recorded a 33% fall in volume in the first three quarters of 2024.
Timber Development UK head of technical and trade Nick Boulton said: “It’s encouraging to see prices continuing to stabilise, albeit at a low level, and the overall import deficit shrink to just 1.2%. Going forward there are likely even more significant challenges ahead for timber businesses, with softwood log availability and very low stocks being most pressing on the agenda. While construction demand remains subdued, these issues have little visibility. However, as the housing and RMI markets push demand upward, buyers will become increasingly aware of the pressures in the system and should be careful not to assume current stable price levels can remain in the longer term.
“Timber, with all its low-carbon and sustainability benefits, should not be a commodity product in terms of pricing, and it’s important that the entire built environment industry recognises the importance that timber has to play in the road to net zero. This gives timber an intrinsic value that should be acknowledged if we are to help the entire timber supply chain to recover from the last few years’ uncertainty and build strong foundations moving forward.”
