October’s surge in demand is the latest positive sign in a year of gradual volume improvements. Compared with the previous year, the cumulative deficit for 2024 has been reduced to just 1.2% for all products.

Significantly, the softwoods volume deficit was effectively wiped out in October at just -0.3% and OSB volumes have moved ahead of last year’s figures.

Softwood imports in October 2024 were around 11% higher than in October 2023, driven by a near doubling of planed pine imports, with around 27,000m3 more being imported this year than last.

Swedish imports accounted for most of this total, with volumes from Latvia also higher.  Sweden maintained its position as the UK’s biggest softwood-supplying country, providing 47% of all imports.

October also saw an 18,000m3 surge in the volume of temperate species of imported hardwood plywood, which includes Alder, Beech, and Ash, among other species.

This was driven mainly from China, and the monthly total was 50% higher than any of the preceding months of 2024.

This month, increases in softwood plywood imports were proportionally greater than for any other timber product, with Brazil supplying 10,500m3 more and Finland over 2,000m3 more.

Volumes of unworked OSB also increased sharply, with an 11,000m3 rise in Latvian imports and a 3,000m3 increase from Germany.

Average prices in Germany fell by 9% between June and October, which may have impacted volumes, although Latvian prices only fell by 2% and still enjoyed a significant rise.

Hardwood imports throughout the first 10 months of 2024 were around 18,000m3 below the same period in 2023.

Lower volumes from the USA and Cameroon accounted for just over half of this shortfall. However, the other five top supplying countries collectively supplied almost 10,000m3 more volumes during the same period, helping to offset some of this fall.

As part of the overall cumulative reduction of 18,000m3, the UK imported around 9,000m3 less temperate hardwood, mostly accounted for by lower volumes from the USA, Croatia and Germany.

The highest growth came from Romania, with an increase of 2,500m3; increased volumes also came from Estonia and France.

Hardwood plywood imports have remained identical in 2024 compared with 2023, with China continuing to cement its dominant position in the supply market. In October alone, 3 out of every 4 cubic metres of hardwood plywood came from China.