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Increase in Japanese imports from Europe

Japanese imports of softwood timber and planed products from Europe rose again by 3.3% in the third quarter. Source: Euwid

After increases of 3.7% in the first quarter and volumes on par with those of last year in the second quarter, the imports amounted to 722,551 m3 according to the foreign-trade figures published in Japan Lumber Journal.

Whereas the imports from Finland were considerably higher than a year earlier at +12.0% to 259,926 m3 and those from Sweden were up slightly at +1.4% to 193,461 m3, imports from Austria and Romania fell by 10.8% and 7.7% respectively to 81,379 m3 and 53,477 m3.

Cumulated over the first nine months, Japan thus imported 2.17m m3 of softwood timber and planed products from Europe, which equates to an increase of 2.3% against the same period of last year.

At 757,804 m3, imports from Finland rose by 3.9%, raising Finland’s share of Japan’s total imports of timber and planed products from Europe to roughly 35.0%.