Producers of softwood and planed lumber in Sweden were able to rise exports in all relevant sales regions during the first quarter of 2020.
With a total of 3.767m m³, the amount of sawnwood and planed lumber exported in the first three months surpassed the preceding year’s volume by 17%. Although the growth level already reached in the first two months continued until the end of the quarter, by March the influence of the corona crisis was already being felt in several export countries. The figures of the Swedish Forest Industries Federation (Skogsindustrierna) record a growth of 9% to 2.113m m³ in Europe. Exports to customers outside Europe achieved 1.657m m³, corresponding to an increase of around 30% comparing to the same quarter of 2019.