In the second quarter, European softwood lumber imports from Russia grew by significantly in comparison with the same period of 2020.
The Russian customs authority reports that deliveries to Estonia grew by 62% to 272,762 m³. Great increases were also registered in sales to Germany (+32% to 230,653 m³), Finland (+12% to 181,337 m³), the UK (+64% to 149,351 m³) and the Netherlands (+43% to 123,799 m³). The amount of softwood lumber sold to the 11 key purchasing European countries reached 1.396m m³, showing a 53% growth. Supplies to the 6 central Asian republics rose by one-third to 1.457m m³. Exports to China declined on the contrary - by 11% to 4.668m m³. If to take the situation overall, this represents a decrease of twelve percent to 56%.
In April-June totally 8.935m m³ softwood lumber was sold at a cos of US$1.643bn. While the exported volume was 8% up, the export cost rose by 50%. Nevertheless, this growth could only at some rate compensate the decrease (-13%) registered in the 1st quarter. Together in the first half of the year, the export volume - at 14.911m m³ - was 2% lower than the previous year’s figure. The export cost increased by 30% to US$2.607bn. Out of the whole export volume, 7.891m m³ was shipped to Chinese customers, showing a 12% decrease. Supplies to Japan also declined (-19% to 415,620 m³). As for exports to the central Asia a 3% growth to 2.368m m³ was showed. At 2.395m m³, exports to the key importing countries of Europe grew by 38%.
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