After substantial rises in preceding months, British softwood lumber imports increased by just 11% vis à vis the previous year to 719,000 m³ in September 2021.
In accordance with the export trade statistics presented monthly by the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) the most remarkable growth in imports had been registered in April (+121%). In the other months, increase rates were moderate in each case.
January’s volume amounted to 550,000 m³, onwards the volume of imports grew to 734,000 m³ by March and was stable in April. Less lumber was imported in May (626,000 m³) than in the preceding month. By August, imports had increased to their highest level of 2021 at 771,000 m³, before reducing again a little bit in September.
Concerning the rises in the first half of the year, the basis of comparison must be considered as well. Due to the lockdown introduced by the British government at the end of March 2020 to stop the spread of corona-virus, lumber imports had decreased greatly in April 2020. In spite of a recovery in the next months, imports had stayed below the respective 2021 volumes until September. After that, in October and November, imports had increased to the highest levels ever registered. A seasonal decrease was then only showed in December.
Gathered over the first nine months, a volume of 6.226m m³ lumber was bought at a value of £1.873bn. The import value (+125%) thus boosted more heavily than the import volume (+39%).
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