The value of imports of all builders’ joinery increased 16.2% in the year-ended August 2016, hitting AUD477.7 million for the year. Within the import classifications and the major products, only two – both pre-assembled flooring products – experienced declining values. The other products all saw value rise and some, like LVL and I Beams, by significant amounts. The dominant product in the Builders’ Joinery grouping saw its import value rise 17.0% to AUD116.0 million over the year.
Doubtless, the rises are driven by the long-running housing boom, so the interesting element is which specific products rise and by how much, compared to the others. The chart below provides some clues, although the red columns are unfortunately the ill-defined ‘other’.
To go straight to the dashboard and take a closer look at the data, click here.
Because they are listed by their import codes, it is worth describing the changes – at least for the major products.
The yellow columns (4418.20.00.15) show the import value of Doors. In total, their value increased 2.6% for the year-ended August 2016, amounting to AUD65.6 million and accounting for 13.7% of total import value. Some grades of flooring did see increases in import value, most notably Assembled, Multi-layer Wooden Flooring Panels, other than parquetry (4418.79.90.34 – dark green columns). Their value leaped 57.1% to AUD41.8 million. Other grades generally experienced growth across the year.
Returning to the LVL and I Beams (4418.60.00.31 – the aqua columns above), the chart below shows two distinct points in time. First, the long, slow ramp up to the beginning of 2016, when year-end imports were last valued at AUD116.0M, followed by a plateau and very soft decline, until the turn upwards that sees imports for the year-ended August 2016 just below the record in January.
Courtesy of the housing boom, expectations should be that imports will hover at or around these levels for a couple of years yet, as the long tail of housing approvals works its way through the domestic market.
To go straight to the dashboard and take a closer look at the data, click here.
The other element of particular interest is the rapidly changing countries of origin of Australia’s LVL and I Beam imports. The chart below shows that despite its continuing dominance, the USA has begun to lose its virtual stranglehold on the Australian market.
To go straight to the dashboard and take a closer look at the data, click here.
For the year-ended August 2015, the USA supplied 67.8% of the value of all of Australia’s import of LVL and I Beams. In the year-ended August 2016, that proportion had declined to 36.2%. At AUD42.0 million, the fall in the value of imports from the USA was a sizeable AUD24.1 million.
As the chart shows, imports from Russia grew sharply (139.6%) to reach AUD42.0 million and those from Austria leaped (254.0%) to AUD5.3 million. Still, even more remarkable was that supplies from Finland were new to the market in the most recent year and went from zero to be valued at AUD8.4 million year-ended August.
Whether linked to price, improving domestic demand in the USA or exchange rates that work to the advantage of European producers, the growing Australian market for imports of LVL and I Beams has an increasing array of suppliers.
