FWPA’s Statistics and Economics program offers wealth of information – potentially useful to everyone in the timber industry. Through a single source, the FWPA website, you can access a wide range of information in the public domain. Presented under International and Domestic headings in an innovative interactive format, the contents include:
INTERNATIONAL
An interactive chart allows you to graph imports and exports of wood and wood products (as defined by ABARES/ABS) by volume or dollar value. You can also specify a date range and export the results as a spreadsheet file (csv) or pdf.
A second chart allows you to view a breakdown of the data by product category, including types of sawnwood and manufactured products.
To view the International Trade Data follow this link and click on International Trade.
Current international indications:
Imports of sawn softwood up 681,331 but easing increase of 5.3% YoY
Imports of sawn softwood totalled 681,331 m3 for the year ending January 2016 up 5.3% compared to the previous year. However, year-end imports peaked at 736,479 m3 in July 2015 and have since trended down as monthly imports slipped. Despite the recent appreciation of the Australian dollar, expectations must be that sawn softwood imports will continue to slow in coming months.
Raw wood exports surging
Driven by strong demand and the lower Australian dollar, exports of both logs and woodchips have substantially increased over the last year or more, with growth in hardwood exports very strong. For the year-ended January 2016, total log exports were 3,279,870 m3, up 31.5% on the prior year. Total woodchip exports rose a relatively modest 12.2% over the same period, reaching 5,872,698 bone dry metric tonnes (bdmt).
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DOMESTIC
Under the domestic heading you can view the total sales volumes of plantation softwoods by year, or see a breakdown of the annual sales by product category.
Popular product categories include; Structural Untreated, Structural H2 and H2F, Outdoor Domestic (cladding and outdoor treated), Appearance (flooring, appearance grade, furniture timber) and Packaging.
To view this data online, follow this link and click on Domestic Softwood Timber Survey
Current domestic indications:
Domestic sawn softwood sales growth steady, despite product substitution
As you may be aware, and the topic has been discussed extensively in the Statistics Count newsletter, that while overall sales growth is steady, Structural <120mm grade has experienced declines as it is progressively replaced by the value added treated product H2F.
For the year-ended February 2016, sales of Structural <120mm declined 8.42% to 719,477 m3, while H2F sales grew 14.41% to 598,328 m3. Combined, the two grades grew 0.7% to 1,317,832 m3 over the same period.
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Proprietary information and the Data Dashboard
In addition to the publicly available information discussed above, FWPA’s Statistics and Economics offers a wide range of proprietary data, available to FWPA Members and Associate Members, through a dedicated data dashboard. Much of this information is commercial-in-confidence and an invaluable tool to senior management and industry decision makers.
More information?
Please contact Jim Houghton, Statistics and Economics Manager on jim.houghton@fwpa.com.au or (03) 9927 3260.
