Due to trade disruption issues with China which commenced in November 2020, the softwood log export trade over the past three years has declined from 3.3 million m3 to around one ninth of that (381,764 m3) year-ended January 2023.
Removed from the Chinese market, exporters worked to develop alternative markets, with sales to India and Korea growing to the year-ended January 2022 to 517,253 m3 and 420,375 m3 respectively.
However, the last year demonstrates that during the period ending January 2023 where log export volumes declined -66.2%, that exporters have found other local markets and other end uses and may have found ways to reduce the nominal export arising altogether.
