Sawn softwood sales come off peak

Sales of sawn softwood continued to be strong in May 2017, with Month on Month sales comparison to May 2016 up by 5.0% or 13,761m3. This resulted in sales for the year-ended May increasing 73,477 m3 or 2.0% on the prior year. Total year-end sales totaled 3,109,636 m3, solidly above the 3 million m3 benchmark for a strong domestic industry.

As dwelling approvals, construction activity and completions come off their almost incredible peaks, we have to anticipate there will be some sales declines to come. The graph below suggests that for the moment supply has plateaued and is just below the year-ended March of 3,149,303 m3, the highest ever, after all.

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So whilst the total volume of sales is relatively steady the product mix is showing some significant ups and downs. The chart below shows the year-end sales, by grade and indicates continued growth of some products over the period offset by greater falls in other products.

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The grade that is holding sales up is the treated structural framing product – H2F. Sales of H2F were up 6.3% over the year, totaling 759,520 m3 and now representing the largest single sales volume. Export volumes have also been increasing up 22.2% to 227,942m3 for the year-ending. This growth has been offset by declines in such products as appearance, structural >120mm, LOSP, landscaping, poles and packaging which can be seen in the following table:

The picture of the overall market trend will become clearer over coming months.