African timber imports warm up, sawn timber imports hit record highs
In the first nine months of 2023, the country imported a total of over 1.91 million cubic metres of African timber, down 26.92% year-on-year, with an import value of $4.55996 billion, up 0.88% year-on-year.
Among them, the overall import trend of African logs and sawn timber in September both maintained positive growth. Log imports rose 8.05% year-on-year to 165,000 cubic metres, an increase of 12.38% year-on-year; sawn timber imports rose 32.23% year-on-year to 100,000 cubic metres, an increase of 56.11% year-on-year.
In the first nine months, the top ten countries exporting African timber to China were Gabon, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea, Central Africa, Liberia and Zambia.
By comparison with the same period last year, the first nine months of this year, Mozambique and Equatorial Guinea to China's timber exports cut, respectively, plunged 60.83% and 71.78% (mainly log exports fell sharply). And imports from Gabon (-9.08%), Cameroon (-5.65%), South Africa (-25.27%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (-40.91%), and Central Africa (-8.45%) timber are down to varying degrees.
Notably, Liberia's exports to the country jumped 262% to 44,324 cubic metres, mainly due to a rapid increase in the volume of tropical logs to 21,479 cubic metres in September. Imports of timber from Zambia and the Republic of the Congo grew by 21.23 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively.
