Japan's timber market changed greatly: the import volume dropped sharply.
Plywood and wood flooring
Since the beginning of 2022, Japan's plywood imports have been declining. However, compared with 2022, plywood and assembled wood floors imported by Japan from major suppliers including Malaysia are still shrinking significantly this year. In January this year, the total Japanese plywood shipments from Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Viet Nam dropped from 185,200 m in January 2022 to 122,600 m, a decrease of nearly 34%.
According to the data quoted by the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the total import volume of Japan in February dropped sharply from 143,900 m in February 2022 to 106,200 m, with a drop of more than 26%, and this downward trend is still continuing. In January and February this year, the total amount of plywood in Japan dropped from 329,100 m in the same period last year to 228,800 m.
In the first quarter of this year, the total amount of plywood exported from China to Japan decreased slightly, from 137273m³ in 22 years to 135001m³. However, the average export price dropped from 3,917 yuan per cubic meter to 3,502 yuan. At the same time, bamboo-based panels increased from 1124 m in the first quarter of 2002 to 1386 m, but the average export price decreased by 8%.
Timber export
The import of wood also showed a downward trend since 2022. In the first quarter of this year, China's timber exports to Japan were all sawn timber, and the quantity decreased from 18,605 m in the same period last year to 11,476 m.. Lower than 22,446 m in 2021 and 19,302 m in 2020. However, the overall average price of wood increased by 9.3%, from 4,849 yuan per cubic meter in the same period last year to 5,169 yuan.
In addition, in terms of timber species, paulownia, Korean pine and camphor wood, as well as fir and spruce sawn timber were still the main exports in the first quarter, and the three major timber species accounted for 65.6% of the timber exported to Japan. Compared with the previous data, the overall wood species have not changed much.
Wooden furniture export
Among the furniture exports, the wooden furniture exports to Japan in the first quarter totaled 1.624 billion yuan, basically the same as the 1.627 billion yuan in the same period in 2022.
Among them, mahogany furniture dropped significantly, from 1.149 million in the same period last year to 519,900, with a drop of -54.8%. In addition, office, kitchen and unlisted wooden furniture also declined slightly, while wooden parts increased.
According to the recent trend, due to the forecast level of the Bank of Japan that inflation will continue to rise in a short time, it is expected to have an impact on timber and its products exported to Japan. Among the furniture exported to Japan, the low-end furniture has not changed much, but the import of high-end furniture market to China may be reduced. In addition, due to the shrinking demand of inflation, Japan's total timber imports will continue to shrink.
