OREANDA-NEWS.  December 26, 2014. In the first three quarters of 2014 China’s log imports totaled 48,359,000 cubic metres valued at USD9.34 billion, a year on year increase of 19% in volume and 37% in value, ITTO reported.

Softwood log imports rose 15% to 27,809,000 cubic metres, temperate hardwood log imports grew 28% to 11,618,000 cubic metres and tropical log imports increased 26% to 8,932,000 cubic metres.

The main suppliers of logs to China’s the period January to September 2014 were in Asia (1,961,000 cubic metres, up 46%), Africa (2,736,000 cubic metres, up 6%), Europe (3,622,000 cubic metres, up 34%), Australia (14,953,000 cubic metres, up 15%), North America (7,145,000 cubic metres, up 17%) and Russia (8,564,000 cubic metres, up 10%).

The pace of growth of log imports from Asia was the highest and growth of log imports from Laos, Japan, Vietnam and Cambodia all exceeded 200% in the first three quarters of this year.

During January to September 2014 sawnwood imports were 19,123,000 cubic metres valued at \\$604 billion, a year on year increase of 9% in volume and 24% in value.

Softwood sawnwood imports rose 7% to 13,235,000 cubic metres, hardwood sawnwood imports grew 14% to 5,888,000 cubic metres and tropical sawnwood imports increased 12% to 3,524,000 cubic metres.

The main suppliers of sawnwood imports to China were Asia (2,800,00 cubic metres, up 6%), Europe (1,548,000 cubic metres, up 21%), North America (7,145,000 cubic metres, up 17%) and Russia (16,990,000 cubic metres, up 1.5%). The pace of growth in imports of sawnwood from Europe was the highest with China’s sawnwood imports from Germany increasing 42%.