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After ending a decade-long downward trend last year, China’s softwood lumber imports reversed course in the first half of 2024, with shipments through June down 6% compared with shipments in 2023.

Total Chinese imports fell to 8.87 million cubic meters through June, down from 9.47 million cubic meters in the first half of 2023. Lumber deliveries from European suppliers fell to 1.79 million cubic meters, down 16% from a year earlier.

Europe remains China’s main foreign supplier, but the region’s share of China’s import market slipped to 20% in the first half of 2023 from 22.5%. Meanwhile, North America’s share of the Chinese market reached 9%, up slightly from the first six months of 2023. While North America’s growth is gradual, it marks a reversal of more than a decade of European and Russian species heavily replacing U.S. and Canadian lumber.

Total Chinese lumber imports reached 18 million cubic meters in 2023, up 4% from 2022. The gain ends more than a decade of steady annual declines, including a 10% drop in 2022 and a 23% drop in 2021.

However, the momentum faded in early 2024 as a slump in the construction industry weakened China's overall demand for imported lumber in the first half of the year. Rising log and ocean freight costs prompted European exporters to raise prices. In addition, security concerns caused ocean carriers to avoid the Red Sea, delaying the delivery of cargoes.

Lack of demand, resistance to higher quotes from European shippers, and longer delivery times prompted some importers to turn to competitively priced Canadian standard prices. However, the weak Canadian lumber market prompted large-scale production cuts in western Canada. As a result, the supply available to exporters decreased, leading to lower exports to China in the first half of the year.

As usual, pine dominated U.S. exports to China. The Chinese market imported significantly less pine from other major pine suppliers in the first half of this year. For example, Radiata Pine exports from Chile fell 32% to 148,053 cubic meters. Radiata Pine shipments from New Zealand fell 25%.

China's softwood log imports fell even more sharply, down 11% to 13.25 million cubic meters. Roundwood shipments from Europe fell 58% to 1.67 million cubic meters, offsetting a 5% increase in imports from New Zealand to 9.15 million cubic meters. Canadian log exports to China surged 19% to 580,000 cubic meters.

Log imports from "other" suppliers increased 22% to 1.18 million cubic meters. Most of the suppliers in this category are located on the Pacific Rim

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