US becomes Sweden's biggest lumber importer behind UK in 2022

Posted on March 15, 2023   |  

Swedish lumber prices are on the rise after the sharp decline last autumn due to reduced supply.

Sawmills are seeing high prices as throughout the autumn of 2022, the buyers were waiting for continued price drops, and the purchases were fixed but at last, buyers' stocks hit too low and started buying at the same time.

In 2021, Russia was the world's 2nd biggest exporter of lumber behind Canada, but Russian lumber is now distant from the European market; half of the previous Russian exports of 30 million m³ went to China, but even there Russian lumber has declined.

Egypt and China have been the dominant consumers of Swedish wood products, which gave confidence to sawmills to raise prices when stock availability tensed.