Global timber market review #21-2015

– Södra Wood is going to open sales offices and subsidiaries in the US and China. The Chinese office will be headquartered in Shanghai, the American one – in the southeastern part of the country.

– Swedish family-run lumber and building components manufacturer Martinsons will invest in a new cross-laminated timber (CLT) production line. CLT capacity will be tripled and production of floor height panels will be enabled. The investment will be made at the company’s production site in Bygdsiljum and the overall investment is estimated at approximately SEK 80 million.

– COSCO, one of China’s state-owned shipping companies, has announced it will introduce regular shipping services via an Arctic route to Europe. The company has tested the feasibility for this new route by twice sailing a container vessel through this passage.

– The UK Timber Trade Federation (TTF) is forecasting a modest return to growth for softwood import volumes in 2016, TTJ reported. The federation predicts volumes will rise by 2.5% to 6.05 million m3, while softwood imports in 2015 will be 0.5% lower than in 2014.

– According to ITTO, two new international transport channels will be opened from China, one the Eurasia International Railway (from Chongqing city to Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, and Germany) and the second the ‘Wuhan New Europe’ channel (from Wuhan city to Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland).

More detailed review of global market trends of roundwood, lumber, wood panels and pellets as well as news of the Russian timber industry; exclusive articles and interviews; over 25 pages of price charts are available in our digital Russian Timber Journal.