Egypt imports Russian plywood at record-setting rates

After July 8, 2022, when supplies of almost all timber products from Russia to EU countries virtually stopped, the average monthly export of Russian plywood plummeted by a half in physical terms. In May and June 2022, just above 200,000 m³ per month was shipped, while in July and August, the average monthly volume dropped to 100,000 m³. In September, however, a slight recovery trend emerged: almost 115,000 m³ was shipped abroad, mostly to Egypt that ramped up its purchasing of Russian plywood to 52,500 m³. It is a record monthly performance for this North African country. The previous historic high of 43,000 m³ was recorded in July 2019.

The USA also started importing more Russian plywood after a sharp decline in supplies in April – May 2022, having purchased over 14,000 m³ in September. This is the highest since April 2022.

Nevertheless, based on the performance over 9 months of 2022, the Russian export of plywood dropped by a third compared to the same period last year and reached 1.5 million m³. The performance in monetary terms is not great either: in September, the export was the same as in July and August ($70 million) but in H1 2022, the monthly performance ranged from $111 million to $164 million.