Ivan Luketina, New Zealand: The country is unlikely to switch to lumber exports to China

New Zealand competes with Russia on the Chinese market of raw wood, although at the expense of having problems in its own forest industry. What will be the logging volume in the coming years and does the country have plans to shift to lumber exports? WhatWood talked with the analyst of NZ company Agrifax, Ivan Luketina, to find the answers.

-What is the annual logging volume in New Zealand? How much of this volume is softwood?

-New Zealand annual harvest has been increasing rapidly over the past 3 years, up 20% since 2011. Between 2000 and 2010 the annual harvest fluctuated between 18 and 22 million m3 (year ended March 31), but in the year ended 31 March 2014 the harvest was 30.3 million m3. This has meant that log exports have increased from an average of about 30% to over 50% of production in 2014. Nearly 100% of this is softwood from plantation forestry.

-What countries are major clients of NZ’s timber industry?

-73% of log volumes are exported to China, with a smaller amount going to South Korea and India.

Lumber exports are more spread, with the largest volumes delivered to China and South East Asia, and smaller volumes of higher value lumber delivered to US and Australia.

-How will the logging volume change in the perspective, to your view?

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Read the full interview in the new issue of Russian Timber Journal.