The average price for imported lumber in Japan increased 12.8% YoY, to $380 per m3 in Q1 2018. Moreover, the Japanese imports of lumber slipped 3.6% to 1.51 million m3, while the import value grew 8.7% to $573 million.
According to Japan Customs data, Canada, the biggest lumber exporter to Japan, has decreased supply by 6.0% to 426.4 thousand m3 for $170.8 million. The average price for Canadian lumber in Japan gained 17.1% to $400 per m3.
The Canadian's share in Japanese lumber imports dropped by 0.7 pp to 28.3%. Russia, the second-largest supplier, has exported to Japan 224.9 thousand m3 of lumber (+0.1%) for $79.2 million with average price of $352 (+2.2%) per m3, country’s share increased by 0.6 pp to 14.9%.
The average prices for lumber from Finland and Sweden have increased by 20.8% and 23.3% to $323 and $327, respectively. The lumber imports from Finland fell 5.5% to 246.8 thousand m3 with import value of $79.6 million, and imports from Sweden increased 2.0% to 212.6 thousand m3.
The lumber imports from Chile to Japan jumped 43.0% to 97.3 thousand m3 with average price of $279 (+4.1%) per m3. The lumber supply from U.S. decreased 2.6% to 57.9 thousand m3 with average price of $653 (+3.5%) per m3.
