No Brexit effects on UK softwood timber imports yet

United Kingdom' s softwood timber imports grew by 5% during January-July 2016, as compared to the same period last year.

The UK imported 3,7 million m3 of softwood timber from thw world and most of them came from the European Union countries. The EU countries exported 3,4 million m3 to the UK, 6% more than in the mentioned period from 2015.

Sweden was the top timber exporter for the UK, with a volume of 1,6 million m3. This represented a 8% increase over January-July 2016. UK's timber imports from Latvia grew too, by 17%, reaching 577,000 m3, while the imports from Finland remained slightly the same, at 490,000 m3.

All in all, UK's softwood timber imports weren't affected by the Brexit yet. Forecasts concluded that the vote of the UK leaving the EU might affect these imports in the second half of the year, due to the exchange rate. A sharp slowdown in the imports might be visible in September.

Moreover, Setra, one of the major construction softwood suppliers for the UK, said that this would bring a lot of uncertainty and unease in the short-term, as the UK is one of the largest export markets for the Swedish company. Also, with the UK being the largest export market for sawn timber products, the Swedish export market faces uncertainty regarding the exchange rates, which could affect the forest industry.

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