Seattle, WA, September 29, 2009 — Australia, the world largest exporter of wood chips reduced shipments by 28% during the first half of 2009. The biggest decline was that of softwood and hardwood chips to Japan, which were down 31% and 36%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2008.

As a result of the reduced production of pulp in Japan the past year, demand for imported wood fiber has fallen and countries that export, such as Australia, have had to try to find alternative markets. In 2009, Eucalyptus chips destined for Japan were down to 74% of all Australian hardwood chip exports as compared to 86% in the previous year. Other increasingly important markets include Taiwan, South Korea and China. The brightest spot for chip exports the past year has been China, which has more than doubled the import volumes from Australia this year, reaching over 470,000 tons during the first eight months (some softwood but most hardwood).

Although Eucalyptus exports have declined, the domestic consumption of plantation Eucalyptus wood fiber in Australia has been increasing steadily as fast-growing plantations have matured. In the 2Q/09, there were 21% more Eucalyptus chips traded compared to the same quarter last year.

Domestic prices for both softwood and hardwood fiber were slightly lower in the 2Q in Australian dollars, but substantially higher in US dollar terms as a result of the strengthening Australian currency. Eucalyptus pulplog prices were up 14% in the 2Q and Eucalyptus chip prices for domestic pulpmills increased by 13%, according to the Wood Resource Quarterly.

The export price for Eucalyptus chips going to Japan for the remainder of the year settled at the same level as in the 1H/09 and 2008. Softwood chip export prices for chips shipped from Portland, Victoria fell US$19/BDU to US$140.50/BDU (US$129/odmt) in the 1H/09. Australian softwood chips were close to the lowest cost chips delivered to Japan in the 2Q/09, only slightly higher than the price for Douglas-fir chips from the US. Radiata pine from New Zealand and spruce-pine-fir chips from Canada are currently the highest cost fiber delivered to Japanese pulp mills.

Global timber market reporting is included in the 50-page publication Wood Resource Quarterly. The report, established in 1988 and with readers in over 25 countries, tracks sawlog, pulpwood, lumber and pellet prices in key regions around the world and also includes regular updates of the latest developments in international timber, pulp, lumber and biomass markets.
Contact Information : Wood Resources International LLC, Hakan Ekstrom, info@wri-ltd.com, www.woodprices.com

Contact:
Hakan Ekstrom
Wood Resources International LLC
P.O. Box 1891
Bothell, WA 98041
1-425-402-8809
info@wri-ltd.com
http://www.woodprices.com

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“While the Greens have suggested slowing down controversial cuts to tree protection, National are hell bent on fast tracking changes. They are using urgency in Parliament and are moving an amendment that will remove tree protection almost immediately,” Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman said today.

“Ring fencing tree protection – not the ring barking approach taken by the Government – is what’s needed. Sadly the Labour Party has decided to vote for this bill which weakens environmental protection.”

Trees bring a city to life, and are an important amenity for residents, but the Government seems intent on taking that away from the public, Dr Norman said.

The Resource Management (Streamlining and Simplifying) Amendment Bill will be debated under urgency in Parliament this week. Clause 52 of the Bill bans all general tree protection rules from 2012. Only trees specified in a Council’s plan will be protected.

In a last minute amendment, the Government will bring forward the removal of protection from trimming from three years away in 2012 to just three weeks away.

“The Government shows extreme arrogance by fast tracking removal of protection for our cities’ beautiful trees, allowing anyone to hack away at them from 1 October this year,” Dr Norman said.

The Green Party will table amendments today to protect Auckland’s trees, including compromise options and new ministerial powers to permit general rules protecting types of trees, i.e. all pohutukawa on the Auckland City coastline.

“Trees clean the air, provide a home for birds, and make cities like Auckland great places to live, work and play. Why on earth would we want to allow them to be axed?”

Aside from reducing tree protection, the bill also cuts environmental protection and community participation in a number of ways.

* Link to the Green Party’s minority report on the Bill: http://www.greens.org.nz/misc-documents/green-party-minority-report-resource-management-simplifying-and-streamlining-amendmen

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Seattle, USA, June 01, 2009 — The competition for wood raw-material in Europe has been intensifying the past few years as sawmills, wood-panel manufacturers, pulpmills and bio-energy facilities expanded capacity during 2006 and 2007 and therefore increased the usage of roundwood and wood residues. Lately, the pulp market has weakened resulting in lower demand and prices for pulpwood in all countries in Europe. However, the decline has been less pronounced in markets where the pellet industry has a strong presence.

The increased demand for biomass from the energy sector has not only had an impact on prices of residual chips from sawmills (wood chips, sawdust and shavings) but also of small-diameter logs, which have increasingly been utilized for energy generation. These developments have been particularly prominent in Germany and Sweden the past year. In Germany, prices for sawdust, wood chips and hardwood logs have converged during 2008 and 2009, and were in the first quarter practically the same (measured in dry tons), as reported in the Wood Resource Quarterly.

In Sweden, small logs that would typically go to pulpmills have in recent months been sold to energy plants. With the demand and prices for pulpwood being in decline and the consumption of “energy wood” steadily rising, competition for smaller logs has intensified and it is expected that volumes of wood chips and logs bound for energy facilities will increase, thus potentially decreasing that going to pulpmills in the future. The rise in demand for forest biomass, including branches, stumps and tops will encourage more intensive management schemes with higher utilization of the forest resources not only in Sweden but in the rest of Europe as well.

With the energy sector emerging as a new and aggressive market player, floor prices for wood chips and pulplogs are not expected to ever return to the low levels of the late 1990’s again. The increased competition for raw-material between the biomass sector, the composite board manufacturers and the pulp industry will result in relatively high fiber costs even in weak markets for forest products in the future. The recent evolution of the wood raw-material market in Europe is not unique to this continent but can be expected to take place in North America as well in the coming years.

Global timber market reporting is included in the 50-page publication Wood Resource Quarterly. The report, established in 1988 and with readers in over 25 countries, tracks wood chips and pulpwood prices in most regions around the world and also includes regular updates of the latest developments in international timber, pulp, lumber and biomass markets.

Contact:
Hakan Ekstrom
Wood Resources International LLC
P.O. Box 1891
Bothell, WA 98041
1-425-402-8809
info@wri-ltd.com
http://www.woodprices.com

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Seattle, USA, May 25, 2009 — The global pulp and paper industry has continued to reduce production in 2009. The manufacturing of market pulp was 16 percent lower the first two months of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. As a result of the lower operating rates and declining demand for wood fiber, pulpwood and wood chip costs for the world’s pulp industry continued to slide in the 1Q/09 and the WRQ Global Average
Wood Fiber Price Indices recorded the second sharpest quarterly decline since 1995.

The Global Average Wood Fiber Price is a volume-weighted average of delivered wood fiber prices for the pulp industry in all 17 regions tracked by the publication Wood Resource Quarterly. These regions together account for 85-90% of the world’s wood-based pulp production capacity.

The average conifer wood fiber price fell 8.5 percent from the previous quarter to $89.00/odmt, and was 20.5 percent lower than the peak in the 2Q/08. The reduction was mainly the result of substantial price declines in the local currencies in Finland, Germany, Russia and western US. Wood costs in Latin America and Oceania were only slightly lower in the 1Q/09 as compared to the 4Q/08.

The average non-conifer wood fiber cost fell 6.5 percent in the 1Q/08 to US$91.99/odmt, the lowest level since early 2007. The biggest declines in local currencies occurred in Finland, Germany, France and Japan, while prices in China, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and Australia were practically unchanged in early 2009.

During the past two decades, global wood fiber prices have been declining during most of the 1990’s and early 2000, followed by a substantial increase from 2002 to 2008, according to Wood Resource Quarterly. Wood costs reached record levels in early 2008, but then fell rapidly for 12 months. The recent decline is most likely going to be temporary and global wood costs will slowly increase again later this year or in early 2010.

Global pulpwood and sawlog market updates are included in the 50-page publication Wood Resource Quarterly. The report, established in 1988 and with readers in over 25 countries, tracks wood prices in most regions around the world and also includes regular updates of international pulp, lumber, timber and biomass markets.

Press Contact:
Hakan Ekstrom
Wood Resources International
P.O. Box 1891
Bothell, WA 98041, USA
1-425-402-8809
info@wri-ltd.com
http://www.woodprices.com

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Seattle, USA, May 18, 2009 — Japan is the second largest importer of logs in the world after China. For many years, sawmills in the country have been very dependent on the importation of sawlogs for their wood raw-material needs, relying on 35 percent foreign logs in 2008. Imports of logs have fallen over the last ten years, while imports of processed products such as lumber, plywood and fiberboard have increased during much of the past decade. In 2008, log imports equaled only 40 percent of 1998 imports, whereas import volumes of lumber and wood-based panels were practically the same as ten years ago.

Over the past 15 years, Russia has been a very important supplier of logs to sawmills and plywood mills in Japan and has consistently had the largest market share of the Japanese log market. This share was 28 percent in 1993 and grew to almost 55 percent at the peak in 2006, but has fallen substantially since then, reaching a low of only 17 percent in early 2009. This is because Russia is no longer the low-cost timber source it once was. Only five years ago, Russian sawlog prices in Japan were on par with Radiata pine from New Zealand and over US$100/m3 cheaper than US Douglas-fir logs. Now, however, they are 75 percent higher than Radiata pine and only US$30/m3 less expensive than Douglas-fir.

Japanese companies are likely to increase imports of logs from New Zealand and North America because costs for Russian logs are going up and the supply is considered less reliable long-term. Short-term, this shift is more a matter of changing markets shares from Russia to other supplying regions, but as the housing starts increase in Japan in 2010 or 2011 as they are expected to do, log import volumes will go up and opportunities will therefore exist for log exporters in the US, Canada, New Zealand and even Europe to ship more logs to Japan in the future if the freight rates are acceptable.

Global timber market reporting is included in the 50-page publication Wood Resource Quarterly. The report, established in 1988 and with readers in over 20 countries, tracks sawlog and pulpwood prices in most regions around the world and also includes regular updates of the latest developments in international timber, pulp, lumber and biomass markets.

Contact:
Hakan Ekstrom
Wood Resources International LLC
P.O. Box 1891
Bothell, WA 98041
1-425-402-8809
info@wri-ltd.com
http://www.woodprices.com

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This work by JK Hanok Press Release Center is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
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