World timber and wood products market update

According to the Wood Resource Quarterly, global trade of softwood lumber is predicted to increase by nearly 14% in 2016, which is caused by higher wood demand in China and the US.

World Lumber Trade 2016

The World Trade Organization (WTO) announced in September that world trade will increase by only 1.7% in 2016, which is a downward revision from the data provided earlier this year and the slowest pace since the time of global financial crisis in 2009. This poor forecast cannot be extrapolated to the global trade of softwood lumber. Instead, global demand for lumber increased in 2015 and 2016, resulting in a rise in trade by 10.2% in 2015, and Wood Resources International predicts that the rise will be as much as 13.6% in 2016. The main markets that have been driving this trend in trade are China and the US.