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Since Japan announced to stop importing Russian wood products on April 19, the shortage of wood products has become an unavoidable problem in Japan.

Russia has consistently accounted for nearly 20% of Japan's total timber imports, with Russia alone importing 850,000 m³ of processed timber last year. Affected by the policy toward Russia, the prices of various products, from oil and coal, wood and wood products to waste materials, have risen sharply in the past three months.

And for dealers and builders, and even consumers, rising commodity prices, coupled with a weaker yen, means increasing pressure. After the import and export data of timber in May came out, it is not difficult to see that Japan started frantically to make up for the vacancy after it stopped importing Russian timber.

From the point of view of export

Due to the shortage of its own wood, Japan has also greatly reduced its export share. In May, Japan's log exports fell by 41.4% year-on-year to only 91,700 m³, and the export value also fell by 3.6%.

From the point of view of import

Except for veneer imports, which fell by 91.7% (only 1,300 tons), all other types of wood imports showed a clear upward trend. The decline in imports of veneer veneer is mainly due to the fact that the average price of veneer veneer has risen by 417.9% to US$3,330 per ton.

Log imports jumped 31% to 279,400 m³, and the average import price rose 41% to $413.5 per cubic meter; softwood imports also jumped 25.3% to 449,900 m³, and the average import price jumped 40.5% to $597.9; wood chips The import volume increased by 18.7% to 1.055 million tons, and the average import price also increased by 8.1%;

Although the increase in the price of imported wood from Japan is indeed also affected by the depreciation of the yen, the exporters really did not lose this wave of wool.