Solid wood imports between January and November 2024 were 0.3 percent higher than over the same period in 2023, while imports of panel products were 1.3 percent lower (down from 2.5% in the previous month).
This improvement during October and November 2024, when compared with the same months in 2023, has sharply reduced the overall deficit in volume for the year as a whole.
The percentage cumulative deficit began to fall after the weak first quarter of 2024, with volumes improving throughout the second half of the year. The 15 percent growth in import volumes seen in October, and the 11 percent growth in November 2024, accelerated this improvement and resulted in four of the main product groups recording growth over 2023 for the 11 months of 2024. Better import volumes in the second half of 2024 have placed volumes of softwood, plywood, OSB and Engineered Wood Products ahead of 2023 for the year-to-date.
