The international timber trade
The international
timber trade
TIM PECK
Cambridge England
Published by Woodhead Publishing Limited, Abington Hall, Abington
Cambridge CB1 6AH, England
www.woodhead-publishing.com
First published 2001, Woodhead Publishing Ltd
© 2001, Woodhead Publishing Ltd
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ISBN 1 85573 190 8
Cover design by The ColourStudio
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Contents
1
2
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ix
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
xii
Abbreviations, acronyms and symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
xiv
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
Historical perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7
Early history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7
Beginnings of deforestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8
Development of trade in wood products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
Global forest and wood resources . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
Principal forest types and their distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
Extent and composition of the world’s forests . . . . . . . . . . .
20
Ownership and management of the forest resource . . . . . . .
32
The wood harvest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
36
v
CONTENTS
3
4
5
6
7
Production and consumption of wood
products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
46
Properties of wood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
46
Types of product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
49
Patterns and trends of production and consumption . . . . . .
53
Uses of wood products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
73
The place of wood industries and wood
products in the global economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
84
Wood industries in national economies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
84
Wood products in international commodity trade . . . . . . . .
90
Overview of world trade in wood
products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
98
Distribution of world trade in wood products by
commodity groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
98
Distribution of world trade in wood products by
country groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
100
Changing pattern of commodity composition in trade . . . .
103
Trends in trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
109
Trade in added value wood products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
119
Trade flow patterns and trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Some basic principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
126
General trade patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
128
Trade flow patterns of individual wood products . . . . . . . . .
131
Major changes in trade flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
144
The major players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Trading structures and corporate players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
154
Major trading nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
158
Emerging and declining suppliers and markets . . . . . . . . . . .
197
vi
CONTENTS
8
9
10
Influences on wood products markets
and trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Costs, prices and exchange rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
202
Futures markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
211
Tariff and non-tariff barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
213
Globalisation and regional integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
222
International institutions concerned with wood
products trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
226
Trade and the environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Deforestation, afforestation and reforestation . . . . . . . . . . . .
229
Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
237
Certification and labelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
242
Waste and recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
246
Energy and climate change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
251
Past, present and future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
The need for a long-term outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
259
Highlights from Chapters 1 to 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
260
The outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
272
General findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
286
Recent developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
288
Implications for trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
291
Concluding remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
292
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
295
Appendix 1 List of selected international organisations
concerned with the trade in wood products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
302
Appendix 2 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
307
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
315
vii
Preface
T
he international timber trade is aimed at several different reader
groups. It is intended as a general source of reference for those
working in, or aspiring to, management positions in the timber industry or trade. It should also provide an introduction to this important sector
of the world economy for those who require a broad understanding of it
for the purpose of their business activities, including bankers, financiers,
investors and the legal profession. Thirdly, it may prove useful to teachers
and students, more in providing a general overview of the forest and forest
industries sector than in offering an in-depth analysis of it. Fourthly, it should
be of help to politicians, negotiators, government officials and their advisers
as background for developing policies towards the sector and international
trade. Last but not least, it may offer background information and some alternative viewpoints for those working in international organisations and in
national and international non-governmental bodies.
To satisfy such a broad readership is a bold objective, and it must be
left to readers to judge to what extent the book has achieved it. In doing so,
they should be aware that there are some things which the book is not
intended to be or do. It is not a guide on how to manufacture or use wood
and its products or how to trade in them; nor is it a Who’s Who of timber
trade companies or personalities. Equally, it is not meant to give an up-tothe-minute account of timber markets which, since they are in continuous
ix
PREFACE
evolution, would become rapidly out of date. Instead of this, it looks at them
in a longer term perspective.
From the outset it is essential to be clear about the meaning of the terms
‘timber’ and ‘trade’ in the context of this publication. ‘Timber’ suggests different things to different people: some think of it as the trees growing in the
forest, others as sawnwood or even quite sophisticated products manufactured from wood. Here it is used as a generic term for wood as a raw material as well as the products manufactured from it, including sawnwood,
wood-based panels, woodpulp, paper and paperboard and their manufactures. ‘Timber’ is used in the title, partly for the sake of conciseness, but it
should be taken as being synonymous with ‘wood products’, the term more
often used in this text. Quite often the term ‘forest products’ is used with
the same meaning as wood products, as for example by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in publications such as the
FAO Yearbook of forest products. Its use is avoided here, however, because
the term could also be understood to cover non-wood products such as cork,
resin, berries, nuts and mushrooms. With regard to paper and paperboard,
a companion volume was published in 1998 under the title The international paper trade, to which the reader is referred for more detail on those
products. Care has been taken in writing The international timber trade to
avoid overlapping with that excellent book by Tom Bolton.
The term ‘trade’ is used with a broader connotation than just the
exchange of goods between one country and another, even though international trade does form the core of the book. In order to appreciate the structure of trade and the way in which trade has evolved, it is necessary to look
also at the forest resource from which the raw material is obtained, the
processes by which it is converted into a variety of products and the way in
which those products are utilised. For the same reason, some of the principal factors having an impact on the trade in timber, including international
conventions and regulations, moves towards integration and globalisation
and the international debates and initiatives surrounding the protection of
the environment and sustainable development are also treated. Anyone who
has followed the international debates on the environment over the past few
decades will be aware that forests, their management and use have figured
more and more prominently in them and have attracted increasing attention
from politicians and the public.
Chapters 1 to 3 provide a general background starting with an historical perspective and overview of the forest resource. These are followed in
Chapters 4 and 5 by a general description of the patterns of production, consumption and trade of wood products and of their importance as a commodity group to national economies and trade. Chapter 6 contains a more
detailed analysis of the main patterns of trade and the trends, both at the
inter-continental and intra-regional levels. The third section, in Chapters 7 to
x
PREFACE
9, looks at the structure of trade, market- and trade-related features and environmental aspects as they affect trade, with Chapter 10 offering a brief
outlook for the opening years of the twenty-first century.
It is evident that the scope of the book would have made it virtually
impossible to prepare without the help and advice of many other people.
Those to whom the author is immensely grateful are listed in ‘Acknowledgements’, but special mention should be made here of Brita Waters Taylor,
Chijien Lin and Bruce Michie, who compiled material which formed the
basis for Chapters 4, 5 and 6 respectively and Chris Elliott, who cast a critical eye over Chapter 9. Heartfelt thanks are also due to my wife, who not
only provided moral support over the months and enough coffee and tea to
float a supertanker, but also checked through the entire text for my erratic
spelling and grammar. Throughout the preparations, Neil Wenborn, as editor,
provided invaluable encouragement and guidance.
Any factual mistakes or errors of omission – and some will almost certainly be found – are entirely my responsibility and in no way to be blamed
on those who have so generously supported me.
Great care has been taken to verify the information contained in this
book, which I have selected and presented by drawing on many years’ experience in the forest and forest industries sector at the international level.
Neither I nor the publisher can be held accountable, however, for the consequences of any action taken, or commercial decisions based on, or
attributable to, this book.
Tim Peck
xi
Acknowledgements
M
y sincere thanks are due to a large number of people, who have
contributed in one way or another to the preparation of the book
and who are listed below. Some have provided specific information
on their countries or organisations; others have prepared information at my
request or have undertaken research; yet others have provided documentation, advice and contact addresses. Without their help, the book could not
have been written, but any errors in the book are entirely my responsibility,
in no way theirs.
Nasreen Abdul-Haque
Mauro Agnoletti
Jorma Ahvenainen
Michael Avosa
James Barton
Eric Biolley
Jim Bourke
Michael Buckley
Nikolai Burdin
Clive Catton
Hutacharern Chaweewan
Roger Cooper
Chijien Lin
Agneta Linstedt
Leo Lintu
Jörg Maxin
Bruce Michie
Heiner Ollmann
Matti Palo
Ed Pepke
Kit Prins
David Rhodes
Jeff Sayer
Peter Schwarzbauer
xii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Steve Dembner
Audrey Dixon
Nigel Dudley
Richard Duncan
Bob Edgett
Chris Elliott
Alfonso Froncillo
Elisabeth Johann
Leila Konturri
Birger Solberg
Darmo Suparmo
Jukka Tissari
Bill Townsley
Herman Van der Meiden
Jari Varjo
Philip Wardle
Brita Waters Taylor
Adrian Whiteman
xiii
Abbreviations,
acronyms and
symbols
Abbreviations and acronyms
ACP
AD
AF&PA
ASEAN
ATIBT
ATO
BC
CDM
CFPs
CH4
CSD
CEI-Bois
cif
CIFOR
CINTRAFOR
CIS
CITES
CME
African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States
Anno Domini (after Christ)
American Forest and Paper Association
Association of South-East Asian Nations
International Technical Association for Tropical Timber
African Timber Organization
Before Christ
Clean Development Mechanism
Certified forest products
Methane
Commission on Sustainable Development (of the United
Nations)
European Confederation of the Woodworking Industries
Cost, insurance, freight
Center for International Forestry Research
Center for International Trade in Forest Products
Commonwealth of Independent States
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Flora and Fauna
Chicago Mercantile Exchange
xiv
ABBREVIATIONS , ACRONYMS AND SYMBOLS
CMEA
CO2
COFO
COMTRADE
CSA
dbh
D-I-Y
DMECs
ECU
EFI
EFIDAS
ENGO
EMS
ERUs
ETTS
ETTS I
ETTS V
EU
EUROSTAT
FAO
FAWS
FCCC
fob
FoE
FSC
G7
GATT
GDP
GHGs
GNP
GSP
IIED
IFF
IPCC
IPF
ISO
ITC
ITTC
ITTO
LVL
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
Carbon dioxide
Committee on Forestry (of FAO)
Commodity Trade Statistics database (UN)
Canadian Standards Association
diameter breast height
Do-it-yourself
Developing market economies and China
European currency unit
European Forest Institute
European Forest Information and Data System (of EFI)
Environmental non-governmental organisations
Environmental Management System
Emission reduction units
(Series of) European Timber Trends and Prospect Studies
European Timber Trends and Prospects (1953)
European Timber Trends and Prospects into the TwentyFirst Century (1996)
European Union
Statistical Office of the European Commission
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Forest available for wood supply
Framework Convention on Climate Change
Free on board
Friends of the Earth
Forest Stewardship Council
Group of Seven Industrialized Countries (G8 includes
Russian Federation)
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
Gross Domestic Product
Greenhouse gases
Gross National Product
General System of Preferences
International Institute for Environment and
Development
Intergovernmental Forum on Forests
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Intergovernmental Panel on Forests
International Organization for Standardization
International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO)
International Tropical Timber Council
International Tropical Timber Organization
Laminated veneer lumber
xv
ABBREVIATIONS , ACRONYMS AND SYMBOLS
MDF
MFN
NAFTA
NAI
nes
NGO
NTM
ob
OECD
OPEC
OSB
PEFC
SEALPA
SFI
SFM
TBDCs
ub
UKWAS
UN (UNO)
UNCTAD
UN-ECE
UNEP
UNIDO
UNSTAT
UR
USDA
US$
USSR (Former)
WCED
WFSE
WRI
WTO
medium density fibreboard
Most Favoured Nation
North American Free Trade Agreement
Net annual increment
not elsewhere specified
Non-governmental organisation
Non-tariff measure
overbark
Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
oriented strand board
Pan-European Forest Certification Scheme
South-east Asian Lumber Producers Association
Sustainable Forest Initiative
Sustainable Forest Management
Temperate and boreal developed countries
underbark
United Kingdom Woodland Approval Scheme
United Nations Organization
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
United Nations Environmental Programme
United Nations Industrial Development Organization
United Nations Statistical Office
Uruguay Round (of GATT negotiations)
United States Department of Agriculture
United States dollar
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Former)
World Commission on Environment and Development
World Forests, Society and Environment
World Resources Institute
World Trade Organization
N.B. For abbreviations of country names, see page 160.
Symbols
bn
ca
cap
cm
billion or thousand million
circa/about
capita
centimetre
xvi
ABBREVIATIONS , ACRONYMS AND SYMBOLS
cm3
g
ha
m
m3 (or m3)
m3 EQ (or m3 EQ)
m3 ob (or m3 ob)
m3 ub (or m3 ub)
mbf
mt
ppm
sq ft
..
–
*
$
cubic centimetre
gram
hectare
metre
cubic metre, solid volume
cubic metre, equivalent volume of wood in the rough
cubic metre of wood raw material, overbark measure
cubic metre of wood raw material, underbark
measure
thousand board feet
metric tonne
parts per million
square foot
data not available
nil or less than half a unit
estimate or unofficial figure
dollar
Note on tables
The data used in the tables have often been rounded off from those used in
the original sources. Additions and percentages, e.g. per cent of total or per
cent change from one year to another have been calculated on the basis of
the more detailed data, so that small discrepancies in calculation may occasionally be found in the tables.
Data for use in the tables and figures have been taken from a number
of authoritative sources, including the UN Statistical Office, UNIDO, UN-ECE,
OECD and EFIDAS. The FAO forestry database offers the most comprehensive series of statistics on the production and trade of wood products, and
great reliance has been placed on this source in order to ensure that the
statistics used throughout the book are as consistent and as comparable as
possible.
xvii
Introduction
W
hen my daughter was in junior school, her teacher invited me to
talk to the class on a subject related to forestry. Anyone who has
had to face a roomful of 8-year-olds will know how daunting a
task it can be to keep them interested for 45 minutes – my admiration for
teachers is boundless! I decided that, rather than talk all the time, I would
challenge them to make a list of all the things made from wood which they
could observe around the classroom. The outcome was, I think, quite an eyeopener for many of them. We started with objects close to hand, such as
pencils, rulers, desks and chairs, then to other things, such as the teacher’s
table, doors, window frames, floor boards, wall panelling, skirting boards
and picture frames. When they realised that paper was also made from wood,
they added writing pads, books, magazines, cardboard boxes, wrapping
paper, wall charts, maps and tissues. Although not strictly made from wood
but certainly coming from trees, we agreed that the cork pinboard and
erasers could also be included. After that it became more difficult, and it was
necessary to explain that several things that were not immediately visible or
obvious were also the products of wood, such as the fibreboard backing to
the blackboard and the shirts and sweaters made from rayon that some of
them were wearing.
Altogether, we came up with a list of about 40 items. It made the children realise how bare the classroom would be if all the wood products were
1
INTRODUCTION
taken away and how dependent they were on them in everyday life. I went
on to explain that these were just a small fraction of the wood products in
common use: if they looked around their homes, they could probably double
or triple the number of wood items on their lists quite easily. Quite apart
from wood, I pointed out to them that the forest provides a whole range of
other things, tangible and intangible, from which we benefit and which we
tend to take for granted. These include food items such as mushrooms,
berries, nuts, honey and game meat, and other materials such as cork, tannin,
resin, Christmas trees, decorative foliage, medical products, essential oils for
pharmaceutical products, and fodder and litter for animals, to mention just
a few. Besides that, trees are essential to life on our planet because of the
oxygen they produce during the photosynthetic process, and forests serve
other important functions such as regulating and filtering water, stabilising
soil, protecting us from avalanches, rock- and mud-slides, providing wildlife
habitats and places for recreation and leisure and acting as filters for pollution and noise.
This brief excursion back to the classroom has been to underline two
basic facts: first, that wood is a versatile and renewable raw material from
which a remarkably wide range of everyday products are obtained; second,
that wood is only one, although in value terms the most important, of many
outputs from the forest. So, even though this book is concerned just with
wood and its derivatives, it will be worth keeping in mind that they comprise only a part of the forest story. Wood is one of the most important renewable materials, and as such is destined to play a vital part in tomorrow’s world
as non-renewable raw materials, such as fossil fuels, are used up. But wood
is only renewable if the resource from which it comes, the forest, is looked
after in a sustainable manner. Thus the book will attempt to examine the
extent to which the concept of ‘sustainable forest management’ (SFM) has
been and is being applied globally, and the interrelation of this concept and
international trade.
How, and how much, wood is used depends on a number of factors. In
the first place, its availability in proximity to the user is important and, linked
to that, traditions in its use. A good example is the common use of timberframe construction for family dwellings in the boreal regions with their abundance of coniferous forests. Compare that with the sparing use of wood in
the forest-poor countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Secondly, the
density of population and the level of economic development affect the
issue. The former has some impact on the total amount of wood used;
the latter also has an influence on the forms and ways in which it is used.
At low levels of development, as measured by per capita Gross National
Product (GNP), it is used in large quantities in unprocessed form, notably as
fuelwood, construction poles and other products requiring little or no transformation. With increasing wealth, these uses give way to more sophisticated
2
INTRODUCTION
products and applications and more varied patterns of utilisation. Thirdly,
and specifically for printing and writing papers, levels of literacy are an
important determinant of the level of use. Other factors have local or
regional impacts, such as building regulations and the availability of alternative materials.
These matters will be taken up in more detail in later chapters, but in
order to keep the discussion reasonably concise, it will be necessary to aggregate both the products and countries into manageable groups. The fact that
this book is particularly concerned with international trade also affects the
groupings chosen. With regard to products, the groupings are:
•
•
•
•
•
Wood raw material.
Sawnwood.
Wood-based panels.
Woodpulp.
Paper and paperboard.
Other products, for example recovered or waste paper and the so-called
added value products, are also treated to the extent possible.
There is no ideal choice of country groupings: it depends very much
on the topic under consideration. A reasonably satisfactory grouping from
the point of view of the distribution of forest resources, for example, would
be unsuitable for the analysis of the pattern of wood products consumption.
For the purposes of this book with its emphasis on trade, the following
groupings are used:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
North America: Canada, United States of America.
Europe: the 15 countries of the European Union and others ranging from
Iceland to, unless otherwise stated, Cyprus, Israel and Turkey.
Former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (former USSR): the 12
countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States [CIS] and the
Baltic States [Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania].
East Asia: China, including Taiwan Province and Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region, Japan and South Korea.
Other Asia-Pacific: a heterogeneous group from the point of view of trade,
as will be seen later, ranging from the countries of the Middle East to
Oceania.
Africa: also with a wide climatic range from the arid conditions in North
Africa to the tropical rain forests of Central Africa.
Latin America: including the Caribbean countries.
These regions are demarcated in the map on page 6.
As will be shown in later chapters, the main exporting regions of wood
3
INTRODUCTION
products are Europe, North America and Other Asia-Pacific; and the main
importing regions Europe, East Asia and North America. Because all the
regions and the large majority of countries are both exporters and importers,
it is necessary to give consideration not only to inter-regional trade but also
that within the regions. A large proportion of Europe’s and North America’s
trade is intra-regional, but they are also major players in inter-regional trade.
Intra-regional trade is important in Europe because of the rather large
number of countries. If, for example, trade between the 15 members of the
European Union were to be treated as the movement of commodities within
one political entity, as is coming to be accepted, the volume of intraEuropean trade would be substantially smaller.
The former USSR separated into 15 distinct States in the early 1990s.
One country, the Russian Federation, holds more than 90% of the group’s
forest resources and is also predominant in the production and trade of wood
products, even though for the time being the volumes involved are mostly
well below the levels reached in the 1970s and 1980s. The southerly
members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are generally
poorly endowed with forests but at present are unable to afford the importation of wood products to meet the latent demand. On the other hand, the
three Baltic States have been expanding their exports, which have partly
filled the gap caused by the fall-off in those of the Russian Federation.
This book is not intended to provide an up-to-the-minute account of
developments in international wood markets, but rather an overview of the
sector as it stood in the years leading up to the third millennium. The years
or periods covered are, however, the most recent for which data were available at the time of writing, bearing in mind that there is often a considerable time-lag involved in compiling and publishing international statistics.
Most of the data on production, trade and consumption relate to 1997, but
some of the macro-economic data are for an earlier period in the 1990s, as
are those on the forest resource. Where it is important to illustrate more
recent trends, any available information on 1998 or later is employed, even
if it is of a provisional nature or estimated.
While wood products are not the largest group of commodities being
traded internationally, they are among the most important and have an
impact on countries’ balances of trade. Over the years the commodity
pattern of trade in wood products has altered, with the further processed
products gaining in share. Because of difficulties in compiling the necessary
data at the global level, trade in the so-called added value wood products
has not been described as comprehensively as that of wood raw materials
and the primary processed products. But at least enough has been included
about the former to give a general impression of their development and to
show that they account for a substantial and increasing proportion of the
total trade in wood products.
4
INTRODUCTION
The globalisation process has also been having an important impact on
the world economy and international trade, including that of wood products. Manufacturing and trade are being concentrated more and more into
the hands of fewer and larger companies; many of the traditional family
trading firms are disappearing and the role of intermediaries is being reduced
as direct trading expands between producer–exporter and retailer or consumer. Further changes can be foreseen with the growing adoption of new
technologies, such as trading on the internet.
Forests have been at the centre of the debate on environmental protection. The precise role of commercial exploitation of natural forests and
the trade in wood products in the loss and degradation of forests, particularly in tropical regions, is controversial, even if they are generally acknowledged not to be the primary cause. Nevertheless, a noticeable shift is
occurring away from the harvesting of natural forests towards the management and use of forests on a sustainable basis, and even more towards the
production of wood in fast-growing plantations. It is quite possible that
within a few decades very little wood will be commercially logged from
natural forests, because those natural forests that still exist either will be protected from commercial exploitation or will have been brought under
systems of sustainable forest management. This will be reflected in changes
in trade patterns.
The increasing quantities of wood coming from industrial plantations,
which are more akin to tree farms than forests, will also have a growing influence on world trade in wood products, both in terms of the commodity composition and of the pattern of trade flows. Later chapters will describe the
changes that were already occurring in the 1990s, which could be precursors of further, possibly even more far-reaching, developments in the early
decades of the twenty-first century.
The grouping of countries for the purposes of this book is shown in
the accompanying world map.
5
World map showing grouping of countries into the seven regions used in the book.
INTRODUCTION
6
CHAPTER
1
Historical perspective
Early history
I
n Chapter 6 of the Book of Genesis, God gives instructions to Noah on the
building of the ark, in which Noah and his family and the pairs of animals
would survive the great flood.The authors of Genesis were clearly aware of
the merits of wood, cedar according to one translation, gopherwood according to another, as a construction material strong and durable enough to withstand the rigours of the flood.The use of wood by man is as old as man himself,
first as a fuel for keeping himself warm and for cooking, then for shelter and as
hunting and fighting implements, and later as agricultural tools and ships.
Our story should rightly begin, however, hundreds of millions of years
before the appearance of man. During the Carboniferous period, around 345
million years ago, there evolved the great forests of giant clubmosses and
fern-like plants from which the fossil fuels were produced that are so essential to modern society (Table 1.1). These gave way over the Permian, Triassic and Jurassic periods to coniferous and similar species (Gymnosperms),
followed later in the Cretaceous period beginning around 136 million years
ago by the broad leaved species (Angiosperms).
Forests became the predominant terrestrial ecosystem on the
planet, possibly covering as much as 80% of the land surface other than the
poles. Subsequent evolutionary developments had little impact on that
7
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 1.1
present
Evolution of tree-like vegetation from the Carboniferous period to the
Period
Million years
from present
Pliocene
Miocene
Oligocene
Eocene
Cretaceous
7
26
38
64
136
Jurassic
190
Triassic
225
Permian
280
Carboniferous
345
Main vegetative development
Temperate trees in the north
Grasslands increased at the expense of forests
Tropical trees at high altitudes
Temperate and tropical forests widespread
Development and spread of Angiosperms
(broadleaved species) throughout the world
Cycads, ferns and conifers were more
developed than in the Triassic period
Gingkos, cycads and conifers with palm-like
leaves began to develop
Marked development of new coniferous trees
and extinction of old Carboniferous ones
Rich coal-measure flora of the giant
clubmosses and fern-like plants
predominance until the emergence of hominids approximately 8 million
years ago, a recent development in geological terms. The appearance of the
present human species, Homo sapiens sapiens, was an even more recent
development, a mere 100 000 years ago or so. The most recent Ice Age, starting some 75 000 years ago and ending only 10 000 years ago, had a profound
effect on the distribution of plant and animal life, particularly in the northern hemisphere. First there was a retreat southwards towards the equator
ahead of the advancing ice sheets, followed by recolonisation northwards.
The spread of Homo sapiens sapiens from its origins in Africa to other
parts of the globe followed the retreat of the ice. Often this was aided by
the existence of temporary land bridges caused by the lowering of sea levels
while huge quantities of water were still frozen in the ice sheets. Initially,
man followed a nomadic hunter-gatherer existence, and it was not until
perhaps some 8000 years ago that he began to lead a more settled life of
growing crops and herding cattle. As populations rose, they needed more
and more land for agriculture, and thus began the long decline in the area
of forest as it was burned and cleared.
Beginnings of deforestation
A combination of rising population and economic and technical advancement resulted in a progressive encroachment on forest land, fuelled not only
8
HISTORIC AL PERSPECTIVE
by demand for land itself but increasingly for wood. As the use of stone and
bone for implements in the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods gave way to
that of metals in the Bronze Age and Iron Age, and nomadic huntinggathering to farming settlements and the beginnings of urbanisation, the
importance of wood as an industrial energy source and building material
became increasingly apparent. Large quantities were needed in copper- and
tin-smelting and later in iron-making, not to mention gold and silver refining, primitive forms of industrial processing. As industrialisation moved
ahead, more and more wood was used in these processes and others, such
as the drying of salt and brick-, pottery- and glass-making. Wood was also an
essential material in construction and virtually the only material for shipbuilding until it was replaced by iron in the mid-nineteenth century. It was
also still the principal source of energy for heating and cooking. Little
wonder then that in areas where civilisation was most advanced, such as the
Mediterranean Basin and parts of continental Asia, the forests were overexploited and began to disappear.
This trend in the degradation and removal of forests spread to other
areas as populations continued to increase and civilisation progressed, first
to western and central Europe, later to North America and western Russia,
and more recently still to the tropical parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Loss of forest cover is not always a one-way process. When the Black Death
struck Europe in the mid-fourteenth century, widespread rural depopulation
was followed by a marked recovery in the area of forest on land previously
cleared for agriculture. This trend was reversed a century or two later as
populations recovered. Another reason for the restoration of forests, for
example in the eastern part of the United States, was the opening up of new
areas for large-scale agriculture west of the Mississippi, coupled with steadily
rising productivity in agricultural output, which resulted in the abandonment of older farms in the eastern seaboard states and their natural recolonisation by trees. The broadleaved forests of the eastern United States are the
outcome of this development.
In the tropical regions, deforestation is still continuing today at an unacceptably rapid rate, but elsewhere, in general, it has been stopped and even
reversed. In Europe, the turning point came at different times in different
countries, early in the nineteenth century in France, not until a hundred
years later in the United Kingdom. In both countries the extent of forest
cover today is about double what it was at its lowest point. To some extent
the reversal in the loss of forests was fortuitous: it coincided with the replacement of wood and charcoal as combustible substances by fossil fuels and as
ship-building material by iron and steel, both important factors reducing the
pressure on forests.
From the eighteenth century onwards, there was a growing realisation
of the possibilities of managing forests on a sustainable basis to provide a
9
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
continuing supply of raw material as well as other benefits. One consequence was the development of forestry as a profession and science –
although some might argue that forestry is more of an art than a science. Be
that as it may, the application of sound forestry principles and the introduction of policies to conserve and, where appropriate, extend forests has
had beneficial results in Europe and in other parts of the world.
Development of trade in wood products
Whereas it is possible to trace reasonably well the changes in the forest
resource in most regions over past centuries, even millennia, those in the
international trade of wood products are less well documented. Quite a lot
is also known about the use of wood in early historic times, especially in
ship-building. The strategic importance of wood as the prime material for
this process, and the efforts made by maritime powers to ensure adequate
supplies, is a recurrent theme in the literature covering the earliest times
right through to the mid-nineteenth century, when wood gave way to iron
in naval construction. Many wars have been waged to protect or gain access
to suitably forested areas and to protect supply routes. At the same time, war
itself has been one of the main factors contributing to the loss of forests.
The Mediterranean basin
Among the earliest records of trade in wood, there were various reports of
it being shipped from sources in what are now Crete, Cyprus, Lebanon,
Syria, Turkey and Greece to Egypt during the period of the great Egyptian
dynasties from around 3000 BC onwards, even though there is evidence that
there were still quite extensive forests in Egypt at that time (Thirgood 1981).
Other major civilisations in the eastern Mediterranean, such as in Greek classical times, saw the creation of city states with heavy demand for fuelwood
and construction materials, as well as for food, which had to be produced
on land cleared of trees. Little thought was given to the conservation of the
forest, and gradually throughout the region, previously well-stocked forest
gave way to agriculture and even to wasteland or desertification. There is a
theory that the power of civilisations began to wane with the exhaustion of
their forests.
The Roman Empire, or more specifically Rome, from the time it supplanted Athens until its decline in the middle of the first millennium AD, had
to extend its search for wood to North Africa, which was still well-wooded,
the Iberian Peninsula and Gaul (France), having exhausted the forests within
10
HISTORIC AL PERSPECTIVE
oxcart distance of the city. Forests in the Iberian Peninsula became badly
depleted from the use of wood in silver smelting. The demand for fuelwood
from the metal industries was an important factor in deforestation from the
times of the Bronze Age, for instance in Cyprus, to iron production over
many centuries in several parts of Europe, including Gaul, England and
Sweden, and later in North America (Perlin 1989). Glass-making and potteries were other industries that required large quantities of wood, but overall
it was probably iron production that had the greatest impact on the forests
in Europe, apart, that is, from the ubiquitous clearance of forested land for
agriculture, in which monasteries played an active part in many countries
during the Middle Ages.
Northern Europe
In northern Europe, wood was exported from the thirteenth century
onwards from Norway to Britain; for example Henry III of England bought
3000 boards from Norway in 1253 for the panelling of Windsor Castle
(Ahvenainen 1994). In the next century wood was, after dried fish, the most
important Norwegian export to England. The Netherlands and other western
European countries, notably France, began importing wood, mostly from
Norway, Denmark, the estuaries of the coast of north-west Germany and the
big rivers such as the Rhine and Maas. Danish oak was exported to Burgundy
and Flanders until the fifteenth century.
Exports from the Baltic were initially from the southern coast, what is
now Poland and Germany, with Danzig and Königsberg the leading export
ports. Members of the Hanseatic League became the primary dealers in the
long-distance trading of wood products in the Baltic and North Seas at the
end of the thirteenth century. Besides wood, other products exported were
tar, pitch and birch ash, tar and pitch being essential in building and maintaining ships. The influence of the Dutch in commercial activities became
very strong from the end of the fourteenth century until early in the fifteenth,
creating strong competition with the Hanseatics. Dutch traders sold salt,
wine and other goods and brought back wood and other materials for
destinations as far as the west coasts of France and of Portugal. Growing
demand for construction timber and the nascent interest in ocean navigation, with at the same time increasing shortages of wood in parts of western
Europe, led to continuing expansion of exports from the Baltic, interrupted
from time to time by war or depopulation, such as during the time of the
Black Death.
Early in the seventeenth century the acquisition of wood in the Baltic
began to shift northwards and eastwards, as availabilities in the southern
areas declined. For a while Riga was the largest exporting port, while
11
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Swedish wood exports began to build up. Finland became the largest
exporter of tar, but was overtaken by Sweden in the eighteenth century.
Improved sawmilling technology was introduced into Sweden and elsewhere
in the Baltic from the Netherlands during the seventeenth century, although
sawmills continued to be powered by water (or wind in the Netherlands)
until the advent of steam in the nineteenth century. The eighteenth century
was a period of expansion of trade from the Nordic countries, despite some
growing concerns about possible resource depletion and growing competition from Russia, both through the Baltic and by way of the Arctic Ocean.
Until the mid-1700s the Netherlands was the largest purchaser of wood from
the Baltic, but was overtaken by Britain. France, Spain and Portugal also
became sizeable purchasers.
European exploration and colonisation
Europeans, led by the Spanish and Portuguese and followed by the Dutch,
French and English, pushed their explorations southwards during the fifteenth century down the west coast of Africa, round the Cape of Good Hope
in the Indian Ocean (Diaz in 1487) and across the Atlantic to discover the
New World (Columbus in 1492). This opening up of the seaways not only
stimulated the building of more and larger ships, with ever-increasing
demand for wood, but also saw the build-up of commodity trading, notably
spices from the Indian Ocean, gold and silver from the New World. The
explorers also discovered new and exotic woods, mahogany and rosewood
from the Caribbean and central America, ebony, teak and sandalwood from
India, which were brought back to Europe for use in cabinet-making and
furniture.
Colonisation saw the clearing of forests to make way for cash crops, in
particular sugar, for instance in Madeira (called the island of forest by the
Portuguese when they first arrived) and the Caribbean and West Indian
islands, while the processing of sugar required large quantities of fuelwood.
The result was the denuding of these islands to such an extent that by the
seventeenth century a flourishing wood trade had been established from
New England to Barbados, Madeira and the Canary Isles, to augment the
trade already taking place with England, Portugal and Spain (Perlin 1989). In
exchange, molasses, sugar and rum were shipped back to Boston and other
New England ports. In parenthesis, it may be noted that the establishment
of extensive sugar plantations in the West Indies was accompanied by the
development of the slave trade from west Africa and all the human suffering
which that involved, the early settlers in the West Indies having wiped out
practically all the native populations.
12
HISTORIC AL PERSPECTIVE
Eastern North America
The first colonists on the eastern coast of North America in the late sixteenth
and early seventeenth centuries (the Pilgrim Fathers’ Mayflower landed in
1620) found a thickly wooded landscape, rich in oak, which was identified
as suitable for staves for wine casks, among other things. Within a few
decades many sawmills were in operation, producing sawnwood for local
use in construction and ship-building, as well as for export. Another key
export, notably from Maine, was of ship’s masts to England, essential to keep
the Royal Navy operational in time of war, especially when England’s access
to timber from the Baltic was blockaded. Besides, the white pines of Maine
provided masts of the lengths required by the large English ‘ships of the line’,
which were not available from Scandinavia. The stripping of the eastern
seaboard forests had begun, a major source of friction between the settlers
and the native Indian population and one of the causes of the Indian wars.
Trade from the eastern seaboard continued after the American Declaration of Independence (1776), but English interests moved northwards to
what is now Canada, which became an important source of wood during
the Napoleonic Wars, which again blocked supplies from the Baltic area. In
order to encourage secure supplies from North America, Britain doubled
import duties on wood from northern Europe, while imports from its
colonies were duty free and from America attracted only a low duty (Mather
1990). Meanwhile, forest clearance and logging were expanding dramatically
in the American mid-west and Lake States to meet burgeoning demand from
a fast-expanding and spreading population, rather than for export. Huge
quantities of wood were used for agricultural fencing and, with the advent
of railways, for ties (railway sleepers) and even rails and rolling stock. Initially, they also used wood for fuel, as did the steamboats which provided
the main transportation on the Mississippi River system. Fortunately for the
survival of the forests, coal was found to be a more efficient source of energy
than wood for steam generation and other uses.
Railways were not only heavy users of wood, they also made it possible to gain access to large areas of hitherto inaccessible forest, not only in
the USA but in other parts of the world as well. They thus played an important role in the deforestation of large areas of forest, especially in the USA.
The conversion of sawmills to steam power was also important in increasing productivity and output greatly.
The Pacific Basin
With the establishment of settlements on the west coast of the USA early in
the nineteenth century, new opportunities for wood production and exports
13
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
from the north-western states arose. Apart from supplying the needs of the
rapidly growing cities of California, especially San Francisco during the Gold
Rush (1848), exporters in Oregon and Washington found new markets
around the Pacific Rim, such as Australia, China, Japan, Peru, Mexico and
Hawaii. It was not until some time after this (late nineteenth century) that
British Columbia entered the scene, although the export of wood to England
goes back to Cook’s voyage of discovery at the end of the eighteenth century.
He refurbished his ships’ masts and spars with Douglas fir from Vancouver
Island (R. H. Edgett, private communication). An important development for
exporters in the American north-west and British Columbia was the opening
of the Panama Canal in 1914, which greatly improved their access to markets
in eastern North America as well as in Europe (MacKay 1982).
The industrial revolution
The industrial revolution was accompanied by a marked expansion of trade
in wood, with Britain emerging as the leading importer in the nineteenth
century and, with British tariffs having been lowered again, Scandinavia was
re-established as its main supplier. By the end of the nineteenth century,
Sweden’s exports of sawn softwood reached about 5 million m3 (85% of its
production) out of a total world trade volume of about 20 million (Wohlfart
(ed). 1971)
Another major development of the nineteenth century was the invention of mechanised paper production (Bolton 1998). While the Egyptians
were writing on papyrus 3000 years BC and the Chinese invented papermaking from fibres around AD 100, the process was still artisanal at the time
of the Renaissance, and output per mill was a few hundred tonnes a year.
This type of paper-making by hand had become widespread in Europe from
the time of the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century
(Gutenberg c. 1430). The first paper machine went into production in 1800
with a capacity of maybe 1000 tonnes a year. Technological development
has led to an enormous increase in output per unit to as much as a quarter
of a million tonnes annually from a modern machine. The key to this
expansion was the use of wood as raw material in place of rags and other
fibres. In Sweden, for example, there were about 110 paper mills in 1800
based on textile waste for hand-made paper. As far as the number of units
was concerned, the pulp industry reached its maximum just before the
First World War, since when many of the smaller mills have closed down.
There were 67 papermills in Sweden at the beginning of the twentieth
century and the number has remained more or less unchanged since,
although the capacity has expanded dramatically and has been accompanied
by tremendous growth in exports. Broadly similar stories can be told of
14
HISTORIC AL PERSPECTIVE
developments in other major exporting countries, such as Canada and
Finland.
The global economy and international trade in the second half of the
twentieth century evolved in a quite different way than during the first half.
Growth in the first half was sharply reversed by the First World War, then by
the Great Depression and again by the Second World War. Trade in that halfcentury was still very largely between the industrialised countries. In the
second half of the century the world economy suffered no major upsets, and
expansion was more or less continuous, apart from cyclical fluctuations of
the market, triggered on two occasions by oil price shocks. While the major
part of the trade in wood products continued to be between industrialised
countries, the share of developing countries gradually increased, as will be
described in later chapters.
This brief history of the development of trade in wood products has
had to be anecdotal in nature, due to the relative lack of statistics compared
with those of modern times. What emerges, however, is the consistency
with which over millennia the forests have been plundered and destroyed
wherever they have stood in the way of man’s ‘progress’ or have been felled
for the provision of his immediate wood requirements and without thought
for the future. Apart from a few voices ‘crying in the wilderness’, the relentless exploitation and clearance of the forest took place with little regard for
conservation or sustainability, at least until the damage was done and it was
too late to alter the situation to any large degree.
What is still happening to forests in some parts of the tropical and boreal
world is not much different from what occurred in the past in the temperate regions. And now, as in the past, it is difficult to assess how important
the role of trade is, and was, in deforestation. How responsible, for example,
was the demand for wood in ancient Egypt for the destruction of the forests
of Crete and Lebanon? Or the Roman Empire for deforestation in North Africa
and the Iberian Peninsula? Or the English for the clearance of the forests
in eastern North America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? Or
Japan and western Europe for tropical deforestation in the second half of the
twentieth century? A short answer is that forest destruction would probably
have occurred in each case, even in the absence of overseas demand for
wood, but trade was still a factor. In the past, as today, the clearance of forest
land, especially for agriculture, coupled with local demand for wood for fuel
and other uses, was in most cases the primary cause. As will be seen in later
chapters, some lessons do seem to have been learnt from the past, and
greater care is being taken to manage forest resources for their long-term
sustainability in many parts of the world. Among other things, this could
already be having an impact on the composition and pattern of international
trade in wood products.
15
CHAPTER
2
Global forest and
wood resources
Principal forest types and their distribution
C
limate has had a preponderant role in determining the distribution
and composition of the world’s forests. To oversimplify the situation
grossly, three broad categories can be distinguished: the tropical
forests, consisting very largely of broadleaved species (Angiosperms) lying
between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn; the boreal forests, predominantly coniferous (Gymnosperms) lying mostly to the north of latitude 60°N;
and the temperate forests in between. Things are not quite that simple,
however.
The tropical forests
The tropical forests form a discontinuous belt on either side of the equator
across Latin America, Africa and Asia. The farthest north that these forests are
found is in southern China and Mexico; the farthest south in northern
Argentina and Chile, Madagascar and northern Australia. They follow a vegetation gradient determined by rainfall from the moist evergreen tropical
rainforests, where precipitation exceeds 2000 mm a year, to dry wooded
savannah, and from cloud forests at higher elevations to the mangrove
16
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
swamps along the coasts. The moist tropical rainforest is virtually nonseasonal, which means that as an entity it is evergreen, although some species
may shed their leaves at certain times, while flowering and seeding follow a
certain seasonal rhythm generally related to the rainy periods. It has as many
as five storeys dominated by scattered emergent trees which, when of the
sought-after species, are the principal target of commercial exploitation.
It is impossible to list the number of tree species in tropical forests,
which run into the thousands: there can be hundreds in a single square kilometre. A limited number of them have been commercialised. To mention
a few that are exported from West Africa: obeche or wawa (Triplochiton
scleroxylon), okoumé (Aucomea klaineana), African mahogany (Khaya
ivoriensis), sapele (Entandrophragma cylindricum), utile (Entandrophragma utile), niangon (Tarrietia utilis), iroko (Chlorophora excelsa)
and afrormosia (Afrormosia elata). In South-east Asia, the predominating
family of trees is the Dipterocarps (Dipterocarpaceae), with several genera
and numerous species: among the better known in the trade are the merantis, serayas, lauans, keruing, yang and apitong. Other families include
ramin (Gonystylus bancanus), jelutong (Dyera costulata), and a native of
Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand but now growing in plantations in many
countries, teak (Tectona grandis). In Latin America there is the increasingly
scarce ‘true’ mahogany (Swietenia mahogoni), and among other commercial species, lignum vitae (Guaiacum officinale), balsa, the softest and lightest of commercial woods (Ochroma lagopus), greenheart (Ocotea rodiaei),
which was used to build the hull of Captain Scott’s Discovery, virola (Virola
koschnyi) and Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) (Willis 1968). The
variety of characteristics found among tropical woods is astounding, yet until
relatively recently the number of species being harvested and exported in
commercial volumes was small in comparison with the great number
growing in tropical forests.
The heterogeneity of species as well as of sizes and the complexity of
the tropical rainforest system are both a strength and a weakness. A strength,
because when left in its natural state, the rainforest is a gene bank of
immense reserves and diversity, not only of tree species but of those of every
type of flora and fauna. A weakness, because once disturbed by shifting cultivation, commercial exploitation or other forms of interference, some of the
links in the chain of interdependency of the species in the ecosystem are
broken, and in many cases the process of degradation may become irreversible. A further weakness, which may not become apparent until the tropical rainforest ecosystem is disturbed, is the low nutrient-holding capacity of
the soil. Under normal conditions, nutrients in the litter layer are quickly
broken down and recycled, and there is little chance for the nutrients to be
leached out of the soil by heavy rainfall. Tropical forest cleared for farm crops
or grazing loses its fertility within two or three years, however, and the stage
17
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
is then set for the deterioration process leading to erosion and eventual
desertification. Despite its lushness, therefore, the tropical rainforest is a
fragile ecosystem.
Other special types of forests in the hotter climates are the moist deciduous forests, where rainfall is lower and more seasonal than in the rainforest
areas; and montane forests, including the cloud forests at certain elevations
and topographical conditions. There are also the mangrove swamps along
tens of thousands of kilometres of coast and forests of bamboo which,
although of the grass family, may grow to 30 metres in height.
The boreal forests
Roughly three-quarters of all coniferous forests are found in the northern
coniferous belt, which is synonymous with the boreal forest area that lies in
the northern hemisphere between the tundra to the north and the temperate forests to the south. The belt stretches across Alaska and Canada, northern Europe and the northern two-thirds of the former USSR. While the forests
covering this enormous area are reasonably similar in structure, the tree
species differ. In northern Europe and the north-western part of the former
USSR, Norway spruce (Picea excelsa) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) predominate, with a broadleaved species, birch (Betula spp.) also common.
Further east across Siberia, this association is replaced by larches (Larix
spp.), Siberian fir (Abies sibirica) and Siberian pine (P. cembra, var. sibirica). In northern North America, the species to the west include lodgepole
pine (P. contorta), sub-alpine fir (A. lasiocarpa), and black spruce (P.
mariana), giving way eastwards to larches, white spruce (P. glauca), balsam
fir (A. balsamea) and jack pine (P. banksiana).
The coniferous montane forests are a feature of the great mountain
ranges: the Rockies, Cascades and Sierra Nevada in North America, the Alps
and Carpathians in Europe, the Himalayas, Caucasus and Hindu Kush in Asia,
and the Andes in South America. The number of tree species in these forests
may be considerable, although only a fraction of the number found in tropical forests. The diversity is greatest in North America, partly because the
mountain ranges run north to south so that latitude as well as elevation has
an influence on the naturally occurring species. To name a few of the major
species in these North American forests: Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), lodgepole pine, Western white pine (P. monticola), Engelmann
spruce (P. engelmannii), ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa), Western red cedar
(Thuya plicata) and Western larch (Larix occidentalis). This is also the
region of the giant coastal redwoods and sequoias (Sequoia sempervirens
and S. gigantea), although the former is restricted in its natural state to the
lower-lying areas of California. These montane forests combine to a high
18
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
degree the potential to provide the multiple functions of the forest: wood
production, soil and water protection, recreation and other social and environmental services.
Two other types of coniferous forest should be mentioned: the lowland
pine forests, which are found in both temperate and tropical zones; and the
southern hemisphere conifers, including species of the genera Agathis,
Araucaria and Podocarpus, which are scattered, sometimes as forest
remnants, over a range of latitudes from Japan and China to Chile and
New Zealand.
In addition to the natural stands of pine, for example in the southeastern United States, plantations of coniferous species, of indigenous or
exotic origin, are playing an increasingly important role in the international
supply of wood and fibre. Radiata pine (P. radiata) in New Zealand and Chile
and maritime pine (P. pinaster) along the seaboards of Portugal, northern
Spain and south-west France, are just two examples.
The temperate forests
Between the northern boreal and the tropical forests, and also in the
southerly latitudes, lie the temperate forests. Some of them, as just mentioned, are predominantly coniferous, usually pine, but the largest areas are
either mixed coniferous and broadleaved or predominantly broadleaved.
These are, over most of the northern temperate area, deciduous species,
such as oak (Quercus spp.), beech (Fagus spp.), maple (Acer spp.), poplar
(Populus spp.), ash (Fraxinus spp.) and hickory (Carya spp.), but in drier,
hotter areas, such as the Mediterranean basin, there are evergreens, for
instance the holm and cork oak and olive.The main areas of temperate forests
are in central and western Europe, eastern North America, eastern Asia and
the southern parts of the former USSR. There are also extensive areas of temperate forests in western South America, South Africa, Australia – where the
eucalyptus family of 600 or so species (Eucalyptus spp.) predominates –
and New Zealand. A contrast between the northern and southern hemisphere forests is that the latter are for the larger part evergreen, despite
similarities with the climatic conditions under which the deciduous forests
grow to the north.
The above brief description relates to a considerable extent to the
natural distribution of forests without taking into account the impact of man
on them. As was seen in Chapter 1, however, man’s influence has been
increasing for several millennia, with the consequence that the extent of
forest cover as well as the type of forest has altered, sometimes drastically.
An example of this was the progressive clearance of forest over large areas
of eastern North America to make way for farming and settlement in the
19
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
seventeenth and first part of the eighteenth century, which was followed by
recolonisation by broadleaved species of much of the area as the centre of
agricultural production moved westwards into the prairies. Where man has
‘interfered’ with but not permanently removed the forest, it has reverted to
an earlier stage of succession or, by means of silviculture, has been kept at
that stage. Examples are the natural regeneration of alder, aspen and birch
after the felling of the coniferous boreal forest in the former USSR; the maintenance of a high proportion of spruce in what would probably be beech
and fir forests in central Europe; the replacement of natural tropical forest
by plantations of pine, eucalyptus and other fast-growing species, for
example in Brazil and Indonesia; and the replacement of some of the natural
temperate forests in Chile and New Zealand by radiata pine and other exotic
species.
Extent and composition of the world’s forests
Today, the area of forests in the world is about 3.6 billion ha or 28% of the
land area (Table 2.1). The definition of forest is land on which trees capable
of growing to a height of 5 metres or more cover more than 10% of the land
surface (UN-ECE/FAO 2000). In addition there are substantial areas of socalled other wooded land, which is either land with scattered trees of 5
metres or more (5 to 10% crown cover) or with more than 10% crown cover
of smaller trees (less than 5 metres in height) together with shrubs and
bushes. Data on the world area of other wooded land are lacking, although
the area in the industrialised countries amounts to about 800 million ha, to
which can be added large areas in the developing countries. The world area
of forest and other wooded land is estimated to amount to between 4.5 and
5.5 billion ha, roughly two-fifths of the total land area. This is very much less
than the area before human intervention began, when perhaps twice as
much of the land area was covered with trees.
Latin America and the former USSR (two of the regional groups) each
account for about one-quarter of the world’s forest area with 950 and 863
million ha respectively; and three others, Africa, Other Asia-Pacific and North
America, for between one-seventh and one-eighth each; Europe and East Asia
have less than one-twentieth each (Fig. 2.1).
Latin America and the former USSR are also the regions with the highest
proportions of forest cover, with 47 and 40% respectively. East Asia, Other
Asia-Pacific and Africa have the lowest forest cover, with 17, 21 and 18%
respectively. In East Asia, there is only 0.1 ha of forest per inhabitant, and in
Europe and Other Asia-Pacific this indicator is also well below the world
average of 0.6 ha/inhabitant. The former USSR has 5 times the world average
20
21
482
Latin America
Sources: FAO 1997 and 1999; UN-ECE/FAO 2000
728
Africa
Former USSR
1948
292
Europe
Other Asia-Pacific
593
North America
1399
305
WORLD
East Asia
5746
Region
2 017
2 937
2 448
979
2 151
549
1 837
12 918
Land area
(million ha)
4.2
4.0
1.3
0.7
7.4
0.9
6.0
2.3
Population
density
(ha/person)
950
520
506
165
863
169
462
3634
Total forest
area
(million ha)
World and regional totals of population and of land and forest area in the mid-1990s
Population
(million)
Table 2.1
47
18
21
17
40
31
25
28
Forest area as
per cent of
land area (%)
2.0
0.7
0.3
0.1
3.0
0.3
1.5
0.6
Forest area
per person
(ha/person)
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
World forest area: 3.63 billion hectares
North
America
13%
Europe
5%
Former
USSR
24%
Latin
America
25%
East Asia
5%
Other AsiaPacific
14%
Africa
14%
2.1 Regional shares of the world area of forest in the mid-1990s (sources: FAO
1999, UN-ECE/FAO 2000).
with 3 ha/inhabitant, followed by Latin America with 2 and North America
with 1.5.
The statistics in Table 2.1 are taken from two sources: FAO’s State of the
World’s Forests (FAO 1997 and 1999) and UN-ECE/FAO’s Forest Resources of
Europe, CIS, North America, Australia, Japan and New Zealand (UNECE/FAO 2000). FAO is currently undertaking a new global forest resources
assessment, the results of which will not be available until after this book is
completed. The UN-ECE/FAO assessment, which is a component of the FAO
global assessment, was published in 2000. Therefore, the data for North
America, Europe and the former USSR in Table 2.1 were taken from the UNECE/FAO source, while those for the other regions were extracted from the
FAO source, but adjusted to take into account the more recent figures for
Japan in the East Asia group and Australia and New Zealand in the Other AsiaPacific group.
The information on total forest area does not tell us very much about
any of the regions’ potential to supply wood, for which it is necessary to
have data at least on such parameters as the area of forest available for wood
supply (FAWS), volume of growing stock and annual increment on FAWS.
This information is available for the countries covered by the UN-ECE/FAO
assessment, which are referred to here as the Temperate and Boreal Developed Countries (TBDCs). These countries account for 46% of the world’s
forest area, but 70% of the volume of removals of industrial roundwood in
1996 (Fig. 2.2). They are therefore the principal source of the wood raw
22
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
TBDCs
12.7
North America
39.3
4.7
Europe
19.2
23.7
Former USSR
7.3
5.2
3.9
Other TBDCs
OTHER REGIONS
13.2
Asia-Pacific excl.
TBDCs
16.6
14.3
Africa
4.4
26.1
Latin America
9.3
0
10
20
30
40
50
% of world totals
Removals of industrial wood
Forest area
2.2 Forest area and removals of industrial wood for temperate and boreal
developed countries (TBDCs) and non-TBDCs compared (sources: FAO 1999, UNECE/FAO 2000).
material used for the production of wood products entering international
trade. It will be worthwhile, therefore, to look at the forest inventory data
for the TBDCs in more detail.
Forests in the temperate and boreal developed countries
Both North America and Europe have a much larger share of the world’s
removals of industrial roundwood (39 and 19% respectively) than of the area
23
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
of forest (13 and 5%). On the other hand, the countries of the former USSR,
with 24% of the forest area, accounted for only 7% of removals in the mid1990s, although before the break up of the USSR, the percentage had been
much higher (17% in 1990). Similarly, Latin America and Africa, with 26 and
14% respectively of the world’s forests, contribute much smaller proportions, 9 and 4% respectively, to global industrial wood supply. It should be
noted, however, that these regions, as well as Other Asia-Pacific, are major
producers of fuelwood, which makes up more than half the world removals
of roundwood but is an insignificant component of international trade. The
basic forestry inventory data for the temperate and boreal developed countries in the mid-1990s are shown in Table 2.2.
The area of forest and other wooded land in the TBDCs was 2.48 billion
ha in the mid-1990s, accounting for 46% of the total land area. Of this area,
1.68 billion ha or just over two-thirds consisted of forest (Table 2.2). Nearly
two-thirds or 1.1 billion ha of the area of forest is classified as available for
wood supply (FAWS), the proportion being considerably higher in Europe
(85%) and lower in the Other TBDCs (22%). The volume of annual fellings in
the mid-1990s was of the order of 1.5 billion m3 overbark measure (ob). This
is the volume of trees felled on FAWS, whether it is taken from the forest as
removals or left in the forest as harvesting residues. Not all fellings occur on
FAWS; a proportion, probably less than 10%, are of trees on forest not available for wood supply and on other wooded land and of trees outside the
forest. Since the statistics relating to FAWS are generally the most comprehensive and reliable, however, it is easier to compare the fellings on FAWS
with other parameters relating to FAWS in order to draw up some kind of a
‘forest balance’. Hence the data in Table 2.2 concentrate on FAWS.
Of the various indicators in the table, two of the more significant are
the volume of net annual increment (NAI) per hectare on FAWS and the ratio
of fellings to NAI. The former is a rough guide to the physical potential to
produce wood on a sustainable basis; the latter an indicator of the extent to
which that potential is being used. In the TBDCs on average, the NAI on
FAWS is about 2.4 m3 ob/ha. It is nearly twice as much in Europe, due partly
to favourable growing conditions, partly to the fact that most of the forest
is under silvicultural management. In the former USSR, NAI is about 1.5 m3
ob/ha. This low figure can be attributed to the fact that a still large part of
the forest is more or less undisturbed by man and most of the gross annual
increment is offset by natural losses due to forest fire, pests and diseases and
mortality from other causes, including old age. This is also the case in some
other countries, notably Canada and Alaska. If these natural forests are ever
brought under silvicultural management, the effect would be to reduce
natural losses and raise NAI closer to gross annual increment, thereby
increasing their wood supply potential. But that remains uncertain, due to
pressures to conserve as much of the remaining natural forest as possible for
24
25
Missing data for a few countries have been estimated
Volumes are overbark (ob) measure
Other TBDCs: Australia, Japan, New Zealand
Source: UN-ECE/FAO 2000
Annual fellings on forest
Annual fellings on FAWS
Annual fellings as per cent of NAI on FAWS
• Coniferous annual fellings on FAWS
• Broadleaved annual fellings on FAWS
Net annual increment on forest
Net annual increment (NAI) on FAWS
NAI per hectare of FAWS
• Coniferous NAI on FAWS
Coniferous as per cent of total NAI on FAWS
• Broadleaved NAI on FAWS
million
million
%
million
million
ob
ob
m3 ob
m3 ob
m ob
m3 ob
3
million m3
million m3
m3 ob/ha
million m3
%
million m3
ob
ob
million m3 ob
million m3 ob
m3 ob/ha
m3 ob/ha
m3 ob/ha
ha
ha
ha
Growing stock volume on forest
Growing stock (GS) on FAWS
GS per hectare of FAWS
• Coniferous GS on FAWS
• Broadleaved GS on FAWS
ha
ha
million
million
%
million
million
million
Unit
1 468.4
1 433.5
56.3
1 021.3
412.2
3 179.9
2 545.7
2.4
1 583.3
62.2
962.4
188 283
134 894
127
90 504
44 390
1 682.4
1 061.3
63.1
522.1
236.7
302.4
Total TBDCs
770.8
770.8
83.6
561.2
209.6
1 203.0
921.5
2.8
544.3
59.1
377.2
59 020
44 390
137
27 647
16 743
461.9
324.0
70.1
152.4
117.6
54.0
North America
435.1
429.6
64.4
295.1
134.5
717.9
667.2
4.7
429.5
64.4
237.7
23 961
21 585
151
13 406
8 179
169.0
143.0
84.7
78.2
46.1
18.7
Europe
191.3
161.8
19.7
111.0
50.8
1 068.0
819.5
1.5
508.3
62.0
311.2
90 632
64 537
117
46 725
17 812
862.6
552.7
64.1
276.8
53.1
222.9
Former USSR
Basic forest inventory data for the temperate and boreal developed countries (TBDCs) in the mid-1990s
Total forest
Forest available for wood supply (FAWS)
FAWS as per cent of total forest
• Predominantly coniferous FAWS
• Predominantly broadleaved FAWS
• Mixed conif. & b’leaved FAWS
Table 2.2
71.3
71.3
51.9
54.0
17.3
191.0
137.5
3.3
101.2
73.6
36.3
14 670
4 382
105
2 726
1 656
188.9
41.6
22.0
14.7
20.0
6.8
Other TBDCs
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
environmental and biodiversity reasons, not to mention problems of
inaccessibility.
Nevertheless, present NAI on FAWS in the TBDCs of about 2.5 billion
m3 ob compares with fellings of 1.4 billion, giving a fellings-to-NAI ratio of
56%. Fellings are less than NAI in each of the 4 regions, markedly so in the
case of the former USSR, where the ratio is 20%, although it was at least
twice that before fellings slumped in the early 1990s. The ratio of 84% in
North America is somewhat suspect, since Canada cannot provide fellings
data (see Table 2.3), and the ratio is based on estimates and in reality may
be higher or lower than 84%. What seems more than likely, however, is that
fellings on FAWS are closer to NAI in North America than in the other regions,
suggesting there is less scope there for achieving higher fellings without
jeopardising the principle of sustainability of wood supply.
As may be seen in Table 2.3, the forest situation varies greatly from
country to country, depending on growing conditions and intensity of management. Public ownership ranges from 100%, for example in formerly centrally planned economy countries such as the Russian Federation, to 20% or
less in Sweden and Austria. The volume of growing stock ranges from
250 m3 ob/ha or more in central Europe to less than 100 m3 ob/ha in some
northern and southern European countries with harsher growing conditions,
as well as in Australia. Most TBDCs grow more coniferous wood than
broadleaved, but exceptions among the leading countries include France,
Romania and Australia. Net growth rates also vary markedly, with average
NAIs of more than 8 m3 ob/ha in some central European countries and less
than 3 in parts of southern Europe and Australia. Within the same country,
NAI can vary tremendously between forest stands: for example in New
Zealand NAI in the very intensively managed coniferous (mainly Radiata
pine) plantations averages 18.2 m3 ob/ha, while in its natural, predominantly
broadleaved, forests it is probably close to zero. The fellings-to-NAI ratio is a
fairly crude indicator of the extent to which wood supply potential is being
exploited, and needs to be taken together with knowledge about the
age–class distribution of the forests. In those with predominantly immature
stands, such as Spain, as well as Ireland and the United Kingdom (not shown
in Table 2.3), it is natural that NAI should be appreciably higher than fellings.
Where a large part of the forest is old growth or natural, fellings could under
certain circumstances be as high as or even higher than NAI without jeopardising long-term supply sustainability, provided of course that those forests
are brought or kept under proper management after felling.
Forests according to degree of ‘naturalness’
It was mentioned earlier that in many parts of the world the original forests
have either been removed to make way for agriculture or other uses of the
26
27
21.2
20.7
14.5
10.5
10.1
8.6
8.3
5.6
3.4
525.2
23.3
16.4
Europe
Sweden
Finland
France
Spain
Germany
Turkey
Poland
Romania
Austria
Former USSR
Russian
Federation
Other TBDCs
Japan
Australia
97
11
59
78
95
96
78
94
87
93
89
87
91
52
Per cent
of total
forest
(%)
42
80
100
20
30
25
22
54
100
83
95
18
45
93
Per cent
publicly
owned
(%)
‘Publicly owned’ includes owned by indigenous and tribal peoples
e
= estimate
Canada: fellings data not available
Source: UN-ECE/FAO 2000
198.1
125.9
Area of
FAWS
(million ha)
3 368
645
60 922
2 567
1 867
2 836
487
2 820
1 187
1 771
1 194e
1 037
27 035
17 355
Growing
stock (GS)
on FAWS
(million m3 ob)
145
39
116
121
90
196
47
278
138
213
213e
310
137
138
GS/ha
(m3 ob/ha)
66e
20
73
85
82
36
59
69
65
79
37e
82
55
74
Per cent of
coniferous
in GS (%)
69.2
34.6
742.0
85.4
72.5
92.3
28.6
89.0
32.5
39.4
28.5e
27.3
694.0
227.5
Net annual
increment
(NAI) on GS
(million m3 ob)
3.0
2.1
1.4
4.0
3.5
6.4
2.7
8.8
3.8
4.8
5.1e
8.2
3.5
1.8
NAI/ha
(m3 ob/ha)
42
57
17
77
75
65
39
55
53
77
48e
71
75
..
Fellings
to NAI
ratio
(%)
Basic inventory data on forest available for wood supply (FAWS) in leading temperate and boreal developed countries in the mid-1990s
North America
USA
Canada
Table 2.3
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
North America
Europe
Former USSR
Australia, Japan,
New Zealand
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
% of forest area
Undisturbed by man
Semi-natural
70
80
90
100
Plantations
2.3 Forest according to degree of ‘naturalness’ in TBDCs (sources: UN-ECE/FAO
2000).
land or have been altered in some way by man. According to estimates by
experts in the temperate and boreal developed countries, 925 million ha
or rather more than half of the remaining forest area in those countries
can still be described as ‘undisturbed by man’ (Fig. 2.3). Forest ‘undisturbed
by man’ should show natural forest dynamics, such as natural tree composition, natural age structure and natural regeneration processes. There
should have been no known human intervention, or the last significant
intervention should have been long enough ago to have allowed natural
species composition and processes to have become re-established. In practice it is sometimes not easy to apply such a definition, and the percentages
in Fig. 2.3 should be treated with caution. Nevertheless, it is certainly the
case that relatively little of the forest area in Europe remains undisturbed, in
contrast to the former USSR, where 87% of it is estimated to be still in that
category.
At the other end of the spectrum are forest ‘plantations’, defined as
stands established by planting or seeding in the process of afforestation or
reforestation. They consist either of introduced species or of intensively
managed stands of indigenous species. It is estimated that there were about
62 million ha of plantations in the TBDCs in total in the mid-1990s, fairly well
distributed between the 4 regions shown in Fig. 2.3. The remaining area of
just under 700 million ha or two-fifths of the total is termed ‘semi-natural
forest’. Most of this was once undisturbed natural forest that has been used
or in some way treated by man. Some may have started as plantations which,
with approaching maturity, lost its plantation ‘look’ of uniformity. Within
Europe’s forests 89% fall into the category of semi-natural and 66% of North
America’s (49% in Canada and 85% in the USA).
28
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
Although the breakdown is not available, it may be assumed that much,
perhaps two-thirds, of the forest undisturbed by man falls into the category
of forest not available for wood supply, and most plantations and semi-natural
forest into that of forest available for wood supply. Pressure has been increasing to protect a substantial proportion of undisturbed forest from commercial exploitation for reasons of environmental conservation and even to allow
some semi-natural forest to revert to a more natural state. Over the long term
wood production may in consequence tend to be concentrated more on
plantations and semi-natural forest, which would nevertheless be managed
according to the principles of sustainability.
Forests in the developing regions
Until FAO’s global forest assessment 2000 is published, information about
the current forestry situation in the developing regions is scanty or out of
date. Forests in those regions amount to 1.95 billion ha or about 54% of the
world’s forest area. Nearly half of that is in Latin America; the remainder more
or less equally divided between Africa and non-TBDCs in the Asia-Pacific
region (Fig. 2.2). Their share of world industrial roundwood removals is only
30% but 90% of fuelwood, which accounted for 78% of total roundwood
removals in the non-TBDCs in 1996.
Brazil, with 551 million ha, has the largest area of forest after the Russian
Federation. Three other developing countries, China, Indonesia and Congo
Democratic Republic each have more than 100 million ha, and there are 4
others, Peru, India, Mexico and Colombia, with more than 50 million (Table
2.4). The highest forest cover is reported by Guyana and Surinam with 94%
and Papua New Guinea with 82%, while 6 other countries, South Korea,
Gabon, Brazil, Indonesia, Peru and Colombia have more than 50%. Of the
countries shown in the table, South Africa, China, South Korea, Argentina
and Chile mostly have temperate forests, the others tropical.
The area of forest per inhabitant varies greatly from virtually zero in
India, China and the Philippines to 35 ha/capita in Surinam, the highest in
the world, 22 in Guyana and 14 in Gabon. The areas of natural forest shown
in the table probably include all forest that was defined for the developed
countries as undisturbed by man as well as most of the semi-natural forest.
The difference between the total forest area and natural forest area is small
for the majority of the developing countries shown and no doubt consists
mainly of plantations. The countries where the difference is large include
those having extensive plantations: South Africa, China, Indonesia, India,
South Korea, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. According to FAO (1999), about
two-thirds of the plantation area in developing countries is intended for
29
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 2.4 Basic forest inventory data for leading tropical and temperate developing
countries in the mid-1990s
Total forest
area
(million ha)
Forest area
as per cent
of land area
(%)
Forest area
per person
(ha/person)
Natural
forest
(million ha)
Africa
Congo Dem. Rep.
Tanzania
Zambia
Central African Rep.
Angola
Cameroon
Congo
Gabon
Mozambique
Madagascar
Botswana
Nigeria
Namibia
Ghana
South Africa*
Côte d’Ivoire
109.2
32.5
31.4
29.9
22.2
19.6
19.5
17.9
16.9
15.1
13.9
13.8
12.4
9.0
8.5
5.5
48.2
36.8
42.2
48.0
17.8
42.0
57.2
69.3
21.5
26.0
24.6
15.1
15.0
39.7
7.0
17.2
2.5
1.1
3.3
9.0
2.0
1.5
7.5
13.5
1.1
1.0
9.4
0.1
8.0
0.5
0.2
0.4
109.2
32.4
31.4
29.9
22.1
19.6
19.5
17.8
16.8
14.9
13.9
13.6
12.4
9.0
7.2
5.4
Asia-Pacific
China*
Indonesia
India
Papua New Guinea
Myanmar
Malaysia
South Korea*
Philippines
133.3
109.8
65.0
36.9
27.2
15.5
7.6
6.8
14.3
60.6
21.9
81.6
41.3
47.1
77.2
22.7
0.1
0.6
0.0
8.6
0.6
0.8
0.2
0.1
99.5
103.7
50.4
36.9
26.9
15.4
6.2
6.6
Latin America
Brazil
Peru
Mexico
Colombia
Bolivia
Venezuela
Argentina*
Guyana
Surinam
Paraguay
Ecuador
Chile*
551.1
67.6
55.4
53.0
48.3
44.0
33.9
18.6
14.7
11.5
11.1
7.9
65.2
52.8
29
51.0
44.6
49.9
12.4
94.4
94.4
29
40.2
10.5
3.4
2.8
0.6
1.5
6.5
2.0
1.0
22.2
34.8
2.3
1.0
0.6
546.2
67.4
55.3
52.9
48.3
43.7
33.4
18.6
14.7
11.5
11.1
6.9
* Wholly or mainly temperate-zone
Source: FAO 1999
30
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
commercial use, i.e. the production of industrial roundwood, the remainder
for other uses including fuelwood and soil protection.
Key information that is not yet available for the developing countries
from the point of view of the potential to supply wood includes the species
composition of forests, age–class structure, ownership and management
status and availability for wood supply. With regard to species composition,
broadleaved species account for the overwhelming part of the total, coniferous being mostly limited to part of the plantation area. Most tropical forests
are characterised by the diversity of tree species: often the number of species
per hectare can be counted in the hundreds, whereas in the temperate
forests it is in the tens, and in boreal forests the number can usually be
counted on the fingers of one hand. Given that most tropical forests are
natural, they are uneven-aged in structure with several different storeys. In
natural forests, mortality is more or less the same as growth, and net annual
increment is therefore close to zero.
It is not known how much of the forest in the developing countries is
available for wood supply. Wherever indigenous peoples are living, they are
using the forest for gathering wood, food, medicines and other products,
and as long as populations remain small and scattered, their activities do not
disturb the equilibrium of the forest ecosystem. Even more intensive forest
clearance, for example for shifting cultivation, may be relatively harmless to
the ecosystem, provided the period between successive clearances is long
enough for the forest to restore itself. Commercial wood exploitation has
been taking place in the more readily accessible areas, for example close to
waterways and the coast. Large areas remain inaccessible to such exploitation for physical or economic reasons, although population pressure and
rising demand for land for agriculture and other purposes is steadily removing the forest cover throughout the developing world.
Changes in forest area over time
Estimates of the current rate of deforestation in the tropics vary widely.
That of FAO (1999) for the developing countries as a whole, tropical and
temperate, is approximately 13 million ha a year (Fig. 2.4). Since it is not
easy to distinguish between permanent and temporary forest clearance, or
between clearance and forest degradation, the figures of changes in forest
area may be a combination of gross and net changes.
In the temperate and boreal regions the area of forest has been expanding – or, to be more precise, recovering – slowly in recent decades: in the
early 1990s it was estimated to be increasing by more than half a million ha
a year. Expansion in North America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia more
than offset a decline in the former USSR. In the latter region, however, the
31
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
TBDCs
North America
Europe
Former USSR
Australia, Japan,
New Zealand
0.6
0.5
–0.5
0.1
OTHER REGIONS
Asia-Pacific
–3.5
–3.8
Africa
Latin America
–5.7
–7
–6
–5
–4
–3
–2
–1
0
1
Million hectares per year
2.4 Average annual change in forest area in TBDCs and in other regions in the
early 1990s (sources: FAO 1999, UN-ECE/FAO 2000).
fall in the area of forest was more than offset by a rise in that of other wooded
land. Plantations on non-forest land (afforestation) account for much of the
increase in forest area in the TBDCs, although in some areas natural regeneration of abandoned agricultural land has also been taking place. This
type of regeneration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
accounted for the extensive area of predominantly broadleaved forests in the
eastern United States.
Ownership and management of the forest resource
Ownership of the forest resource falls into two main categories: public and
private. There is a third category, ownership by indigenous or tribal peoples,
which may become of greater importance in the future as the rights of
these peoples become increasingly recognised. Public ownership includes
ownership by the State at the national or regional level, for example by the
Provinces in Canada, as well as ownership by other public bodies, such as
cities, municipalities or communes. Private ownership includes ownership
by individuals or families, forest industries and other private bodies, such as
private corporations, cooperatives or institutions (religious, educational,
pension and investment funds, and so on). In most developed countries
there exists a legal or cadastral system which clearly demarcates ownership
boundaries. This is seldom the case in developing countries where, except
in certain precise cases, for example plantations, there is generally an
implicit acceptance that forest land belongs to the State. The State may,
however, offer concessions to private corporations for the management and
32
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
exploitation of the resources on that land while retaining ownership of the
land itself.
Ownership and management in the temperate and boreal
developed countries
Information provided by the temperate and boreal developed countries
(TBDCs) shows over two-thirds of their forest and other wooded land to
be in public ownership, just under one-fifth in private ownership and
about four per cent in the ownership of indigenous or tribal peoples. Of
more interest from the perspective of wood production is the ownership
pattern of forest available for wood supply (FAWS). Table 2.5 shows that in
the TBDCs 792 million ha or three-quarters of all FAWS is publicly owned
(the relatively small area owned by indigenous or tribal peoples is included
in that figure). Virtually all of the 551 million ha of FAWS in the countries of
the former USSR is publicly owned, and if these countries are excluded,
public ownership in the Other TBDCs amounts to 241 million ha or less than
half the total area, and private ownership for more than half. This is the case
in each of the regions, Europe, other TBDCs and even North America, despite
the fact that in Canada the bulk of FAWS (83%) is publicly owned; the publicly owned share is 27% in the United States. Among the TBDCs Sweden has
the highest proportion of FAWS in private ownership with 91%, while it is
also very high in other wood-exporting countries such as Austria, Finland,
Norway, Portugal and New Zealand, as well as other major forest countries
such as France and Spain.
The pattern of present-day ownership of forest is the result of historical, political, legal and social events, which explains why in no two countries is it the same. The current trend in several TBDCs, and particularly in
the countries of the former USSR and eastern Europe, is towards the privatisation or restitution of publicly owned forest, although in the Russian
Federation, with by far the largest forest area, the stated policy is to retain
forest under public ownership. In some market economies, such as New
Zealand and the United Kingdom, the State has been selling part of its forest
estate to private interests.
Putting forests under management implies that they are to be altered in
some way from their natural state or manipulated to provide particular goods
or services, or combinations of them, for the benefit of man. Since forestry
began to be applied scientifically two hundred or so years ago, the principal objective of management has been wood production. There was even an
implicit assumption that if forests were managed efficiently for wood production, they would automatically fulfil their other functions, namely the
provision of various non-wood goods and services, such as wildlife habitats,
33
34
million ha
%
million ha
%
million ha
%
Managed FAWS, total
• As per cent of total FAWS
Managed publicly owned FAWS
• As per cent of publicly owned FAWS
Managed privately owned FAWS
• As per cent of privately owned FAWS
927.4
87.4
760.9
96.0
166.4
61.9
792.3
74.7
269.0
Total TBDCs
b
Australia, Japan, New Zealand
Including ownership by indigenous or tribal peoples in North America and Other TBDCs
Source: UN-ECE/FAO 2000
a
million ha
%
million ha
Unit
206.1
63.6
134.4
83.3
71.7
44.1
161.4
49.8
162.6
North America
128.2
89.6
57.2
94.7
71.0
85.9
60.3
42.2
82.7
Europe
551.5
99.8
550.0
99.8
1.5
100.0
551.2
99.7
1.5
Former USSR
41.6
100.0
19.4
100.0
22.2
100.0
19.4
46.7
22.2
Other TBDCsa
Ownership and management of forest available for wood supply (FAWS) in the temperate and boreal developed countries (TBDCs)
FAWS in public ownershipb
• As per cent of total FAWS
FAWS in private ownership
Table 2.5
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
opportunities for hunting and different recreation and leisure activities,
water regulation, and so on. In relatively recent times it has become apparent, however, that the management of a forest to provide an optimal sustained yield of wood is not necessarily compatible with managing it as a
sustainable ecosystem, in which trees are only one of many components. In
particular, restricting the number of tree species in a forest stand or planting species outside their natural range, in order to obtain the optimum wood
yield per hectare, would run counter to the principles of biological diversity (biodiversity). Such stands were likely to be sustainable in the long run
only through the continuing input of ‘artificial’ treatments, including the use
of pesticides and fertilisers. It would need to be explained to an increasingly
environment-conscious public that such forest stands have more in common
with agricultural crops than the more natural forests in which they like to
hike, picnic or pick berries.
These considerations were behind the drawing up of the definitions
used in the temperate and boreal forest resource assessment 2000 to distinguish between forest undisturbed by man, semi-natural forest and plantations, as described in the previous section, and to assess the area of managed
forest, as shown in Table 2.5. The definition of managed forest is forest land
that is managed in accordance with a formal or an informal plan applied
regularly over a sufficiently long period (five years or more). The management could have as an objective any output of the forest, wood or non-wood
goods and services; and, more controversially, a decision to exclude an area
from management, for example as a wilderness area or nature reserve, also
qualified it as being managed.
The results of the assessment showed that in the TBDCs as a whole, as
much as 87% of forest available for wood supply was considered by countries to be managed (Table 2.5). The proportion was higher in publicly
owned FAWS (96%) and lower in privately owned (62%), largely because only
40% of FAWS in private ownership in the United States was considered to
be under management.
Ownership and management in the developing countries
Information about the ownership and management structures of forests in
the developing countries is scattered and incomplete. In those with central
economies, such as China, North Korea (Democratic Republic of Korea) and
Vietnam, ownership is entirely public (State), but public ownership does not
necessarily imply that the forests are all managed. So far as is known, most
forest in other developing countries is, ipso facto, publicly owned, even if,
as mentioned earlier, some areas are under concessions to private companies for management or exploitation. The area of plantations is, however,
35
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
increasing in many countries, and part of this area is privately owned or
leased on a long-term basis to private investors.
Estimates of the proportion of the moist tropical forest under management vary widely, largely because of the difficulty of agreeing on a definition of management applicable to natural forest. Stringent conditions may
be set for sustainable forest management (Sharma 1992): (i) the government
must establish a permanent forest estate as part of an overall land-use plan;
(ii) it must create secure conditions for the managers of the forest; (iii)
it must set standards for allowable annual cut, cutting cycles, harvesting
techniques, environmental safeguards and the like; (iv) after harvesting,
future crops should be assured and no unnecessary environmental damage
should occur; (v) economic and financial policies must not demand more
from the forest than it can yield sustainably; and (vi) policies must satisfy a
public that is becoming increasingly conscious of environmental problems.
Poore (1989) found that less than one million ha of natural tropical moist
forest met these criteria. Official government views, relayed by FAO as a
result of the 1980 global forest survey, give a total of about 40 million ha
under management, a figure not very different from the 42 million ha
under management plans in 1983 given by Mather (1990) and based on
World Resources Institute data. The higher estimate is equivalent to only
about 31/2 % of the total area of forest in the tropical regions. Mather comments that
the extent of (tropical) forest management is therefore limited,
and it is clear that its development is not keeping pace with
the growth of pressures on the forest resource. In particular,
large areas of state-owned forest in the tropics are now subject
to forest utilisation contracts between government and logging
company, and the nature and enforcement of these contracts
(or concessions) is an issue of fundamental importance to the
future of the tropical forest in particular.
That was written in 1990, and it is doubtful whether the situation showed
any substantial improvement over the subsequent decade.
The wood harvest
Industrial wood removals: the historical pattern
The quantity of wood taken from the forest has been on a rising trend for
many years. In the mid-1960s it amounted to about 2.2 billion m3 a year, at
the beginning of the 1980s to about 3 billion, and towards the end of the
36
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
1990s to an estimated 3.5 billion (Fig. 2.5). There is a certain ambiguity about
whether the volumes of wood removed (harvested) are reported in overbark (ob) or underbark (ub) measure. Those of fuelwood are generally overbark, but the problems of obtaining accurate data on fuelwood removals are
so great in many countries that the differences between overbark and underbark could easily be less than the estimation error. To the extent possible,
removals of industrial roundwood are reported underbark, even if some
4000
World total
3500
Million m3
3000
2500
Developing regions
2000
1500
Developed regions
1000
500
0
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 1998 (prov.)
A. Removals in developed and developing regions
4000
3500
World total
Million m3
3000
2500
2000
Fuelwood
1500
Industrial wood
1000
500
0
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 1998 (prov.)
B. Removals by main assortment groups
2.5 Trends in roundwood removals, 1965–1998 (provisional) (source: FAO
database).
37
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
1800
World total
1600
1400
Coniferous
Million m3
1200
1000
800
Broadleaved
600
400
200
0
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 1998 (prov.)
C. Removals of industrial wood by species groups
1800
World total
1600
1400
Developed regions
Million m3
1200
1000
800
600
Developing regions
400
200
0
1965 1969 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997
D. Removals of industrial wood by main regions
2.5 Continued
quantities are delivered to mill and used in unbarked form. In the absence
of more precise information, it may be assumed that the data on removals
of industrial roundwood in this section and in later chapters are given as
volumes underbark (m3 ub).
38
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
Harvesting of fuelwood has continued to rise steadily, more or less in
step with the growth of populations in the developing countries, which
depend on it for a large part of their heating and cooking needs. Although
fuelwood removals account for more than half the world total of removals,
they will not be considered in detail here, since fuelwood is mostly used
locally and is not of importance in international trade: its low unit value to
weight ratio makes it uneconomic to transport over long distances.
Removals of industrial wood have followed a less regular path, fluctuating according to the rhythm of the economic cycles, particularly in the
developed countries, or to other major economic events, such as the collapse of the former USSR at the beginning of the 1990s (Fig. 2.5A and B).
World removals of industrial wood increased from 1.1 billion m3 in the mid1960s to a peak of 1.7 billion in 1990, falling back a little thereafter mainly
because of the steep decline in the former USSR (Fig. 2.5D). The rather
modest rate of growth in removals is in contrast to the more dynamic expansion in the production of wood products in general, and of paper, paperboard and wood-based panels in particular. The explanation lies mainly
in the greater use of industrial wood residues and of waste paper as raw
material, as will be described in Chapter 3.
Comparing 1995 with 1965, the increases in world removals over the
30-year period were as follows (index 1965 = 100):
Total removals
• Fuelwood
• Industrial wood
• Developed countries
• Developing countries
• Coniferous
• Broadleaved
150
165
134
110 (excl. former USSR: 138)
276
115 (excl. former USSR: 149)
183
What is apparent from the above and Fig. 2.5A, B and C is the similarity in the evolution of removals over the past three decades between, on the
one hand, those in developed countries, of industrial wood and of coniferous species; and on the other hand, between those in developing countries,
of fuelwood and of broadleaved (non-coniferous) species. This is not so surprising considering that the developed countries account for the major part
of the removals of industrial wood, which is largely coniferous, and the
developing countries account for the major part of fuelwood removals,
which are mainly broadleaved. What is noteworthy, however, is the much
stronger growth in the removals of industrial wood in the developing countries than in the developed, even when the collapse after 1990 in the former
USSR is taken into account.
39
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Industrial wood removals: the geographical pattern
The distribution of world removals of industrial wood in 1996 according to
regions and main assortments is shown in Table 2.6. The importance of coniferous species in the removals of the northern hemisphere regions is apparent, as is that of broadleaved species in the other regions, particularly Other
Asia-Pacific and Africa. Industrial wood destined for further processing
(sawlogs and veneer logs, pulpwood) account for most of the removals, particularly in the northern hemisphere regions. North America and Europe
account between them for the major share of world removals (nearly 60%),
while the three predominantly southern hemisphere regions account
between them for one quarter.
Harvesting intensity, measured as the average volume of industrial wood
taken per hectare of forest, was about 0.4 m3 in 1996 at the world level (Table
2.7). But it varied considerably from region to region. In Europe it was about
four times the world average, in North America three times and in East Asia
twice as much. On the other hand, it was only about a third of the world
average in the former USSR, Africa and Latin America. Higher figures would
be obtained if removals were calculated per area of forest available for wood
supply (FAWS), but, as seen earlier, data on the area of FAWS are not known
for some regions. For North America the volume per hectare of FAWS is estimated at 1.8 m3/ha, for Europe 2.0 m3/ha and for the former USSR 0.2 m3/ha.
While it might be inferred that regions with already high harvesting intensities might have limited scope to expand their removals further, this is not
necessarily the case. As was seen earlier, even in Europe, fellings – which
include removals and volumes felled but left in the forest – are still appreciably less than increment. For the regions with low harvesting intensities,
introduction or intensification of management could, other things being
equal, allow harvesting to be considerably increased without prejudicing the
principle of sustainability.
Table 2.7 also shows that at the world level in 1996 about a quarter of
a cubic metre of industrial wood was removed from the forest per inhabitant. This volume doubles if removals of fuelwood are added. Removals of
industrial wood per inhabitant in North America are about seven times the
world average, and in Europe twice. At the other end of the range, they are
much less than the average in East Asia and Other Asia-Pacific with their huge
populations, as well as in Africa. Where removals per hectare are relatively
high and removals per capita low, as in East Asia, this gives some indication
that the region has difficulties in meeting its wood needs from domestic
sources and must partly rely on imports. Conversely, if harvesting intensity
is low, there could be scope for the region to contribute more to world
supply and international trade in wood products, given the necessary development of the forest resource and the means of production, whatever the
40
41
100
61
62
41
27
16
11
4
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
PER CENT OF TOTAL (%)
Total, of which:
Coniferous
Sawlogs & veneer logs
Coniferous
Pulpwood
Coniferous
Other
Coniferous
PER CENT OF WORLD TOTAL (%)
Total, of which:
Coniferous
Sawlogs & veneer logs
Coniferous
Pulpwood
Coniferous
Other
Coniferous
Source: FAO database
1504
913
932
617
410
239
162
57
WORLD
39
47
42
50
44
45
11
16
100
72
66
52
31
18
3
2
591
425
392
309
181
107
18
9
North
America
19
24
18
22
26
32
10
16
100
77
57
47
37
27
6
3
288
221
165
135
107
77
17
9
Europe
Industrial wood removals by region and assortment, 1996
VOLUME (million m3)
Total, of which:
Coniferous
Sawlogs & veneer logs
Coniferous
Pulpwood
Coniferous
Other
Coniferous
Table 2.6
7
7
7
8
6
5
12
14
100
62
60
43
22
12
17
7
110
68
66
47
24
13
19
8
Former
USSR
9
10
8
9
3
3
25
46
100
67
58
41
11
6
31
20
132
89
77
54
14
8
41
26
East Asia
12
4
13
4
7
3
17
4
100
18
69
13
15
5
15
1
176
32
121
23
27
8
27
2
Other
Asia-Pacific
4
1
3
1
3
2
19
2
100
19
37
10
18
6
45
1
67
13
25
7
12
4
30
1
Africa
9
7
9
7
11
9
6
2
100
46
61
30
32
16
6
1
140
65
85
42
45
22
9
1
Lat. America
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 2.7 Removals of industrial wood in 1996 per
hectare of forest and per inhabitant, by region
Per hectare
of forest
(m3/ha)
Per
person
(m3/cap.)
0.41
1.28
1.70
0.13
0.80
0.35
0.13
0.15
0.26
1.94
0.49
0.38
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.29
WORLD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
Source: FAO 1999 and database; UN-ECE/FAO 2000
present level of removals per capita may be. For the time being, exports from
the former USSR remain quite small in relation to its forest potential, while
in Latin America and Africa, exports are roughly balanced by imports. In
these three regions particularly, the potential of the forest resource is not
matched by their wood-processing capacity for a number of reasons, among
the more important of which are problems of inaccessibility and inadequate
infrastructure, availability of capital, management and technical skills, and in
some countries political instability. This, as will be seen in later chapters, has
had implications for the pattern of international trade in wood products.
Industrial wood removals at the country level
In 1996 two countries, the USA and Canada, accounted for nearly two-fifths
of the world’s removals of industrial wood, and four countries, those two
plus China and Brazil, for more than half (Table 2.8). Twenty countries out
of the 185 reporting removals data to FAO accounted for 84% of the world
total and 165 countries for the remaining 16%. There is a marked contrast in
the proportion of total wood removals (including fuelwood) between those
countries, mainly industrialised, whose removals consist very largely of
industrial wood and others where fuelwood is predominant. Among the
latter, in India only 8% of removals is of industrial wood, and in the 165 other
(not Top 20) countries in aggregate, which include quite a number of
industrialised countries although they are in the minority, the average is 21%.
In 7 of the Top 20 countries, including such major exporters as Canada,
Sweden, Finland and New Zealand, industrial wood removals account for
90% or more of total removals.
42
43
30 643
24 941
22 469
19 382
19 340
18 823
18 176
16 343
14 898
12 433
France
India
Japan
Chile
Australia
Poland
South Africa
New Zealand
Belarus
Spain
236 603
Source: FAO Yearbook of Forest Products 1997
Other 165 countries
1 266 813
52 500
47 243
42 503
35 771
34 538
Sweden
Indonesia
Finland
Malaysia
Germany
Top 20
406 595
184 459
108 718
84 584
73 005
Total industrial
wood (IW)
(’000 m3)
15.7
84.3
1.3
1.2
1.1
1.0
0.8
2.0
1.7
1.5
1.3
1.3
3.5
3.1
2.8
2.4
2.3
27.0
12.3
7.2
5.6
4.9
Per cent of
world total
IW removals
(%)
20.8
57.2
92.1
71.8
99.7
94.8
77.6
74.6
8.3
95.9
64.3
86.9
93.2
23.5
91.2
78.1
93.3
82.1
97.2
34.7
38.4
75.3
Per cent of
total removals
(incl. fuelwood)
(%)
Industrial roundwood (IW) removals data for the ‘Top 20’ countries in 1996
USA
Canada
China
Brazil
Russian Fed.
Country
Table 2.8
43.3
63.9
75.8
47.9
99.7
61.4
61.0
58.9
11.1
80.1
92.2
47.3
92.7
1.1
88.5
0.6
77.9
65.6
86.0
64.1
39.1
63.2
Coniferous
as per cent
of total IW
(%)
0.2
0.5
2.1
2.1
2.1
1.9
0.9
2.0
0.4
0.9
2.5
0.1
1.9
0.4
1.9
2.3
3.2
1.9
0.8
0.8
0.2
0.1
Per hectare
of forest
(m3/ha)
0.1
0.4
0.5
0.4
4.3
1.4
0.3
0.5
0.0
0.2
1.3
1.0
5.9
0.2
8.2
1.7
0.4
1.5
6.0
0.1
0.5
0.5
Per person
(m3/cap.)
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
There is also a large variation in the proportion of coniferous (softwood)
species in industrial wood removals, which is of course linked to the species
composition of the forest resource. This is in contrast to fuelwood, the
removals of which nearly everywhere consist largely of broadleaved species.
In Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as in other tropical countries which have
not as yet produced much wood from fast-growing coniferous plantations,
industrial wood removals consist almost exclusively of broadleaved species.
At the other extreme, Chile and New Zealand produce almost exclusively
coniferous industrial wood from industrial plantations. In New Zealand there
is a virtual ban on the industrial exploitation of the extensive native
broadleaved forests. In Sweden over nine-tenths of removals are of coniferous species, and the proportions are not much less in Canada and Finland.
The comparative data in Tables 2.7 and 2.8, removals per hectare of
forest and per inhabitant, tell us something about countries’ actual or potential ability to be self-sufficient in industrial wood and wood products. In
countries, mainly the industrialised ones, where much of the forest is under
management, removals per hectare are several times higher than the world
average of 0.4 m3 per hectare, for example about 7 times higher in the USA,
Sweden, Finland and Germany. There are very low removals volumes per
hectare in many of the countries where much of the forest is beyond the
reach of commercial exploitation at present, such as Brazil, the Russian Federation and Australia or where management is still generally lacking or limited
in coverage as in the majority of the developing countries. Malaysia is an
interesting exception, where removals per hectare are nearly six times the
Table 2.9 Estimates of area of productive forest and volume of industrial roundwood harvested and calculated harvesting intensity by management category in 1995
Categories of productive forest
Unit
Area
Harvest
Harvesting intensity
Share of area
Share of harvest
Million ha
Million m3
m3/ha/year
Per cent
Per cent
M5
M4
M3
M2
M1
TOTAL
43
196
4.6
1.5
12.4
23
65
2.8
0.8
4.1
217
419
1.9
7.5
26.5
218
307
1.4
7.5
19.4
2407
592
0.3
82.8
37.5
2908
1579
0.5
100.0
100.0
Legend:
M5: Forest owned by forest industries in 16 temperate and boreal zone countries
M4: Fast-growing plantations, primarily of exotic species and in the tropical zone
M3: Forest owned by private, non-industrial owners in 16 temperate and boreal countries
M2: Publicly owned forest in 16 temperate and boreal countries
M1: All other productive forests, temperate, boreal and tropical, publicly and privately owned
Source: Brooks et al. in Solberg (Ed.) 1996
44
GLOB AL FOREST AND WOOD RESOURCES
world average. Malaysia has more forest under management than have most
developing countries but has also a planned programme of conversion of
natural forest to other land uses.
The volume of removals per inhabitant ranges widely above and below
the world average of 0.26 m3. In China, India and Japan, with their large and
dense populations, the volumes are little more than nil. At the other extreme,
major exporters of wood products, which are also rather lightly populated,
such as Canada, Sweden, Finland and New Zealand, have very high volumes,
over 8 m3 per capita in the case of Finland. However, in Indonesia, also a
large exporter, the volume is only half the world average, raising the question of how long, with rising domestic demand and diminishing area of
forest, it can go on exporting on the basis of its natural forests.
The worldwide distribution of removals of industrial wood is quite different from that of forests, as was seen in Fig. 2.2. The former are concentrated in the temperate and boreal industrialised countries and on coniferous
species. There is an interesting estimate of the breakdown by Brooks et al.
in Solberg (ed.) (1996) of the wood harvest in five different categories of
productive forest (roughly equivalent to FAWS), which illustrates the differences in harvesting intensity between these categories (Table 2.9). The distinction between the categories was made chiefly on the basis of
management type.
Less than 20% of the productive forest area accounts for more than 60%
of industrial wood removals (categories M2 to M5). Just taking into account
the countries for which data were available, private forest owners (M3 and
M5) accounted for less than 10% of the area but nearly 40% of the world
harvest. Fast-growing plantations are included in categories M5 (in the temperate zones) and M4 (in the tropical zones). Their contribution to the total
world harvest has been relatively modest up to now but is likely to be greater
in the future. Some indication of the impact this may have on world trade
in wood products is already apparent from the growth of exports from such
countries as Brazil, Chile and New Zealand.
45
CHAPTER
3
Production and
consumption of
wood products
Properties of wood
W
ood is a renewable material: that is evident from the previous
chapter. In this chapter we shall show that it is also a versatile
one, capable of being transformed in different ways into a
variety of products that can be used in numerous applications. The
variability of its composition and structure is both a strength and a
weakness: a strength, because of the diversity of uses to which it can be
put; a weakness, because of the care needed in its transformation and
use to ensure that it matches up to required quality or performance
standards.
The composition of wood
The properties and structure of wood are the direct consequence of the
way in which trees grow and of the ‘raw materials’ they use. Like all green
plants, trees make the materials for growth in their leaves by the process
of photosynthesis. This is a chemical reaction in which carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere combines with water under the influence of sunlight
and of nutrients taken from the ground to form sugars and starches.
46
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
Oxygen, on which nearly all life depends, is a by-product of this process.
Chlorophyll, the substance which gives leaves and needles their characteristic green colour, is the catalyst for the reaction. The carbon dioxide
is absorbed directly by the leaves through little openings called stomata,
while the water and nutrients pass into the roots through osmosis and
flow up through the sapwood, or xylem, in the stem and branches to the
leaves.
Apart from its function of transporting water and nutrients, wood provides mechanical strength to support the weight of the crown of the tree
and stores the food produced by the leaves. This food is moved in solution
from the leaves to all parts of the tree through the inner bark, or phloem.
It may be used either immediately or after a period of storage for the generation of growth.
New wood is produced by a specialised cell layer called the cambium,
lying between the wood and the phloem. The wood cambium completely
encloses the living parts of the tree, and during periods of active growth
the cambial cells divide to produce new wood cells on the inside and
phloem cells on the outside. The sugars and starches produced by photosynthesis are transported to the cambium layer where they go through
further compounding to become cellulose, lignin and other chemical
components of wood. If part of the year is unfavourable for growth
because of cold or drought, as is the case in most regions outside the moist
tropics, wood is laid down as seasonal increments, which are visible as
growth rings.
The functions of wood in the living tree
The functions of sap flow and food storage are performed by the most
recently formed wood, the sapwood. After a time, however, the innermost
sapwood becomes so far removed from the active growth region that it
dies and the cells undergo chemical change. In many cases the substances
produced colour the wood to form a distinctive heartwood.
Within the tree, the functions of sap conduction, physical support
and food storage are carried out by cells specially adapted for each purpose.
In softwoods (Gymnosperms), conduction is provided by thin-walled
tracheids, which may be as long as 3 millimetres, and support by thickwalled tracheids. In hardwoods (Angiosperms), conduction is through
vessels, short pipe-like cells with open ends, and support is given by fibres,
usually about 1 mm long with thick walls and pointed ends. In both softwoods and hardwoods, food storage is in parenchyma cells, which are small,
thin-walled and box-like in structure. These cells are sometimes arranged
47
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
axially, especially in hardwoods, and always in horizontal bands called rays,
which run across the grain in a radial pattern.
The physical structure of wood
The annual rings, which are visible in cross-sections of many woods, are the
result of the formation of ‘earlywood’ or springwood, consisting of thinwalled tracheids in softwoods and large vessels in hardwoods, followed
by ‘latewood’ or summerwood, consisting of thick-walled tracheids in softwoods and numerous small vessels and fibres in hardwoods. In fast-growing
species, annual rings may have a width of a centimetre or more. The density
of the wood is determined, in the case of softwoods, for example, by the
relative proportions of earlywood and latewood; the more thin-walled tracheids there are, the less dense the wood.
The configuration and relative proportions of the different types of cell
determine the physical characteristics of wood, and each species is different in that respect. Even within species there may be marked variability,
depending on the conditions in which the tree is grown. Furthermore, conditions can vary from year to year, so that the wood characteristics can differ
within the same tree.
There are other characteristics which may be of importance in determining the suitability of wood for a particular use. Knots are a normal feature
arising from the branches growing out of the stems. Depending on their size
and location, they may be a cause of structural weakness. In non-structural
uses, it is often a matter of taste whether they are seen as desirable from the
decorative point of view or otherwise. Resin canals or cavities are a feature
of certain species, for example pines.
The chemical composition of wood
Wood is a compound structure composed mainly of cellulose fibres bonded
together by lignin, a natural plastic. It is actually lignin which distinguishes
trees from other plants, which have little of it in their make-up. By binding
together parallel bundles of cellulose fibres, lignin enables trees to grow tall
and gives wood its stiffness as well as its resilience. In many uses of wood,
the inherent benefits of the combination of cellulose fibres and lignin are
kept, for instance in pitprops, poles and posts, sawnwood and wood-based
panels and their derivatives, but lignin is separated out in the process of
making chemical woodpulp for paper, paperboard and other products based
on cellulose. The lignin in the black liquor, which is a by-product of the
48
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
chemical pulping process, is subsequently used for production of energy by
the pulping industry.
Properties relevant to the uses of wood
The properties of wood in its raw state are dependent to a considerable
extent on the species and in turn determine the use to which the wood may
be put. They may be positive or negative, or both at the same time. Among
the key properties are the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Strength-to-weight relationship: generally favourable compared with
other materials.
Inflammability: good as a source of energy; can be a hazard in construction, but the danger is often exaggerated.
Durability: varies very much from species to species.
Biodegradability: the other face of durability; may be a positive feature
in certain short-duration uses.
Decorative value: also varies from species to species.
Workability: a material that is easy to cut, saw, drill, turn, etc.
Energy efficiency: less energy used in transformation than for most
competing materials, such as steel, aluminium, plastics and glass.
Versatility: can be used unprocessed or in numerous processed forms.
Other properties could be added to this list, such as bending strength,
impact resistance, heat and noise insulation values, stability, hardness and
permeability (Willis 1968), but it is probably enough to make the point that a
catchphrase such as ‘Wood is good’ has little meaning unless qualified by
answers to questions such as ‘Good for what?’, ‘What species?’ and ‘In what
form?’.
Types of product
The felling of a tree is the start of a journey that wood takes to its final
destination. In some cases the journey may be short, when it is used in
more or less unprocessed form as fuelwood, agricultural stakes and fencing
posts, poles for construction, pitprops and so on. Or it may be longer,
passing through one or more stages of transformation to become one of
numerous end-products. The type and extent of transformation depends
on the ultimate use to which the product will be put, which in turn deter-
49
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
mines which of the properties or characteristics of wood are to be taken
advantage of.
The transformation of wood raw material
The types of transformation can be grouped under four headings:
1 No transformation, or simple shaping or cutting to length of the
round log, or dipping or impregnation with preservatives, pesticides or fire retardants. This retains the inherent properties of
wood in its original form.
2 Sawing lengthwise into baulks, planks, boards, etc., or peeling or
slicing into veneer sheets to use as such or for processing into
plywood. This also keeps the inherent properties of wood.
3 Cutting into small pieces (chips or particles), which are then
reconstituted into particle board. Alternatively, they can be used as
such for energy or garden mulching.
4 Reducing to fibres, which are then reconstituted into paper, paperboard and fibreboard or further processed into cellulose-based
products.
This is an over-simplification: more than one form of transformation may
be used to produce a composite product having performance characteristics
for a specific application that are higher than can be obtained from the
product of a more simple process.
The main groups of wood products
In this book we are primarily interested in the products of importance in
trade, and so we can list and describe wood products on the basis of
international trade classifications, such as the Standard International Trade
Classification (SITC, Revision 3) (United Nations 1994). For simplicity, they
are considered under the following headings:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Wood raw material.
Sawnwood.
Wood-based panels.
Woodpulp.
Paper and paperboard.
Recovered paper (waste paper).
Added value wood products.
50
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
Attention will be concentrated mainly on the first five groups, although a
separate section will deal with added value products. Definitions are given
in Appendix 2. The main categories of products are listed below. Those wood
products or groups of products that are most commonly mentioned in the
analysis of markets in later chapters are shown in italics.
Wood raw material
•
•
•
Roundwood (wood in the rough, as harvested, with or without bark).
– fuelwood;
– industrial roundwood
* sawlogs and veneer logs (for the production of sawnwood,
including railway sleepers, veneer sheets and plywood);
* pulpwood (for the production of woodpulp, particle board and
fibreboard);
* other industrial roundwood (pitprops, poles, piling, posts, etc.).
Chips and particles (wood reduced to small pieces for use in the production of woodpulp, particle board and fibreboard, as fuelwood or other
purposes).
Wood residues (consisting principally of industrial residues, e.g. slabs and
offcuts from sawmilling, veneer log cores, etc.).
Sawnwood
(including railway sleepers, produced by sawing or profile chipping)
•
•
Sawn softwood (coniferous sawnwood, softwood lumber).
Sawn hardwood (non-coniferous sawnwood, hardwood lumber).
Wood-based panels
(sheet materials made from thin sheets of wood (veneer sheets), chips or
particles, or fibres)
•
•
•
Veneer sheets (excluding those used in plywood manufacture).
Plywood (including plywood made uniquely from veneer sheets
and plywood with a core of solid wood or other materials with veneer
surfaces).
Particle board (made from wood or non-wood materials; includes
chipboard, waferboard, oriented strand board [OSB], flaxboard).
51
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
•
Fibreboard (made from fibres of wood or other ligno-cellulosic material;
includes insulating board [non-compressed fibreboard, softboard],
hardboard [compressed fibreboard] and medium density fibreboard
[MDF].
Woodpulp
•
•
•
•
Mechanical woodpulp (obtained by grinding or milling wood into
fibres).
Semi-chemical woodpulp; also chemi-mechanical woodpulp (obtained
by subjecting wood to a series of chemical and mechanical treatments,
one of which alone is not sufficient to make the fibres separate easily).
Chemical woodpulp (for paper and paperboard making; obtained by a
chemical process under pressure [see below])
– sulphate (or kraft) and soda woodpulp (obtained by cooking small
pieces of wood in a pressure vessel in the presence of sodium hydroxide cooking liquor [soda pulp] or a mixture of sodium hydroxide and
sodium sulphite cooking liquor [sulphate pulp]. It may be bleached
or unbleached);
– sulphite woodpulp (obtained by cooking small pieces of wood in a
pressure vessel in the presence of a bisulphite cooking liquor. Bisulphites such as ammonium, calcium, magnesium and sodium are
commonly used. It may be bleached or unbleached).
Dissolving woodpulp (chemical woodpulp, sulphate, soda or sulphite,
of special quality, with a very high alpha-cellulose content, readily adaptable to uses other than paper-making, such as synthetic fibres, cellulosic
plastic materials, lacquers and explosives).
Paper and paperboard
(made from pulp of wood or other fibres, including recovered paper and
paperboard [waste paper], with or without fillers and coatings. For fuller
descriptions, see Bolton 1998).
•
Cultural papers (or graphic papers)
– newsprint (usually uncoated, used mainly for the printing of
newspapers);
– printing and writing paper (suitable for printing and business
purposes, made from a variety of pulp blends and with various
finishes; includes papers for books and magazines, typing, photocopy,
fax and computer paper, paper for banknotes, stationery, posters,
etc.).
52
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
•
Other paper and paperboard
– household and sanitary paper (includes tissues and towelling, as
for napkins, facial tissue, toilet tissue, wadding, disposable tissues,
etc.);
– wrapping and packaging paper and paperboard (includes vegetable
parchment, greaseproof and glassine paper; linerboard used as facing
material or corrugated or solid paper or paperboard boxes and containers; fluting medium used as medium when converting paper or
paperboard into a corrugated board; sack kraft paper, strong paper
made from sulphate pulp and used in the manufacture of single- or
multi-wall sacks; other kraft wrapping paper; folding boxboard,
paperboard used for the manufacture of folding boxes; other wrapping and packing paper and paperboard);
– other paper and paperboard not elsewhere specified (includes construction paper and paperboard, special thin papers, e.g. cigarette
papers, tea-bags, other papers such as blotting paper, filter paper,
photographic sensitising paper, trunk and suitcase board, and so
on).
The above lists could be extended by including products which might
not be considered as wood products, such as recovered paper (waste paper)
and other (non-wood) fibre pulp. There are also all the products of secondary
or tertiary processing (added value products).
Patterns and trends of production and consumption
The purpose of this section is to look at the quantities of wood products
made in the different regions of the world and how they relate to consumption. This will show the level of self-sufficiency and hence the possibilities for exporting surplus production or the needs for importing to
cover deficits.
The figures of annual production used here, as well as of exports and
imports, are those reported by countries to FAO. Consumption is a derived
figure obtained by adding imports to production and deducting exports. It
is sometimes called ‘apparent consumption’, since it is not a precise figure
of the quantity actually used in a given year, mainly for the reason that no
account is taken of changes in stocks along the chain of supply between
producer and consumer. Stock changes can be considerable over a 12-month
period as a result of market conditions and the trading cycle, but in the
majority of countries it is difficult to monitor them. Nor do the tools exist
to measure on a continuing basis the volumes actually going into consump53
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 3.1
Production of wood products by product groups and regions, 1997a
WORLD
N. America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
L. America
Sawnwood
Wood-based
panels
(m3)
(%)
(m3)
(%)
(mt)
(%)
(mt)
(%)
431.0
176.2
92.6
26.9
47.5
44.4
8.0
35.4
100.0
40.9
21.5
6.2
11.0
10.3
1.9
8.2
156.8
51.4
46.4
4.8
24.4
21.8
1.9
6.1
100.0
32.8
29.6
3.1
15.6
13.9
1.2
3.9
162.3
85.2
38.6
3.9
14.3
7.6
2.8
9.9
100.0
52.5
23.8
2.4
8.8
4.7
1.7
6.1
289.3
95.4
86.3
3.8
71.1
16.0
2.9
13.8
100.0
33.0
29.8
1.3
24.6
5.5
1.0
4.8
Woodpulp
Paper &
paperboard
a
Million units
Source: FAO database
tion. To overcome partly the distortion created by using apparent consumption data, three-year averages are sometimes used, although they have
not been in the present analysis.
Production of wood and its derivatives
In 1997, world production of sawnwood amounted to 431 million m3, of
wood-based panels 157 million m3, of woodpulp 162 million tonnes and of
paper and paperboard 289 million tonnes (FAO database). The distribution
of output among the seven regional groups is shown in Table 3.1. For all four
main product groups, North America is the leading producer, with shares of
the world 1997 totals ranging from 53% for woodpulp to 33% for wood-based
panels. Europe is in second position with shares between 30% for woodbased panels and paper and paperboard and 21% for sawnwood. East Asia
and Other Asia-Pacific are the next largest producing regions; East Asia’s
share of world paper and paperboard output amounted to as much as 25%
in 1997, although its shares of the other product groups were less – between
9 and 16%. Other Asia-Pacific held 14% of world output of wood-based
panels, and between 5 and 10% of that of the other product groups. Latin
America produced 8% of the world’s sawnwood, but 5% or less of the other
products. The countries of the former USSR accounted for 6% of world production of sawnwood in 1997, around 3% of wood-based panels and woodpulp but little more than 1% of paper and paperboard. All these shares are
54
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
appreciably less than before the break-up of the USSR, reflecting the sharp
decline in output since 1990, which will be discussed later. Africa’s share of
sawnwood was 2% and less than that for the other products.
Particularly in the case of sawnwood and wood-based panels, regional
shares of world output vary between the individual products. This is due to
a number of factors, among the more important being the availability of
wood raw material, both industrial roundwood and wood residues and
chips and waste paper, the quality and characteristics of the raw material
and, in the case of roundwood, the dimensions, and the location of
industries relative to their sources of raw material and to their markets.
The main wood products dealt with in this book were described earlier
in this chapter; world production of them in 1997 is shown in Table 3.2.
Sawn softwood accounted for 73% of world sawnwood output in 1997, the
remainder being sawn hardwood. In the case of wood-based panels, particle
board made up 45% of the world total, plywood 36% and fibreboard 16%.
Also shown in the table is the production (removals) of industrial roundwood by categories, as well as production (recovery) of recovered paper
(waste paper) and pulp other than woodpulp. All these, with the exception
of other industrial roundwood (pitprops, poles, etc.), comprise the raw
material for the manufacture of the semi-processed and processed wood
products.
The regional distribution of production of the main wood products is
shown in Fig. 3.1. In the case of sawn softwood, North America and Europe
between them accounted for almost 72% of the world total in 1997, with a
further 19% in the former USSR and East Asia. The other regions, most of
whose countries are located in the southern hemisphere, produced less than
10% of the total. The picture is quite different for sawn hardwood: Latin
America, Africa and Other Asia-Pacific produced nearly half of the world total,
largely from tropical hardwood logs. When account is taken of the production from tropical logs imported by northern hemisphere regions, especially
East Asia and Europe, well over half the world output of sawn hardwood was
of tropical species. The Other Asia-Pacific group was the leading producer
with 30% of the sawn hardwood total, followed by North America with 26%
and Latin America with 15%.
The output pattern of plywood has some similarities to that of sawn
hardwood, given that tropical hardwoods are the principal raw material in
the southern hemisphere regions. However, softwoods are more important
in the northern hemisphere, especially in North America, which accounted
for 35% of world plywood output in 1997, compared with 28% in Other AsiaPacific and 24% in East Asia. In East Asia, a large part of the output is based
on imported logs, both coniferous and tropical hardwoods. Taking account
of the use of imported tropical hardwood logs for plywood manufacture in
55
56
3.1
156.8
5.8
56.0
70.4
24.6
7.3
12.3
4.9
WOOD-BASED PANELS
• Veneer sheets
• Plywood
• Particle board
• Fibreboard
Hardboard
Medium density fibreboard
(MDF)
Insulating board
Source: FAO database
100.0
3.7
35.7
44.9
15.7
4.7
7.8
431.0
314.2
116.8
100.0
72.9
27.1
100.0
61.0
40.8
20.2
26.7
15.9
10.8
12.3
5.4
6.9
(%)
SAWNWOOD
• Sawn softwood
• Sawn hardwood
1546.9
944.1
630.9
313.1
412.4
246.1
166.3
190.4
83.6
106.9
(million m3)
World production of wood products, 1997
INDUSTRIAL ROUNDWOOD
• Sawlogs, veneer logs
Coniferous
Non-coniferous
• Pulpwood
Coniferous
Non-coniferous
• Other industrial roundwood
Coniferous
Non-coniferous
Product
Table 3.2
19.1
110.5
RECOVERED (WASTE) PAPER
OTHER FIBRE PULP
289.3
36.3
89.5
163.5
19.0
94.5
49.8
162.3
35.1
6.7
117.3
75.2
35.8
4.7
1.6
3.2
(million mt)
PAPER & PAPERBOARD
• Newsprint
• Printing & writing
• Other paper & paperboard
Household & sanitary
Wrapping & packaging
Other nes
WOODPULP
• Mechanical
• Semi-chemical
• Chemical for paper
Bleached sulphate
Unbleached sulphate
Bleached sulphite
Unbleached sulphite
• Dissolving pulp
Product
100.0
12.5
30.9
56.5
6.6
32.7
17.2
100.0
21.6
4.1
72.3
46.3
22.1
2.9
1.0
2.0
(%)
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
World total: 314 million m3
World total: 117 million m3
Europe
11%
Europe
25%
North
America
46%
Former
USSR
7%
Latin
America
6%
East Asia
9%
East Asia
12%
Latin
America
15%
Other AsiaPacific
3%
Africa
1%
Former
USSR
4%
North
America
26%
Other AsiaPacific
30%
Africa
5%
A. SAWN SOFTWOOD
B. SAWN HARDWOOD
World total: 70 million m3
World total: 56 million m3
Europe
6%
North
America
34%
Former
USSR
2%
North
America
35%
East Asia
24%
Latin
America
3%
Former
USSR
Africa
East Asia 4%
1%
8%
Other AsiaPacific
3%
Latin
America
4%
Other AsiaPacific
28%
Africa
1%
Europe
47%
D. PARTICLE BOARD
C. PLYWOOD
World total: 162 million mt
World total: 289 million mt
Europe 24%
North
America
52%
Former
USSR
2%
East Asia
9%
Latin
America
6%
Other AsiaPacific
5%
Africa
2%
E. WOODPULP
North
America
32%
Europe
30%
Former
USSR
1%
Latin
America
5%
Africa
1%
East Asia
25%
Other AsiaPacific
6%
F. PAPER AND PAPERBOARD
3.1 Distribution of production of wood products by regional groups, 1997
(source: FAO database).
57
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
East Asia and Europe, it can be estimated that these species make up between
40 and 50% of the total raw material input worldwide.
Particle board is made from chips and particles from both roundwood
and industrial wood residues, and from both coniferous and non-coniferous
species. Over 81% of world production occurred in Europe and North
America in 1997, with a further 12% in East Asia and the former USSR. Its
production has been restricted in the southern hemisphere regions, with
Other Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa between them accounting for
only 7% of the world total.
While there is also a certain division of labour between countries and
regions as far as the individual products within the woodpulp and paper and
paperboard groups are concerned, it is generally not as marked as for
sawnwood and wood-based panels. The regional distribution of production
is therefore shown in Fig. 3.1 for these two product groups in total and not
for the individual products. Over three-quarters of world output of woodpulp in 1997 took place in North America and Europe. Their combined share
of paper and paperboard production was lower, at 63%, while East Asia
accounted for 25%, which compares with its share of only 9% of woodpulp
production. China and Japan, in the East Asia regional group, are the second
and third largest producers of paper and paperboard in the world after the
United States.
Trends in production
The long-term trends in production of wood products are shown in Table
3.3 and Fig. 3.2. Between 1970 and 1990 world output of all categories of
wood products increased, the highest rates of growth being for particle
board and printing and writing paper, and the lowest for sawn softwood and
hardwood. In the following eight years up to 1998, growth of production
continued for all products except for sawnwood, for which there was a
marked decline, and plywood. The fall in sawnwood production was principally due to the collapse of output in the former USSR, which up to 1975
had been the leading sawn softwood producer. Its output of other wood
products also fell sharply after 1990, but this had less impact on global trends
because its shares of world output were much less than of sawn softwood.
Between 1990 and 1998 the fastest growth in world output was in particle
board, printing and writing paper and other paper and paperboard, the
slowest in woodpulp and newsprint.
The data for 1998 in Table 3.3 and Fig. 3.2 were still provisional at the
time of writing, so that the trends shown since 1995 should be treated with
caution. They appear to reveal, however, a slight recovery after 1995 in sawn
softwood production at the world level led by resumed growth in North
58
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
Table 3.3
Trends in world production of wood products, 1970 to 1998 (provisional)
Per cent change
1970
1990
1995
1998 (prov.)
1970–90
(million units)
SAWNWOOD (m3)
Sawn softwood
Sawn hardwood
1990–98
(%)
414.6
316.0
98.5
505.2
373.4
131.8
425.8
307.6
118.3
415.7
309.3
106.4
22
18
34
-18
-17
-19
69.8
33.4
19.1
14.0
124.0
48.2
50.4
20.2
146.3
55.3
64.6
20.4
150.5
46.4
72.8
24.9
78
44
164
44
21
-4
44
23
WOODPULP (mt)
101.9
155.1
161.7
159.3
52
3
PAPER & PAPERBOARD (mt)
Newsprint
Printing & writing
Other paper & paperboard
126.5
21.5
26.6
78.4
240.1
32.8
69.5
137.9
282.1
35.4
80.9
165.8
293.6
37.7
90.7
165.1
90
53
161
76
22
15
31
20
1980
1985
1990
WOOD-BASED PANELS (m3)
Plywood
Particle board
Fibreboard
Source: FAO database
600
Million m3 or mt
500
400
300
200
100
0
1970
1975
Sawnwood (m3)
Wood-based panels (m3)
1995
1996
Woodpulp (mt)
1997
1998(P)
Paper & paperboard (mt)
3.2 World production of wood products, 1970–1998 (provisional) (source: FAO
database).
America. On the other hand, output of sawn hardwood and plywood was
markedly lower in 1998 than 1995, associated partly with the weakness in
some Asian economies in 1997/98. Appreciable growth in particle board
production occurred, with a notable increase in North America in output
of OSB, a specific type of particle board, more than offsetting a decline in
59
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Million m3
plywood, which it was replacing in certain applications such as concrete
shuttering and wall units. Another recent success story, MDF, revived the
fibreboard sector and provided tough competition, notably in furniture
manufacture, to sawnwood and other wood-based panels. Trends in production of selected wood products are shown graphically in Fig. 3.3.
While the long-term trend of world output has been generally upward,
growth cannot be taken for granted for all products and all regions, as has
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995 1998(P)
Million m3
A. SAWN SOFTWOOD
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995 1998(P)
B. SAWN HARDWOOD
25
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
Million m3
20
15
10
5
0
1970
1975
1980 1985
C. PLYWOOD
1990
1995 1998(P)
3.3 Trends in production of wood products by regional groups, 1970–1998
(provisional) (source: FAO database).
60
Million m3
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995 1998(P)
Million mt
D. PARTICLE BOARD
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995 1998(P)
E. WOODPULP
120
Million mt
100
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
80
60
40
20
0
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995 1998(P)
F. PAPER AND PAPERBOARD
3.3 Continued
been shown by the setbacks in the early 1990s to sawn softwood production in the former USSR, and to sawn hardwood and plywood in parts of Asia
in the late 1990s. Changing situations with regard to raw material availability, market demand or competitiveness can cause and have caused trends
to be altered. One region where expansion has been maintained in the
output of nearly all wood products is Latin America, even though its share
of the total is still relatively modest.
61
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Sawn softwood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Plywood (m3)
Particle board (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Paper & paperboard (mt)
–150 –100
–50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Million units
Exports Production for domestic use
Imports
3.4 World balances of main wood products groups, 1997 (source: FAO database).
Wood products balances
Products may either pass along a chain of supply and further processing
before they reach the final consumer in the same country where they were
produced, or along a chain involving international trade to reach the consumer in another country. In a number of cases, a third country may be
involved: wood raw material may be exported from country A to country B;
country B processes it (termed ‘in-transit processing’) and exports it as a
processed product to country C. It is not unknown for country A and country
C to be the same. Many wood-processing industries produce for the domestic market; a limited number are geared wholly or mainly to export markets.
An idea can be gained of the relative importance of domestic and export
markets by separating total production into two categories: production for
domestic use (PDU) and production for export. Figure 3.4 shows the balances of the main wood products at the world level. Consumption, or more
correctly apparent consumption as explained above, is the sum of production for domestic use and imports.
For each of the main product groups production for domestic use
accounts for between 70 and 80% of total production as well as of consumption; nearer 80% for woodpulp, nearer 70% for wood-based panels. Put
another way, exports make up between 20 and 30% of production at the
global level, and imports the same proportion of consumption. International
trade is consequently an essential element in achieving a balance between
supply and demand of all wood products.
The importance of trade of individual products does, however, vary
from region to region, as may be seen in Fig. 3.5. In the case of sawn
softwood, exports account for 35% of North American production and 40%
62
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
–100
–50
0
50
Million
100
150
m3
A. SAWN SOFTWOOD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
–10
–5
0
5
10
15
20
Million m3
25
30
35
40
B. SAWN HARDWOOD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
–15
–10
–5
0
5
Million m3
10
15
20
C. PLYWOOD
3.5 Wood product balances by regional groups, 1997 (source: FAO database).
63
25
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
–20
–10
0
10
20
30
40
50
Million m3
D. PARTICLE BOARD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
–40
–20
0
20
Million mt
40
60
80
E. WOODPULP
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
–60
–40
–20
0
20
40
60
Million mt
80
F. PAPER AND PAPERBOARD
3.5 Continued
64
100
120
140
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
of Europe’s, although a large proportion of the trade is intra-regional, e.g.
between Canada and the USA. Africa produced less than half its consumption of sawn softwood and had to import the rest. East Asia, by far the largest
net importer of sawn softwood, produced three-quarters of its needs domestically, partly from imported logs, and imported one-quarter. The pattern for
sawn hardwood was quite different. In the largest producing and consuming region, Other Asia-Pacific, production for domestic use accounted for
88% of total output; only 12% was exported, although this was enough to
make the region easily the largest exporter. In fact, trade in sawn hardwood
in relation to production and consumption is generally much less important
than for sawn softwood: only Europe exported more than a quarter of total
production in 1997, followed by Africa with 24%. Among the main importing regions, production for domestic use accounted for 54% of Europe’s
consumption, 61% of East Asia’s, and 90% of Other Asia-Pacific’s. A relatively
small part of these regions’ output is from the conversion of imported
hardwood logs.
Plywood is the product for which trade plays the most important role
in the supply–demand balance. Thirty-seven per cent of world output and
consumption in 1997 entered international trade. In the case of Other AsiaPacific, the predominant exporting region, 80% of production was exported
and in Europe as much as 60%. Imports by East Asia, by far the largest net
importer, accounted for 45% of consumption, and by Europe for over threequarters. North America is the largest producing area with over one-third of
the world total, but the bulk of the output is consumed domestically and
much of the rest is traded intra-regionally.
A large part of world production, trade and consumption of particle
board – four-fifths of production and consumption, even more of trade – takes
place in Europe and North America. In these regions roughly one-quarter
of total production is exported, most of it intra-regionally. A feature
within Europe is two-way trading between countries based on specialisation in production, for example the export of flaxboard from Belgium
which imports substantial volumes of wood-based particle board from other
countries.
Most woodpulp is used in paper and paperboard manufacture and in
many industries there is a high degree of integration between pulp and paper
making. Consequently, a higher proportion of woodpulp is produced for
domestic use, nearly four-fifths, than of the other wood products. Nevertheless, there are countries, for example Brazil in Latin America, and South
Africa and Swaziland in Africa, producing primarily for export, so that in
Latin America and Africa, exports account for a fairly large proportion of total
output, 44% in both cases in 1997. North America produces more than half
the world total of woodpulp, exports 20% of its production and imports 8%
65
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
of its consumption. It is by far the largest net exporter, followed by Latin
America. East Asia, the most important net importer, imports nearly twofifths of its woodpulp requirements.
North America is the largest producing and consuming region of
paper and paperboard, and exports over a quarter of its total production
and imports one-fifth of its consumption, the latter mainly intra-regional
trade. Europe’s trade, however, is considerably larger than North America’s
in absolute terms and in relation to production and consumption. It
exported more than half its total production in 1997 and imported more
than half its consumption. As for particle board, there is a large degree of
intra-regional trade, product specialisation and two-way trade in paper and
paperboard. Although East Asia is the largest net importing region, its imports
made up only 16% of consumption in 1997. Its large production of paper
and paperboard for domestic use, second only to North America’s, is
based to a considerable extent on imported wood raw material as well as
woodpulp.
Self-sufficiency in wood products
The balance between supply and demand can also be expressed in terms of
self-sufficiency, as seen in Fig. 3.6. This shows production as a percentage of
consumption for selected wood products and the same seven regional
groups. In North America, production exceeded consumption in 1997 for all
the products shown except plywood, for which they are almost in balance.
In the former USSR, production was higher than consumption for all the
products by quite a substantial margin. Although production fell drastically
after 1990, so did consumption, allowing exports to be maintained, even if
lower than in the 1980s. East Asian production was in all cases substantially
less than consumption.
For the other regional groups, self-sufficiency varied according to the
product. Europe was more than self-sufficient in sawn softwood, particle
board and paper and paperboard, but deficient in the other products. Other
Asia-Pacific was more than self-sufficient in sawn hardwood (just) and
plywood (by a very large margin), but deficient in the others. Africa was
self-sufficient only in sawn hardwood; on the other hand, Latin America
was more than self-sufficient in all products except paper and paperboard.
Consumption
Consumption, or more correctly apparent consumption, in 1997 is shown
by product and regional group in Table 3.4. Over 70% of the world total of
66
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
North America
7.4
Europe
2.7
Former USSR
45.6
East Asia
–21.5
Other Asia-Pacific
–7.5
Africa
–55.8
Latin America
4.2
–80
–60
–40
–20
0
20
40
60
%
A. SAWN SOFTWOOD
North America
7.3
–13.5
Europe
Former USSR
10.0
East Asia –22.6
Other Asia-Pacific
1.0
Africa
2.5
Latin America
4.3
–25
–20
–15
North America
Europe
–10
–5
0
%
B. SAWN HARDWOOD
200.0
–38.8
236.2
–28.6
15.8
Latin America
–100
15
–41.9
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
10
1.0
Former USSR
East Asia
5
–50
0
50
100
%
150
200
250
300
C. PLYWOOD
3.6 Self-sufficiencya in wood products by regional groups, 1997 (source: FAO
1999).
a
Production compared with consumption; e.g. sawn softwood production in
North America was 7.4% higher than consumption in 1996 and in East Asia 21.5%
lower.
67
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
North America
1.3
Europe
4.7
Former USSR
25.0
East Asia –19.7
Other Asia-Pacific
15.0
Africa
–11.1
Latin America
5.9
–25
–20
–15
–10
–5
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
%
D. PARTICLE BOARD
North America
15.3
Europe
–37.2
Former USSR
29.7
East Asia
–35.5
Other Asia-Pacific
–4.7
Africa
4.8
Latin America
46.1
–50
–40
–30
–20
–10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
%
E. WOODPULP
North America
11.6
Europe
8.8
Former USSR
18.8
East Asia
–7.7
Other Asia-Pacific
–19.2
Africa
–31
Latin America
–19.8
–40
–30
–20
–10
0
10
%
F. PAPER AND PAPERBOARD
20
30
3.6 Continued
consumption of sawnwood (434 million m3) consisted of sawn softwood,
and this was the main type of sawnwood used in the northern hemisphere
regions. On the other hand, more sawn hardwood was used than softwood
in the other regions, notably in Other Asia-Pacific where it made up over
three-quarters of total sawnwood consumption.
68
69
1750
190
3.2
75
19
0.4
85.5
12.4
30.1
42.9
50.6
0.4
19.1
23.9
7.1
2.7
4.4
166.0
137.1
28.9
N. America
57
17
1.0
79.3
10.5
26.4
42.7
47.6
2.1
6.2
31.6
7.4
4.9
2.5
96.0
79.4
16.9
Europe
c
b
Medium density fibreboard
Hardboard and insulating board
Wood used in unprocessed form, e.g. pitprops, poles, pilings, posts. Production data
Source: FAO database
a
FUELWOOD (m )
3
WOOD IN THE ROUGH (m )
3
286.3
36.1
87.5
162.8
PAPER & PAPERBOARD (mt)
Newsprint
Printing & writing
Other paper & paperboard
c
155.3
6.1
54.9
69.2
25.1
12.2
12.9
WOOD-BASED PANELS (m3)
Veneer sheets
Plywood
Particle board
Fibreboard
MDFa
Otherb
DISSOLVING PULP (mt)
434.8
313.8
121.1
WORLD
Apparent consumption of wood products by region, 1997
SAWNWOOD (m3)
Sawn softwood
Sawn hardwood
Table 3.4
East Asia
55
39
0.1
3.2
0.6
0.6
2.1
3.3
0.2
0.4
2.0
0.7
0.2
0.5
18.6
14.1
4.4
205
41
0.5
77.0
7.3
20.3
49.5
37.9
1.6
21.9
7.1
7.2
3.4
3.8
64.4
49.3
15.1
(million units)
Former USSR
680
34
0.6
19.8
2.9
5.4
11.2
8.8
0.9
4.7
2.0
1.3
0.6
0.7
44.6
11.0
33.7
Other Asia-P
454
31
0.3
4.2
0.5
1.2
2.6
2.0
0.4
0.7
0.9
0.3
–
0.3
11.4
6.2
5.1
Africa
224
9
0.3
17.2
1.9
3.5
11.8
5.1
0.5
1.9
1.7
1.1
0.4
0.7
33.8
16.7
17.0
Lat. America
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Of the world total of wood-based panels consumption of 155 million
m3 in 1997, particle board’s share was the largest with 45%, followed by
plywood with 35%, fibreboard with 16% and veneer sheets with 4%. Particle board’s share of the total is the largest in North America – where it has
only recently overtaken plywood – Europe and the former USSR, while
plywood holds the largest share in East Asia (58%), Other Asia-Pacific and
Latin America. MDF accounted for 49% of total fibreboard consumption in
1997, a share which has increased from virtually nothing a decade or so ago
and which continues to rise each year. Ninety per cent of all fibreboard was
used in the four northern hemisphere regional groups; its use in the southern hemisphere is relatively restricted, except in a few countries such as
Argentina, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.
Consumption of paper and paperboard was described in detail in The
International Paper Trade (Bolton 1998) and need not be dealt with again
here, apart from noting that out of the total world consumption of 286
million tonnes in 1997 so-called cultural or graphic grades (newsprint and
other printing and writing paper) accounted for over two-fifths, and other
grades for nearly three-fifths, of which the largest share was packaging and
wrapping paper and paperboard with one-third of total paper and paperboard use.
Also shown in Table 3.4 is the quite modest consumption of dissolving
pulp, some 3 million tonnes in total, which is used particularly in the
production of rayon. The figures for wood used in the rough for such purposes as pitprops, poles, pilings and posts are those of production, since no
separate data of trade exist and hence apparent consumption figures cannot
be calculated. However, the volumes entering trade are not very large and
so the production figures give a reasonable idea of the volumes being used
in each of the regional groups. Use is in fact more evenly distributed over
the regions than that of the processed products, even if it is not concentrated in the southern hemisphere regions in the way that it is for
fuelwood. More than three-quarters of the world total of fuelwood is
used in the three southern hemisphere regions, compared with 21% of
sawnwood, 10% of wood-based panels and 14% of paper and paperboard.
It should be mentioned in passing that, given the difficulties of measuring
the production and use of fuelwood, reported data should be considered as
approximations.
Consumption of wood products per inhabitant
The contrasts in the intensity of use of wood products between country
groups are illustrated in Fig. 3.7 with data of consumption per capita. For
the processed products, per capita consumption in North America is
70
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
76
WORLD
567
North America
169
Europe
64
Former USSR
SAWNWOOD (m3)
East Asia
46
Other Asia-Pacific
23
Africa
16
Latin America
70
27
WORLD
North America
173
Europe
84
11
Former USSR
East Asia
WOOD-BASED PANELS (m3)
27
Other Asia-Pacific
5
Africa
3
Latin America
11
50
WORLD
North America
292
Europe
140
Former USSR
11
East Asia
PAPER AND PAPERBOARD (mt)
55
Other Asia-Pacific
10
Africa
6
Latin America
36
0
100
200
300
400
500
3
(m or mt per 1000 capita)
3.7 Per capita consumption of main wood product groups by region, 1997
(source: FAO database).
71
600
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
WORLD
701
North America
2773
Europe
1094
Former USSR
495
East Asia
489
Other Asia-Pacific
445
Africa
716
Latin America
729
0
500
1000
1500
2000
(m3 EQ per 1000 capita)
Processed
2500
Unprocessed
3.8 Per capita consumption of wood products in total, 1997 (source: FAO
database).
generally 6 to 7 times higher than the world average and in Europe 2 to 3
times. In the other groups per capita consumption is below the world
average, the low levels being particularly marked in Africa. In the case of
wood used in the round, of which about 90% consisted of fuelwood, the
highest levels of per capita consumption were in Africa with more than
double the world average, followed by Latin America and Other Asia-Pacific,
the lowest in Europe, East Asia and former USSR with half or less of the world
average.
Figure 3.8 shows the per capita consumption of wood products in
total, including fuelwood and other wood used in unprocessed form,
expressed in cubic metres equivalent volume of wood in the rough (m3 EQ).
At the global level, as well as in the former USSR, about as much wood
was consumed in 1997 in unprocessed form, mainly as fuelwood, as in
processed form, but the shares of the two categories vary considerably
from region to region. Most wood was used in processed form in North
America and Europe; most in unprocessed form in the southerly regional
groups. Total consumption of wood in all forms in North America was nearly
four times above the world average, while in Europe, Africa and Latin
America it was somewhat above the average and in the former USSR, East
Asia and Other Asia-Pacific it was appreciably below it. As an over-simplification it may be said that the volume per capita of unprocessed wood used
tends to decline with rising living standards and that of processed products
to increase.
72
3000
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
Uses of wood products
Ways of assessing the end-uses of wood
There could be, as mentioned earlier, as many as five thousand articles or
elements made out of wood; and as many ways of using them. Let us leave
it to someone else to try and list them. For those involved in the market,
whether as producer, trader, wholesaler or retailer, it is more important
to have a good idea of what kinds of wood products are used for what
purposes. There are two ways of looking at this. A broad approach is to
assess the share of consumption by the various end-use sectors in terms of
the wood raw material, including recycled material. The more detailed
approach is to assess the end-uses of the individual wood products, the more
specific the details regarding the end-uses and the specifications of the
wood product used the better. The latter approach is more useful from
the market practitioner’s point of view and in any case provides the basis
for calculating the former. The problem is that the demand for information on end-uses always seems to be far ahead of its availability, mainly
because of the cost and difficulty of collecting it, especially the finer details.
No doubt there are some companies that have undertaken detailed studies
of the end-uses of their products, but such information is commercially
valuable and seldom becomes public knowledge. Efforts have been made in
some countries to collect information on end-uses at the national level
and this information has been shared at the international level, but it tends
to be dated and lacking in detail. Indeed, there seems to be a dearth of
recently collected end-use data, and the published figures which are quoted
below date from the 1970s and 1980s and relate to Europe and the United
States only.
Six broad end-use sectors can be distinguished: energy, construction, packaging, furniture, cultural or graphic uses, and miscellaneous.
Wood for energy is mostly in the form of fuelwood, which is mainly used
in the developing countries and is the main source of energy (cooking
and heating) in many of them. Industrial wood used in the rough is
mostly used in construction (building poles) and for miscellaneous
uses, such as pitprops, telegraph poles, agricultural posts and stakes,
and so on. Sawnwood and wood-based panels are used in construction, packaging, furniture, and other miscellaneous objects; paper and
paperboard for packaging, cultural or graphic uses, household and
sanitary uses, and in many miscellaneous ways. In order to demonstrate
the variety of purposes to which sawnwood and wood-based panels can
be put, their end-uses will be discussed in detail in the following
section.
73
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 3.5 Estimated importance of different end-use sectors for sawnwood and
wood-based panels in European countries around 1980
Construction
Furniture
Packaging
Other
(% of total consumption of each product)
Sawn softwood
Sawn hardwood
Plywood
Particle board
Hardboard
Insulating board
62–92
20–73
12–65
8–70
20–84
71–100
3–10
15–40
10–40
20–90
6–41
–
2–14
2–30
5–25
1–3
2–20
–
2–22
3–22
7–22
1–20
1–28
2–29
Source: UN-ECE/FAO 1986
End-uses of sawnwood and wood-based panels
Construction is the predominant end-use sector for both sawnwood and
wood-based panels in most countries (UN-ECE/FAO 1986). Its importance
varies considerably from country to country and product to product as
the figures for Europe in Table 3.5, which relate to the period around 1980,
show.
The variations between countries may be due to several factors, such
as traditions and preferences in wood use, the composition of countries’
forest resource, trade patterns, and the structure of countries’ woodprocessing industries, among others. For example, construction is a particularly important end-use of sawn softwood in the Nordic countries (and also
in North America and the former USSR), because of the traditional prevalence of timber-frame construction there for family dwellings and the predominance of coniferous (softwood) species in their forest resources. In all
European countries, more than a half of all sawn softwood went to the construction sector in the period around 1980. Packaging appears as the second
main end-use sector of sawn softwood, though well behind construction,
and it is followed by furniture.
The utilisation of sawn hardwood is less markedly centred on the construction sector than that of sawn softwood, reflecting the greater diversity
of sawn hardwood, which between temperate-zone and tropical species
comprises a very wide variety of properties making it suitable for many
different end-uses. For Europe as a whole, construction and furniture may
have held roughly equal shares in 1980 – perhaps around 30% each – with
packaging, in which pallets accounted for a significant part, holding somewhat less.
For plywood, construction accounted for a half or more of total consumption in most European countries, although it was of relatively little
74
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
importance in eastern European countries. Packaging, including transport,
was the second sector in importance, followed by furniture. Plywood seems
to have been rather susceptible to substitution by other wood products, for
example by particle board in furniture, and by OSB and other wood-based
panels in construction, including concrete shuttering and wall panels
(sheathing).
Construction and furniture are the predominant end-use sectors for particle board, but which one holds the greater share varies from country to
country according to user preferences and traditions. Definitions may also
play a part, for example they can depend on whether built-in cupboards are
included under construction or furniture. Other end-uses, such as packaging, transport, ship- and boat-building and do-it-yourself (D-I-Y) are generally
of lesser importance.
Considerable variations exist between countries in the end-use patterns
of hardboard, although construction appeared to be the most important
around 1980, followed by furniture. For insulating board, construction is
the predominant use sector, although the volumes have been in decline
over many years. MDF was a newly introduced product around 1980, but
since then its use has expanded dramatically in both the construction
and furniture sectors, largely at the expense of sawnwood and particle
board.
Table 3.6 shows estimates of the end-use patterns for a number of European countries and the variations that exist between one and another. In the
countries in the table, either construction or furniture is the predominant
use. For particle board, there is a marked contrast between the Nordic countries, where most particle board was used in construction, although that may
have become less evident since the 1980s, and other European countries,
where it was mostly used for furniture. A somewhat similar contrast existed
for hardboard.
Other (or miscellaneous) end-uses cover a vast array, ranging from boats
to household utensils, brushes, toys, pencils, musical instruments, and so
on. Some of them are quite big users of wood products, ship- and boatbuilding and road and rail transport vehicles for instance; others use only
small quantities but may have high added value, such as carvings and other
decorative items. The uses can take advantage of the incredible variety of
properties between species, for example a specific gravity of more than 1
for lignum vitae, used in bowling ‘woods’ and pulley blocks, and of less than
0.4 for balsa, used for model airplanes. Some woods are prized for their
decorative values, such as walnut, mahogany, rosewood and ebony, used
in high-quality furniture, cabinet-making and marquetry. Some are valued
for their durability and resistance to insect attack, such as greenheart, iroko
and opepe, much used for harbour works. Others are classed as utilitarian
woods, which are relatively cheap, in ample supply, are not outstanding from
75
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 3.6 Estimated broad end-use patterns of sawnwood and wood-based panels in
selected European countries around 1980
Construction
Country
Sawn softwood
Finland
France
Italy
Poland
Portugal
Sweden
United Kingdom
Year
Furniture
Packaging
Other
(% of total consumption of each product)
1980
1979
1979
1980
1980
1980
1977/80
65
81
82
62
92
75
70
10
4
5
8
3
5
3
14
12
10
8
2
10
13
21
2
3
22
3
10
14
1979
late 1970s
1979
1980
1981
37
25
20
73
32
31
30
40
22
40
26
25
30
2
6
6
20
10
3
22
Plywood
Finland
Italy
Polanda
Sweden
1976
1979
1980
..
60
45
14
58
13
13
25
15
5
25
29
20
22
17
32
7
Particle board
Finland
Italy
Norway
Poland
Portugal
1982
1979
1980
1980
1980
70
8
58
8
10
20
90
20
79
87
b
10
1
20
12
3
Hardboard
Finland
Poland
Portugal
Sweden
United Kingdom
1980
1980
1980
1982
1981
84
20
45
75
38
10
41
35
6
32
Sawn hardwood
France
Germany (West)
Italy
Portugal
United Kingdom
1
b
1
b
5
11
7
8
2
1
28
13
11
28
a
Veneer plywood only
Included in ‘Other’
Source: UN-ECE/FAO 1986
b
the decorative point of view, and are suitable for everyday uses in construction, packaging, invisible parts of furniture, mass production furniture,
and so on. The same species may, however, be used in different ways,
depending on its grading. For example, high grades of European redwood
76
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
(Scots pine) are popular for furniture making and joinery, medium
qualities for general construction purposes, and lower qualities for packaging or conversion into chips for processing for woodpulp or particle board
manufacture.
Impregnation or surface treatment of woods can alter their properties,
for example by improving their resistance to fire, disease or insect attack,
or increasing their durability or hardness or attractiveness. Combination
with other materials can extend the use of wood in numerous ways, the
most obvious example being gluing, not only for the production of plywood
by gluing veneer sheets and of particle board by gluing chips, but also
laminated solid wood structures and other elements used in timber
engineering.
Table 3.7, even though partly out of date, provides a quite comprehensive listing of the range of uses of sawnwood and wood-based panels in
building. Substitution is taking place all the time, sparked by technological,
economic and even environmental factors. One area where it has been particularly marked is for window frames, where sawnwood has been partly
replaced by plastics and aluminium, which have certain advantages, such as
requiring less maintenance, and were even alleged to be more environmentally friendly until the environmentalists belatedly acknowledged some less
positive aspects, such as the relatively high energy input required in their
manufacture, lower insulation properties and the non-renewable sources of
their raw materials. In this regard, the role of marketing and promotion, fields
in which the wood products industries have often not been as active as their
competitors, even when it comes to drawing attention to the environmentally friendly features of their products, has been an important factor in the
market place.
Another sector where changes in the use of materials have been particularly marked in recent decades is packaging. Substitution has taken place
within the wood products family, for example of solid wood by paperboard,
and also from outside it, notably by plastics and metals. Not only have there
been major developments in new packaging materials and methods, but
ways of handling, transporting, storing and distributing goods have changed
tremendously over recent decades. Despite these changes, and in some cases
because of them, sawnwood and wood-based panels remain important packaging materials in certain sectors, for example crates for engineering equipment, and the use of packaging and wrapping paper and paperboard has
continued to expand.
Information on the United States of America is available in a form
which illustrates the breakdown of the use of wood products between
three main sectors of construction, new housing, residential upkeep and
improvements, and new non-residential construction (Table 3.8). New
housing was the most important sector of the construction market in
77
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 3.7 Uses of sawnwood and wood-based panels in building in the 1970s in
Europe
End-use
Wood products
most used
Structural uses
Roof structures
Sawn softwood
Wood-based panels
Glue-laminated structures
Floor structures
Sawn softwood
Wood-based panels
Load-bearing
wall members
Sawn softwood
Wood-based panels
Joinery
Windows and shutters
Sawn softwood
Doors
Partition walls
Exterior walls
Sawn hardwood
Sawnwood, w-b. panels
Sawnwood, w-b. panels
Sawnwood, w-b. panels
Exterior wall facing
Built-in furniture
Sawnwood, plywood,
fibreboard
W-b. panels, sawnwood
Stairs
Sawnwood
Joinery trim
Floor surfaces
Sawnwood
Sawnwood (esp. hardwood),
plywood, particle board
Ceiling and internal wall
coverings
Sawnwood, w-b. panels
Temporary site uses
Concrete formwork
Sawnwood, w-b. panels
Scaffolding boards
Partitions on site
Sawnwood
Wood-based panels
Source: UN-ECE/FAO 1976
78
Remarks
Concentrated in low-rise
dwellings
Sheathing material for
under-roofing
Used increasingly, especially
for spans over 20 m
Joists and boards in low-rise
dwellings
Replacing sawnwood as
flooring boards
Very important in
timber-frame buildings
Used as sheathing
Stiff competition from metals
and plastics
Ditto
Often as prefabricated
elements
Used mostly in wood-frame
buildings
Expanding. Much particle
board used
Wood confined to low-rise
buildings
Apparently declining
Downward trend in
softwood use, less marked
for hardwood
Has decreased, but still used
in decorative applications,
especially in public buildings
Major end-use for
sawnwood, also plywood,
increasingly for OSB
79
16
2
16
16
Residential
upkeep and
improvements
TOTAL
CONSTRUCTION
10
13
9
8
Source: Burdin, N., 2000 (personal communication)
48
16
9
27
–
Construction
25
9
6
19
–
Repair of
buildings &
structures
Furniture
Packaging
73
25
15
46
–
3
27
76
16
–
17
5
–
7
38
(% of total consumption of product)
TOTAL
CONSTRUCTION
71
23
66
50
5
4
2
7
–
Machinebuilding
6
27
7
26
Manufacturing
(% of total consumption of product)
New nonresidential
construction
Share of wood products by end-use in the Russian Federation in the late 1990s
Sawnwood
Plywood
Particle board
Fibreboard
Paper & paperboard
Table 3.9
b
Particle board and hardboard
Included in ‘Other’
Source: USDA Forest Service 1982
a
45
8
40
26
New
housing
Share of wood products by end-use in the USA in 1976
Sawn softwood
Sawn hardwood
Plywood
Other panelsa
Table 3.8
–
–
–
–
62
Printing &
writing
b
10
45
4
Packaging
3
39
7
23
–
Other,
including
mining
13
5
23
24
Other
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
1976 for the use of sawn softwood (softwood lumber in North America)
and wood-based panels, but for sawn hardwood (hardwood lumber) it was
new non-residential construction. Seventy-one per cent of all sawn softwood
was used in construction, two-thirds of plywood and half of particle board
and hardboard.
Forty-five per cent of all sawn hardwood was used in packaging (termed
‘shipping’ in the USDA Forest Service report); pallet-making was very important for the use of sawn hardwood, particularly for the lower grades. The
manufacturing sector, which took more than a quarter of the sawn hardwood
and particle board and hardboard consumption, included furniture-making
as its main component. Apart from the large use of sawn hardwood in packaging and its relatively small use in construction, the pattern of end-uses in
the USA was not greatly different from that in Europe.
The end-use pattern reported in the Russian Federation shows that
nearly three-quarters of all sawnwood (softwood and hardwood combined),
went into construction in the late 1990s. This was also the main end-use of
fibreboard. On the other hand, only 15% of particle board was used in construction, but three-quarters of it in furniture (Table 3.9).
End-uses of paper and paperboard
Reference is again made to the sister publication, The International Paper
Trade by Tom Bolton (1998) for detailed information on the uses of paper
and paperboard. It is necessary here only to summarise the main end-uses,
which to a considerable extent are self-explanatory from the names given to
the various grades (Table 3.10).
‘Wood free’ paper contains less than 10% of mechanical or thermomechanical pulp, as distinct from ‘wood containing’ with more than 10% of
these pulps. Certain grades of paper and paperboard are being produced
which use increasing quantities of recycled waste paper, notably linerboard,
fluting medium, folding boxboard, newsprint and some printing and writing
grades.
In the field of graphic papers, competition from other means of communication, above all television and electronic communication, is changing
the relative importance of different outlets for paper. For example, national
newspapers have tended to stagnate, while regional and free distribution
papers continue to grow. Similarly, general interest magazines face tough
competition from other forms of media, especially television, but conversely
the latter actually seem to stimulate demand for specialist magazines. The
dramatic increase in the use of computers and the internet could, theoretically, displace the need for paper in the office, but up to now and probably
for some time to come the effect has been the reverse: the ‘paperless office’
80
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
Table 3.10
Paper and paperboard grades by end-uses
End-uses
Graphic papers
Newspapers
Magazines
General advertising
Direct mail/mail order
Office papers
Books
Others (writing and scholastic,
telephone directories, stationery,
labels, etc.)
Packaging paper and
paperboard
Shipping cases & display packs
Consumer goods packaging
Sack & bag paper, others
Household and sanitary
papers
Toilet tissue, towels, facial,
serviettes in home and awayfrom-home use, including
hospital and medical products
Paper and paperboard grades used
Newsprint for body of newspaper, lightweight
coated papers (LWC) for supplements
Supercalendered paper (SC) for mass circulation
magazines, LWC and some coated wood free for
special interest magazines
Coated wood free is most commonly used; also
other grades
LWC
Uncoated wood free
Uncoated mechanical and all wood free
Mainly uncoated mechanical and wood free
Linerboard and fluting medium
Folding boxboard (includes liquid packaging board)
Kraft wrapping and other packaging paper &
paperboard
Cellulose wadding, soft tissue,
towel and crepe paper
Source: UN-ECE/FAO 1986
remains a vision of the future. Book reading could also become less popular,
but there is not much sign of that happening yet.
In the packaging field, environmental concerns, such as the problems
of waste disposal, have put pressure on the use of all types of packaging
material, including paper and paperboard, but up to now the market for the
latter has continued to expand.
The above comments are very general, and take no account of different
stages in economic and social development in different countries. In
the advanced economies, many of which are experiencing slow or zero
population growth, there are signs of saturation in the markets for paper
and paperboard. On the other hand, in emerging and developing countries,
per capita consumption is still low, and there remains considerable scope
for expansion in the use of most grades of paper and paperboard.
81
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 3.11 An approximate estimate of global wood products consumption by main end-use
sector in the mid-1990s
Energy
Product
groups
All wood
products
Fuelwood
Sawnwood &
panels
Paper &
paperboard
Other wood
products
Total
All other uses Construction
Packaging
Graphic
uses Furniture Miscellaneous
(% of volume of wood in the rough of total or of all other uses)
100
46
54
17
15
10
4
–
–
100
100
–
100
–
100
–
100
31
–
57
28
–
17
18
–
–
7
–
16
16
–
10
100
–
100
1
44
41
–
14
100
–
100
45
–
–
–
55
General pattern of end-uses of wood products
It is impossible to obtain a reliable picture of the end-use pattern of
wood products at the global level from the fragmented and often out-dated
information available at the national or regional levels. The figures given in
Table 3.11 should therefore be treated with the utmost caution and are
offered as one person’s informed ‘guesstimate’.
Almost half of the total world consumption of wood, when expressed
in terms of the equivalent volume of wood in the rough (m3 EQ) is used for
energy. In fact, if the volumes of industrial and post-consumption wood
residues, pulping liquors and waste paper that are also used for energy
are included, energy would account for well over half the total volume
of wood removed from the forest at the world level. Even in Europe, where
the use of fuelwood is nowadays not very important, the volume of wood
used for energy, including residues, pulping liquor and waste paper, is still
equivalent to 45% of the volume of annual wood removals (UN-ECE/FAO
1996).
Excluding fuelwood from the calculation, it is estimated that construction, packaging and graphic and cultural uses are, in that order, the most
important end-use sectors for wood products, accounting between them
for more than three-quarters of the total, with furniture and miscellaneous
uses accounting for the remainder. Packaging is the only sector that is
important for both sawnwood and wood-based panels and for paper and
paperboard. Construction, according to the estimates, takes more than
half of all sawnwood and wood-based panels. Packaging and graphic uses
account for more than two-fifths each of the consumption of paper and
paperboard. ‘Other wood products’ includes both wood used in the rough
82
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PRODUCTS
and dissolving pulp. Building poles are a major use of the former, especially
in developing countries; such uses as pitprops, telegraph poles and agricultural posts (fencing, etc.) and stakes are included under ‘miscellaneous’.
As stated earlier, not enough is known about the end-uses of wood products to allow a detailed and comprehensive analysis to be made. It is hoped
that what has been compiled in this section is enough to give a useful general
impression of what products are used where and in what proportions.
Research efforts are currently being made to improve the information in this
area, but they are time-consuming and costly.
83
CHAPTER
4
The place of
wood industries and
wood products in the
global economy
W
e have seen in the previous chapter the impressive quantities
of wood products that enter the world market each year. Are
they enough to make the forest and wood industries sector an
important component of the world economy? Are wood products major
elements in international trade? ‘Important’ and ‘major’ may be imprecise
and subjective terms, but nonetheless this chapter will attempt to address
these questions, using as a basis data published by various international
organisations.
Wood industries in national economies
Sectors within the national economies
National economies are amazingly complex, but are for simplicity divided
into three sectors: the primary sector, covering agriculture, fisheries and
forestry, as well as mining, quarrying, crude oil production and so on; the
secondary sector, covering manufacturing; and the tertiary sector, covering
services. In less developed economies, the primary sector is of particular
importance, while in the most advanced economies the tertiary sector has
84
WOOD INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS IN THE GLOB AL ECONOMY
become of major significance. In virtually all countries, the tertiary sector
has been gaining in relative importance at the expense of the other two
sectors.
Forestry activities, including the management of the forest resource and
the harvesting of wood and other products, fall within the primary sector.
It is not always possible to separate them in the statistics from agricultural activities, with which they are often closely integrated. The woodprocessing industries comprise one among numerous manufacturing groups
that make up the secondary sector. In the statistics they can usually be
identified under two categories: wood and its manufactures; and paper and
paperboard and their manufactures. Care has to be taken in using the
statistics, however, since in some series they are aggregated with other
activities, for example wood industries with furniture manufacturing, and
paper and paperboard with printing and publishing. For this and other
reasons, it is not easy to show precisely the relative importance of the woodprocessing sector in national economies or in overall manufacturing. It is
hoped that what follows will be enough to give a broad impression of its
place.
Share of the wood industries in Gross Domestic Product
In the statistics published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD), furniture manufacturing, presumably of wood
as well as other materials, is included with wood and wood products; and
printing and publishing with paper and paper products. Both furniture and
printing and publishing are important areas of activity, so the figures in Table
4.1 overstate the importance of the wood-processing sector in countries’
Gross Domestic Product (GDP). On the other hand, some ancillary activities
of the wood-processing sector are probably included in other sectors, for
example construction.
In most of the OECD countries for which data are available, the woodprocessing sector, including furniture and printing and publishing, accounts
for between 2 and 3% of total GDP. In the less developed countries, such
as Mexico and South Korea, which incidentally are also countries with sizeable wood products imports, the percentage is less, while in such major
exporting countries as Finland and Sweden it is appreciably higher – 6.1 and
4.6% respectively. These figures do not include the share of forestry and
logging.
A share of 2 or 3% may not seem very substantial, until it is pointed out
that in most countries the whole of manufacturing accounts for 20% or less
of total GDP. Table 4.2 shows the composition of GDP in four very different
countries. The USA is the largest as well as probably the most diversified
85
86
1996
1996
1995
1996
1996
1993
1992
1995
1996
1993
1994
1994
1993
1996
1996
1996
1994
1995
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germanya
Italy
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Canada
Mexico
USA
Japan
New Zealand
South Korea
Western Länder only
Source: OECD, National Accounts,Vol. II, 1998
a
Year
Country
..
1.51
..
0.70
0.20
..
..
..
0.09
2.11
0.22
0.19
0.05
..
0.25
0.78
..
1.16
Forestry &
logging
..
1.38
0.17
1.20
0.48
0.84
1.09
..
1.09
1.04
0.62
0.97
1.17
0.46
0.43
0.93
0.63
1.12
Wood & wood
products, including
furniture
0.72
2.56
1.23
1.86
0.85
2.01
1.62
1.26
2.12
5.07
1.54
1.25
1.34
2.00
1.83
1.22
1.17
3.45
(% of total GDP)
Paper & paper
products, printing
& publishing
..
5.45
..
3.76
1.53
..
..
..
3.30
8.21
2.38
2.41
2.56
..
2.51
2.93
..
5.73
Total forestry,
wood & paper
etc.
..
3.94
1.40
3.06
1.33
2.85
2.71
..
3.21
6.11
2.16
2.22
2.51
2.46
2.26
2.15
1.80
4.57
Wood & paper,
etc. excluding
forestry
Table 4.1 Share of forestry, wood and paper industries in selected countries in total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current prices
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
87
Source: OECD, National Accounts,Vol. II, 1998
1.79
1.56
18.18
1.91
0.78
0.84
2.01
3.25
0.45
0.69
7.91
0.34
2.85
4.20
16.78
5.94
28.57
11.46
92.79
7.21
100.00
USA 1996
3.13
2.56
17.80
3.14
0.42
0.46
2.00
4.90
0.65
0.66
5.21
0.37
1.75
4.95
14.18
6.62
23.37
10.58
84.95
15.05
100.00
1.98
0.27
19.64
2.03
0.34
1.12
3.45
2.57
0.47
1.05
8.45
0.16
2.72
4.85
9.86
5.88
21.38
3.99
70.57
29.43
100.00
Sweden 1994
(% of total GDP)
Netherlands 1995
5.58
1.43
19.76
5.05
1.56
0.48
0.85
3.26
1.29
1.20
5.78
0.29
1.07
3.81
19.74
9.34
15.87
12.45
91.84
8.16
100.00
Mexico 1996
Share of wood and paper industries in total GDP in selected countries compared with other components of GDP in the mid-1990s
Agriculture, forestry and fishing
Mining, quarrying, crude oil production, etc.
Manufacturing (total)
• Food, beverages & tobacco
• Textiles, wearing apparel & leather industries
• Wood & wood products, incl. furniture
• Paper & paper products, printing & publishing
• Chemicals, coal, rubber & plastic products
• Non-metallic products, excl. products of petroleum & coal
• Basic metal industries
• Fabricated metal products, machinery & equipment
• Other manufacturing industries
Electricity, gas & water
Construction
Wholesale & retail trade, restaurants & hotels
Transport, storage & communications
Finance, insurance, real estate & business services
Community, social & personal services
Total industries
Government services & miscellaneous
Total Gross National Product
Table 4.2
WOOD INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS IN THE GLOB AL ECONOMY
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
economy in the world; the Netherlands is an example of a large wood
products importer; Sweden of a large wood products exporter; and Mexico
of a less developed country. In all of them except Sweden, the sector of
finance, insurance, real estate and business services has the largest share of
GDP, followed by community, social and personal services in the USA and
the Netherlands, and transport, storage and communications in Mexico. In
Sweden, where the welfare state is well established, Government services
are particularly important.
Combining wood and wood products, including furniture, and paper
and paper products, printing and publishing, their share of total manufacturing in the USA is 15.7%, slightly less in the Netherlands (13.8%), and
appreciably higher in Sweden (23.3%). In Mexico, their share is only 6.7%,
while that of certain ‘traditional’ industries, such as food processing (food,
beverages and tobacco) and textiles (textiles, wearing apparel and leather
industries), is higher than in the more developed countries.
In all four countries, the most important manufacturing sector is fabricated metal products, machinery and equipment, followed by chemicals, and
coal, rubber and plastic products, except in Sweden where the woodprocessing sector is in second place. In the USA it is in third place, in the
Netherlands in fourth place after food processing.
What can be deduced from the figures in Tables 4.1 and 4.2? Firstly, that
the wood and paper industries’ share of the overall economy in many countries is between 2 and 3% of GDP, with the percentages being appreciably
higher in those where wood products exports are of particular importance
in the economy. The percentages are swelled by the inclusion of the printing and publishing industries, but this is at least partly offset by the exclusion of forestry and logging and activities involving wood products in other
sectors, such as construction, transport, toys and musical instruments. The
importance of the wood-processing sector becomes more apparent when its
share of total manufacturing is considered.
Share of wood industries in total manufacturing output
Among the countries shown in Table 4.3 the share of wood industries, including furniture, in total manufacturing output is highest in Finland with 24.1%
and lowest in China, the Philippines and Thailand with 3.6%. In most of
the countries that are important wood products exporters, the share is
more than 10%, the Russian Federation being one exception with only 4.3%.
Among the larger economies, such as Japan, France and the United Kingdom,
which are not only major importers but also sizeable exporters of wood
products, the wood industries’ share of total manufacturing is within the 5
88
89
0.93
1.62
2.80
6.65
4.55
0.82
1.16
12.55
1.58
3.39
3.79
1996
1995
1994
1996
1995
1995
1994
1996
1996
1994
1995
Source: UNIDO International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics 1999
1.64
4.97
5.10
1.62
4.12
3.29
4.61
2.11
1.25
1995
1996
1995
1995
1996
1995
1995
1995
1996
4.98
1995
Year
Wood products,
excl. furniture
Paper and
products
3.16
0.75
0.04
1.48
0.24
1.05
1.08
0.51
0.41
0.51
0.95
0.81
..
1.22
1.30
1.86
3.72
1.61
3.16
1.63
1.81
3.01
7.69
3.12
4.88
2.09
3.86
1.34
2.28
2.03
2.20
2.76
1.90
5.15
17.80
3.10
6.37
2.25
4.56
1.27
3.25
8.40
(% of total manufacturing output)
Furniture &
fixtures, excl. metal
Share of wood industries in total manufacturing output in selected countries in the mid-1990s
North America
Canada
Europe
Austria
Finland
France
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
United Kingdom
Former USSR
Russian Federation
East Asia
China
Japan
Other Asia-Pacific
India
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Thailand
Africa
Cameroon
South Africa
Latin America
Brazil
Chile
Table 4.3
9.56
12.23
15.71
7.94
5.13
11.56
6.97
3.61
3.60
3.64
5.33
4.35
..
24.12
6.02
12.35
9.26
10.78
6.54
6.13
15.19
TOTAL
6.40
11.48
15.67
6.46
4.89
10.51
5.89
3.10
3.19
3.13
4.38
3.54
10.12
22.90
4.72
10.49
5.54
9.17
3.38
4.50
13.38
TOTAL, excl.
furniture
WOOD INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS IN THE GLOB AL ECONOMY
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
to 7% range, which is probably a fair indication of the average worldwide;
unfortunately no data are available from UNIDO of the largest economy,
the United States. This share places the wood industries among the most
important manufacturing sectors.
The shares of the industries producing wood products, excluding furniture and paper and products, range from 5.1% in Finland and 5% in Canada
to 0.8% in the Philippines, but in two countries it is significantly above this
range: in Cameroon 12.5% and Indonesia 6.6%. The range for paper and
products is much wider, from 17.8% in Finland to 1.3% in Malaysia. Furniture manufacturing accounts for more than 3% in three countries, Poland,
Romania and Brazil.
Wood products in international commodity trade
According to UN statistics (UN 1997), the value of world trade in commodities in 1995 was approximately 5 thousand billion US dollars (Table
4.4); and according to FAO (FAO 1999), the value of trade in wood products
was around 150 billion dollars. The products covered by the FAO statistics
include wood raw material, sawnwood, wood-based panels, woodpulp,
paper and paperboard and recovered (waste) paper, but not added-value
wood products or cork and its derivatives. World trade in 1995 in the products covered by FAO makes up about 3% of total commodity trade. At the
regional level, exports of wood products from North America and the former
USSR account for appreciably larger shares of total commodity exports than
the world average (5.9 and 4.2% respectively), and those of East Asia
for much less (0.6%). For imports, the 3.9% share of wood products in East
Asia’s total commodity imports is higher than the world average of 3%; the
shares in the former USSR and Other Asia-Pacific are lower (0.4 and 1.9%
respectively).
The proportion of wood products covered by the FAO statistics in total
commodity trade in twelve of the leading wood product exporting and
importing countries is shown in Table 4.5. It is striking that the range
of shares is very much wider among the exporting than the importing
countries. In several countries, including Finland, Canada, Sweden and
Indonesia, wood products account for an important part of total exports –
as much as 30% in the case of Finland – but for a very small share in others
– less than 1% in China. Countries with a large share of wood products in
total exports are among those with a large forest resource and/or woodprocessing base, at least in relation to their population or domestic consumption of wood products. However, according to that criterion one might
expect some other countries, such as Malaysia, the Russian Federation and
90
147.7
46.1
66.7
4.9
6.4
14.3
2.9
6.5
Exports of
wood products
(billion US$)
91
2.9
5.9
2.9
4.2
0.6
2.5
2.8
2.9
Per cent of
total exports
(%)
5125.7
939.4
2230.9
96.6
896.5
598.2
119.3
244.8
Total imports
(cif)
(billion US$)
153.0
25.5
71.2
0.4
35.2
11.6
3.1
6.0
Imports of
wood products
(billion US$)
192 197
584 743
39 573
79 908
511 771
286 694
45 417
74 045
58 100
81 137
434 348
46 506
27 817
18 276
11 973
11 598
10 637
5 867
5 008
4 225
4 156
4 060
3 362
3 202
Exports of
wood products
(million US$)
14.5
3.1
30.3
14.5
2.1
2.0
11.0
5.7
7.2
5.0
0.8
6.9
Per cent of
total exports
(%)
Sources: UN Handbook of International Trade and Development Statistics 1995
FAO database
Canada
USA
Finland
Sweden
Germany
France
Indonesia
Malaysia
Austria
Russian Fed.
China
Brazil
Total
exports (fob)
(million US$)
USA
Japan
Germany
China
United Kingdom
Italy
France
Netherlands
South Korea
Belgium-Lux.
Spain
Canada
IMPORTING
COUNTRIES
770 958
335 882
448 132
425 458
263 760
204 062
274 972
176 123
135 119
154 206
114 831
168 426
Total imports
(cif)
(million US$)
22 496
19 486
14 240
10 740
9 349
8 669
8 232
5 195
4 980
4 111
3 834
2 997
Imports of
wood products
(million US$)
Total trade and trade in wood products in 12 leading wood products exporting and importing countries in 1995
EXPORTING
COUNTRIES
Table 4.5
Sources: UN Handbook of International Trade and Development Statistics 1995
FAO database
5075.1
776.9
2291.7
115.5
1002.5
561.6
102.7
224.2
Total
exports (fob)
(billion US$)
Total trade and trade in wood products in 1995, by region
WORLD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
Table 4.4
2.9
5.8
3.2
2.5
3.5
4.2
3.0
2.9
3.7
2.7
3.3
1.8
Per cent of
total imports
(%)
3.0
2.7
3.2
0.4
3.9
1.9
2.6
2.5
Per cent of
total imports
(%)
WOOD INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS IN THE GLOB AL ECONOMY
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Brazil to have a larger percentage of wood products in exports than they do,
even if it is well above the world average. The range in the share of wood
products in total imports is more restricted, from 5.8% in Japan and 4.2% in
Italy to 1.8% in Canada.
Share of wood products, including value added products,
in total trade
Figures are available at the country level, but not at regional or global level,
of the value of trade in wood and paper products, including manufactures.
These are shown for 20 of the leading exporting countries in Table 4.6 and
importing countries in Table 4.7. For both exports and imports, the aggregates of the 20 countries show that wood products, in this expanded sense,
accounted for about 4.4% of total commodity exports in 1995. The countries
shown probably made up 85% or more of world exports and imports of
wood products, and so may be considered to be reasonably representative
of the global picture. The inclusion of the manufactures of wood and paper
products, i.e. those with added value, adds approximately 50% to the value
of the products covered by the FAO statistics.
Regarding exports, it can be seen from Table 4.6 that in most countries
the value of pulp, paper and paperboard and their manufactures is higher
than that of wood and cork and their manufactures, the main exceptions
being Indonesia, Malaysia and New Zealand. As a share of total commodity
exports, the range of wood and paper and their manufactures is very wide
– from nearly 35% in Finland and around 16 and 17% in Canada and Sweden
to 0.6% in Japan, 1.2% in the United Kingdom and 1.7% in China.
On the import side, the only country in Table 4.7 where imports of
wood and cork and manufactures are markedly higher than those of pulp,
paper and manufactures is Japan. Japan has a large paper-making sector that
is heavily dependent on imports of wood raw materials. Otherwise, the share
of wood and paper and their manufactures in countries’ imports is between
3 and 5%, with only Japan, Denmark and Norway higher than that.
Given the huge variety of products entering international trade, even a
share of 3% of total exports or imports is quite significant. Table 4.8 shows
by way of illustration the exports of two of the leading exporters, Canada
and Sweden, by main commodity groups in 1995. The largest groups in
Canadian exports are machines and transport equipment, basic manufactures
and crude materials excluding fuels, with wood products comprising sizeable shares of the last two groups. The same main groups, together with
chemicals and related products, also come at the top of Sweden’s exports,
with wood products also figuring prominently in the crude materials
and basic manufactures groups. Wooden furniture is included in the
92
93
19.53
16.17
13.06
7.22
7.72
6.91
1.45
4.52
3.93
0.37
3.48
2.79
2.81
2.72
2.07
2.47
1.50
1.04
1.51
0.78
(billion US$)
Pulp, paper and
paperboardb
c
b
Including manufactures of wood and cork
Including waste (recovered) paper and manufactures of paper and paperboard
1994
d
Excluding Hong Kong
Source: UN International Trade Statistics Yearbook 1995, Vol. I
a
10.67
7.58
2.65
3.21
2.59
2.18
5.03
1.00
1.22
4.66
1.47
1.81
1.05
0.21
0.52
0.05
1.03
1.41
0.79
0.94
Wood and
corka
30.20
23.75
15.72
10.42
10.31
9.09
6.47
5.53
5.15
5.03
4.95
4.61
3.85
2.93
2.59
2.52
2.52
2.45
2.30
1.72
Total wood
products
Pulp, paper and
paperboardb
5.6
1.3
0.5
5.2
8.7
0.8
11.1
0.6
0.5
6.3
0.9
4.0
2.3
0.1
0.6
0.1
4.5
1.0
5.0
6.8
10.2
2.8
2.6
11.8
25.9
2.4
3.2
2.5
1.7
0.5
2.1
6.2
6.0
1.1
2.3
0.6
6.6
0.7
9.5
5.7
15.7
4.1
3.1
17.0
34.6
3.2
14.3
3.1
2.2
6.8
3.0
10.2
8.3
1.2
2.9
0.6
11.1
1.7
14.5
12.5
Total wood
products
(% of total commodity exports)
Wood and
corka
Share of wood products in total value of commodity exports in 1995 in leading exporting countries
Canada
USA
Germany
Swedenc
Finlandc
France
Indonesia
Netherlands
Italy
Malaysia
Belgium–Lux.
Austriac
Brazil
United Kingdom
Spain
Japan
Portugal
Chinad
Chile
New Zealand
Country
Table 4.6
WOOD INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS IN THE GLOB AL ECONOMY
94
17.16
5.20
13.08
9.90
9.15
6.51
5.50
4.46
2.79
3.41
3.53
3.06
1.66§
2.20
2.56
1.55
1.30§
1.68§
1.06§
0.99
(billion US$)
Pulp, paper and
paperboardb
b
Including manufactures of wood and cork
Including waste (recovered) paper and manufactures of paper and paperboard
c
Excluding Hong Kong
d
1994
§ Incomplete data
Source: UN International Trade Statistics Yearbook 1995, Vol. I
a
10.56
15.94
6.47
3.37
2.63
3.73
2.19
1.65
2.61
1.52
1.35
1.53
1.81
1.10
0.37
1.22
1.16§
0.59§
0.86
0.73
Wood and
corka
27.71
21.14
19.55
13.27
11.78
10.24
7.69
6.11
5.40
4.93
4.88
4.59
3.47§
3.30
2.93
2.77
2.46§
2.27§
1.92§
1.72
Total wood
products
Pulp, paper and
paperboardb
1.4
4.7
1.5
1.3
1.0
1.8
1.4
0.9
1.9
0.9
1.2
1.2
4.3
1.4
0.5
2.2
1.6§
1.0§
2.6
1.4
2.2
1.6
2.9
3.8
3.3
3.2
3.5
3.0
2.1
2.1
3.1
2.3
4.0§
2.8
3.5
2.8
1.8§
2.9§
3.2§
1.9
3.6
6.3
4.4
5.1
4.3
5.0
4.9
4.0
4.0
3.0
4.3
3.5
8.3§
4.2
4.0
5.0
3.4§
4.0§
5.9§
3.3
Total wood
products
(% of total commodity imports)
Wood and
corka
Share of wood products in total value of commodity imports in 1995 in leading importing countries
USA
Japan
Germany
United Kingdom
France
Italy
Netherlands
Belgium–Lux.
South Korea
Canada
Spain
Chinac
Denmark
Switzerland
Mexico
Austriad
Thailand
Australia
Norway
Swedend
Table 4.7
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
95
Source: UN International Trade Statistics Yearbook 1995, Vol. I
192 133
12 342
23 684
8 445
8 073
17 268
10 900
32 268
2 221
11 462
75 070
9 613
10 495
CANADA
Exports
(million US$)
100.0
6.5
12.3
4.4
4.2
9.0
5.7
16.8
1.1
6.0
39.1
5.0
5.5
Per cent
of total
(%)
Value of exports from Canada and Sweden by main commodity groups in 1995
ALL COMMODITIES
Food & animals, beverages & tobacco
Crude materials, excl. fuels
• Wood and cork
• Pulp and waste paper
Mineral fuels, etc.
Chemicals, related products, nes
Basic manufactures
• Wood & cork manufactures nes
• Paper, paperboard and manufactures
Machines, transport equipment
Miscellaneous manufactured goods
Goods not classified by kind
Table 4.8
61 360
1 234
4 817
2512
1346
1 559
5 686
15 032
696
5870
27 618
5 046
254
SWEDEN
Exports
(million US$)
100.0
2.0
7.9
4.1
2.2
2.5
9.3
24.5
1.1
9.6
45.0
8.2
0.4
Per cent
of total
(%)
WOOD INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS IN THE GLOB AL ECONOMY
96
Source: UN International Trade Statistics Yearbook 1995, Vol. I
ALL COMMODITIES
Food & animals, beverages & tobacco
Crude materials, excluding fuels
• Wood and cork
• Pulp and waste paper
Minerals, fuels, etc.
Chemicals, related products nes
Basic manufactures
• Wood & cork manufactures nes
• Paper, paperboard and manufactures
Machines, transport equipment
Miscellaneous manufactured goods
Goods not classified by kind
770 822
34 992
22 311
6 552
3 984
63 052
41 346
94 767
4 005
13 174
357 625
129 077
26 204
Imports cif
(million US$)
100.0
1.5
2.9
0.9
1.5
8.2
5.4
12.3
0.5
1.7
46.4
16.7
3.4
Per cent
of total
(%)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Table 4.9 Value of imports by the USA and Japan by main commodity groups in 1995
336 094
50 776
34 268
12 247
2 984
53 976
23 862
39 847
3 689
2 215
75 722
49 365
7 518
Imports cif
(million US$)
100.0
15.1
10.2
3.6
0.9
16.1
7.1
11.9
1.1
0.7
22.5
14.7
2.2
Per cent
of total
(%)
JAPAN
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
WOOD INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS IN THE GLOB AL ECONOMY
miscellaneous manufactured goods group, within which it is not shown separately in the UN statistics from which the table was derived.
Figures for the USA and Japan, the two leading importers of wood
products, are given in Table 4.9, which shows imports in 1995 by main commodity groups. In the USA, 46% of all commodity imports is accounted for
by machines and transport equipment, which includes such major items as
road and railway vehicles and aircraft and their parts, and office equipment.
Wood and paper and their manufactures make up a sizeable proportion of
the imports of crude materials and basic manufactures. Japan differs from
the USA in that a much larger proportion of its imports consists of food,
beverages and tobacco (15%), crude materials (10%) and mineral fuels (16%),
while machines and transport equipment make up 23% or half the share in
the USA. Wood and paper and their manufactures account for 6.3% of total
imports in Japan, a much larger share than the 3.6% in the USA.
The information presented in this chapter has demonstrated that the
wood-processing industries and wood products hold a quite important place
in the national economies and international trade of many countries and play
a key role in a number of them that are major exporters. The relative importance of the wood-processing sector and wood products varies from country
to country depending on such factors as the size of the forest resource,
the stage of each country’s industrial and economic development, and the
demand for wood products by the population.
97
CHAPTER
5
Overview of
world trade in
wood products
I
n 1997, world exports of wood products, including recovered (waste)
paper but excluding wood and paper manufactures and cork and its products, amounted to US$136 billion (FAO database). The value of imports
was US$145 billion, the difference being partly explained by the fact that
exports were reported on an fob (free on board) basis and imports on a cif
(cost, insurance, freight) basis.
Distribution of world trade in wood products
by commodity groups
The shares of the five product groups are shown in Table 5.1. Paper and
paperboard accounted for by far the largest share, in value terms, with 48%
of total exports, followed by sawnwood with 19%, woodpulp (including
waste paper) and wood-based panels with around 13% each, and wood raw
materials with 8%. This distribution reflects the high average unit value
of paper and paperboard compared with the other groups, especially
wood raw materials. When expressed in cubic metres equivalent volume
of wood in the rough (m3 EQ), the distribution is quite different, as seen in
Fig. 5.1.
98
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
Table 5.1
Value of world trade in wood productsa in 1997 by commodity group
PRODUCT
EXPORTS
(billion US$)
Per cent
of total
(%)
IMPORTS
(billion US$)
Per cent
of total
(%)
138.3
9.9
25.7
17.1
17.5
67.6
0.5
100.0
7.1
18.6
12.4
12.6
48.9
0.4
145.0
12.5
28.8
17.2
18.8
67.1
0.6
100.0
8.6
19.9
11.9
13.0
46.3
0.4
TOTAL
Wood raw material
Sawnwood
Wood-based panels
Woodpulpb
Paper & paperboard
Unspecified
a
Not including manufactures thereof
Including recovered (waste) paper
Source: FAO database
b
The unit m3 EQ, which is used in several places in this book, is
obtained by multiplying the actual volume or mass of each wood product
by a factor which converts it into the volume of wood raw material
(wood in the rough) needed in its manufacture. For some products, such
as sawnwood and plywood, which are produced uniquely from roundwood,
it is the same thing as roundwood equivalent. For others, which also use
industrial wood residues and chips, such as woodpulp and particle board,
and waste paper in the case of paper and paperboard, it is the volume
of wood in the rough that would be needed if no residues, chips or waste
paper were used. Among the larger volume products, the conversion
factors applied in this book are: for one cubic metre of sawn softwood,
plywood and particle board, 1.8, 2.3 and 1.43 respectively; and for
one metric tonne (oven-dry) of chemical woodpulp, 4.8, of paper and
paperboard, 3.4, and of waste paper, 2.5. The conversion factors vary
from country to country, indeed from mill to mill, depending on the
processing technology, and they also change over time as technology
develops and the quality of raw material alters, so that the general
factors used here should be considered as approximate averages at the global
level.
The volume of world exports of wood products in total in 1997
was 927 million m3 EQ. Paper and paperboard accounted for the largest
share with 32%, much less than their 48% share of the value. The shares
of woodpulp (including waste paper) and wood raw material were 22
and 14% of total volume respectively, substantially higher than their shares
by value. That of sawnwood of 22% was also higher than its share of total
value.
99
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Wood raw
material
7%
Sawnwood
19%
Paper &
paperboard
49%
Wood-based
panels
12%
Woodpulp &
waste paper
13%
A. SHARE OF VALUE
Wood raw
material
14%
Paper &
paperboard
33%
Sawnwood
23%
Wood-based
panels
11%
Woodpulp &
waste paper
19%
B. SHARE OF VOLUME
5.1 Shares of commodity groups in world exports of wood products in 1997:
value compared with volume (source: FAO database).
Distribution of world trade in wood products
by country groups
The respective shares of the value of world trade in wood products in 1997
of the seven country groups used in this book are shown in Table 5.2. Two
groups, Europe and North America, accounted for three-quarters of total
100
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
Table 5.2
Value of world trade in wood productsa in 1997 by country groups
COUNTRY GROUP
EXPORTS
(billion US$)
Per cent
of total
(%)
IMPORTS
(billion US$)
Per cent
of total
(%)
138.3
45.5
60.3
4.2
6.6
13.6
2.6
5.5
100.0
32.9
43.6
3.0
4.8
9.8
1.9
4.0
145.0
28.1
62.9
1.5
33.1
10.2
3.0
6.2
100.0
19.4
43.4
1.0
22.8
7.0
2.1
4.3
WORLD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
a
Not including manufactures thereof
Source: FAO database
exports, with ‘Other Asia-Pacific’ taking a further 10%. For imports, Europe,
East Asia and North America between them accounted for 85% of the world
total. As will be discussed in a later chapter, a substantial part of world
trade is intra-regional, particularly in the case of Europe and North America.
Thus if the present 15 countries of the European Union were treated as
a single trading entity, Europe’s share of the world total would fall appreciably. Similarly, if trade between Canada and the USA were excluded from
North American exports and imports, that region’s imports would become
relatively unimportant, and its exports would be very substantially reduced.
Virtually all countries are importers of wood products, and the majority of them are also exporters; however, the bulk of world trade is carried
out by a fairly limited number of countries. Adding exports and imports
together, which is not a very meaningful exercise but useful just for this
discussion, ten countries would account for over two-thirds of the value of
world trade in wood products. In 1997, the countries concerned were, in
descending order of importance: the United States of America, Canada,
Germany, Japan, China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong), the United
Kingdom, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Austria.
The ‘Top 20’ exporting and importing countries of
wood products in 1997
Table 5.3 lists the ‘Top 20’ exporters and importers of wood products in 1997
in terms of value. The top 20 exporters of wood products in 1997 accounted
for 86% of the world total, and the top 20 importers for 83%. The five leading
exporting countries were Canada, the USA, Germany, Finland and Sweden,
101
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 5.3
‘Top 20’ exporting and importing countries of wood productsa in 1997
EXPORTING
COUNTRIES
IMPORTING
COUNTRIES
(million US $)
Canada
USA
Finland
Sweden
Germany
Indonesia
France
Malaysia
Austria
China
Russian Federation
Netherlands
Italy
Brazil
Belgium–Luxembourg
United Kingdom
Switzerland
Spain
Norway
Japan
All other countries
25 648
19 835
10 414
10 295
9 828
5 142
4 664
3 952
3 835
3 743
3 008
2 667
2 651
2 647
2 446
2 124
1 893
1 699
1 655
1 640
18 495
USA
Japan
China
Germany
United Kingdom
Italy
France
Netherlands
Canada
South Korea
Spain
Belgium–Luxembourg
Switzerland
Austria
Denmark
Thailand
Australia
Mexico
Sweden
Brazil
All other countries
(million US $)
24 134
16 684
12 641
10 916
9 993
6 823
5 866
4 658
3 976
3 740
3 720
3 372
2 212
2 016
1 950
1 528
1 498
1 470
1 398
1 314
25 072
a
Not including manufactures thereof
Source: FAO database
and they alone accounted for more than half the world total. Likewise, the
five leading importing countries, the USA, Japan, China, Germany and the
United Kingdom, also held more than half the world total of imports. It is
interesting to find that two countries, the USA and Germany, figure among
the four leading exporters and importers, although for both of them the
value of imports outweighs that of exports, in the case of the USA by a considerable margin. It is also noteworthy that no less than 15 out of the top
20 exporting countries are also found among the top 20 importers, and vice
versa. There are several important exporting countries that one might have
expected to be among the top 20 exporters, such as Chile, New Zealand and
Portugal. Portugal would certainly move into the top 20 if cork and cork
products were included as wood products. Among importing countries,
those just failing to reach the top 20 included Brazil, Malaysia, Singapore and,
again, Portugal.
There are a number of surprises on the list of leading exporters. It
includes several countries that are either poorly endowed with forest
102
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
resources, including China, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium–Luxembourg and
the United Kingdom, or which are usually thought of as importers of wood
products, such as Germany and Japan. Major exporters that also figure on
the list of importers include Canada, Austria and Sweden; imports in Thailand, which was in the past more noted as an exporter, now exceed exports.
The reasons for these apparent anomalies include:
1
Some countries act as in-transit processors, importing raw material
or semi-processed products and exporting processed products, or
simply re-export the imported goods.
2 The species composition of countries’ forest resources provides the
raw material for the production of certain products, but not of
others which have to be imported.
3 Specialisation has created two-way trade in the same product but
with differing specifications or qualities.
4 Waste paper and wood residues provide a substantial part of the
raw material base for certain wood products, such as pulp and
paper, and are often abundant in major importing and consuming
countries. Sometimes also ‘wood products’ are made wholly or
partly from non-wood materials, an example being flaxboard, a
particle board produced and exported mainly by Belgium. These
will be discussed in more detail later when trade trends in individual products are reviewed.
Changing pattern of commodity composition in trade
Most of the wood products in use half a century ago are still found in the
market today, although there are some whose importance has diminished
considerably. These include pitprops, railway sleepers, insulating board and
typing copy paper. This trend has been the result of either substitution by
other, wood or non-wood, products or of the decline of the user sector,
or both. For example, wooden pitprops, which were of major commercial
importance until some time after the Second World War, have been largely
replaced by steel ones, but a more significant factor has been the marked
decline in underground coal mining in many countries. At the same time,
there are products that are commercially important today that did not exist
50 years ago, which have been created either in response to an emergent
market need, or as the result of technological development, which resulted
in them taking market share from more traditional products. Examples of
the former are computer, photocopying and fax papers; and of the latter
medium density fibreboard (MDF) and oriented strand board (OSB).
103
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Pattern of exports
Before looking at how the pattern of trade has evolved, it is interesting to
see the commodity composition of world trade in wood products in the late
1990s and the regional shares. These are set out in Tables 5.4 for exports and
5.5 for imports.
Wood raw material
World exports of wood raw material amounted to 122 million m3 in 1997,
roughly equally divided between coniferous roundwood (sawlogs and
veneer logs, pulpwood round and split, and other industrial roundwood),
non-coniferous roundwood, and wood chips and residues. The former USSR,
including the Baltic States, held the largest share of coniferous (softwood)
roundwood exports with 33%, Europe about 25%, North America 20%
and New Zealand (in Other Asia-Pacific) and Chile (in the Latin American
group) for most of the remaining 20%. Trade in non-coniferous (hardwood
or broadleaved) roundwood is divided between that of tropical hardwoods,
mainly sawlogs and veneer logs, and temperate hardwoods, the largest
category being pulpwood. Other Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America
export tropical hardwood logs, and their exports accounted for over half
of total non-coniferous roundwood in 1997, with Other Asia-Pacific
alone taking 30%. The leading exporters in 1997 were Malaysia and Papua
New Guinea. The former USSR, with nearly one-quarter of the world
total, is the main exporter of temperate non-coniferous roundwood.
Chips are the main component of the chips and residues group, and
the largest trade in chips is around the Pacific Rim, notably from the USA
(softwood chips) and Australia (hardwood chips) to Japan for use in paper
making.
Sawnwood
Sawnwood exports totalled 114 million m3 in 1997, of which 85% was of
sawn softwood. Nearly all sawn softwood is exported from northern hemisphere regions: more than half from North America and a third from Europe.
On the other hand, over half of sawn hardwood exports comes from southern hemisphere (tropical) regions, with Other Asia-Pacific alone accounting
for over one-quarter of all sawn hardwood exports; Malaysia is the world’s
leading sawn hardwood exporter. North America and Europe each accounted
for more than one-fifth of world exports of sawn hardwood, all apart from
a small quantity of re-exported tropical wood from Europe, consisting of
temperate zone species.
104
105
96 906
16 802
3 480
20 593
17 792
8 600
2 890
30 401
18 768
30 449
39 429
Sawnwood (m3)
• Coniferous (softwood)
• Non-coniferous (hardwood)
Wood-based panels (m3)
• Veneer sheets
• Plywood
• Particle board
• Fibreboard
Woodpulp (mt)
• Mechanical & semi-chemical
• Chemical incl. dissolving
Paper and paperboard (mt)
• Newsprint
• Printing & writing
• Other paper & paperboard
Source: FAO database
47 466
37 386
37 177
WORLD
(1000 units)
52.0
15.3
31.3
66.5
48.4
28.1
11.9
36.1
15.6
53.2
24.5
20.7
4.7
24.6
North
America
37.4
73.0
48.2
22.6
27.2
15.9
10.9
52.2
52.0
33.4
21.3
26.2
17.9
21.5
Europe
World exports of wood products and regional shares in 1997
Wood raw material (m3)
• Coniferous roundwood
• Non-coniferous roundwood
• Chips & residues
Table 5.4
4.5
0.7
1.4
0.1
3.1
0.7
4.5
4.8
4.8
8.8
3.7
33.5
23.5
3.9
Former
USSR
1.8
5.5
12.1
–
0.3
8.6
6.3
0.8
3.2
0.2
6.6
0.2
1.5
8.0
2.7
2.6
4.0
10.3
5.6
29.3
61.7
3.9
16.6
1.7
25.6
14.8
30.0
25.7
Other
Asia-Pacific
(% of world total)
East Asia
0.6
0.2
0.5
–
1.8
9.5
0.8
0.1
0.1
0.1
7.9
0.3
17.1
5.8
Africa
1.0
2.6
2.5
0.4
13.7
8.0
3.9
2.0
7.7
2.7
10.3
4.3
5.3
10.4
Latin
America
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
106
96 559
21 066
3 788
19 522
16 553
9 095
2 585
30 085
18 566
28 362
38 678
Sawnwood (m3)
• Coniferous (softwood)
• Non-coniferous (hardwood)
Wood-based panels (m3)
• Veneer sheets
• Plywood
• Particle board
• Fibreboard
Woodpulp (mt)
• Mechanical & semi-chemical
• Chemical incl. dissolving
Paper and paperboard (mt)
• Newsprint
• Printing & writing
• Other paper & paperboard
Source: FAO database
49 617
41 326
43 351
Wood raw material (m3)
• Coniferous roundwood
• Non-coniferous roundwood
• Chips & residues
WORLD
(1000 units)
35.1
19.4
12.6
15.9
18.4
23.6
11.8
36.9
11.8
44.8
10.4
10.5
4.9
7.1
North
America
36.3
58.8
45.9
32.8
49.2
24.3
24.4
47.2
48.2
32.8
36.8
41.9
53.0
23.5
Europe
Table 5.5 World imports of wood products and regional shares in 1997
0.9
1.1
1.5
–
0.2
1.2
0.6
2.2
1.7
0.8
0.6
1.5
0.4
0.1
Former
USSR
10.5
8.7
21.4
36.9
21.8
42.9
50.4
9.3
27.2
12.8
27.9
44.3
34.0
69.0
9.5
7.3
7.4
8.7
6.2
4.9
8.2
2.5
6.4
3.0
15.0
1.1
6.3
0.2
Other
Asia-Pacific
(% of world total)
East Asia
1.1
2.0
2.3
2.8
0.8
1.3
2.0
0.4
1.9
4.1
4.2
0.5
1.2
–
Africa
6.6
2.7
8.9
2.9
3.4
1.9
2.6
1.5
2.8
1.7
5.1
0.2
0.2
0.1
Latin
America
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
Wood-based panels
World exports of wood-based panels amounted to over 50 million m3 in 1997,
about half consisting of plywood and veneer sheets and half of particle board
and fibreboard. Over three-fifths of total plywood exports originated from
Other Asia-Pacific, where Indonesia is the region’s and indeed the world’s
largest exporter. Taking account of exports of plywood manufactured from
imported tropical hardwood logs in temperate countries, more than threequarters of world plywood exports are made from tropical species. Approximately one-quarter of plywood exports came from the northern
hemisphere regions, produced from softwoods, especially in North America,
or temperate or imported tropical hardwoods. Particle board and fibreboard
exports are concentrated in North America and Europe, although in the case
of fibreboard, Other Asia-Pacific (notably New Zealand) and Latin America
(notably Chile and Brazil) accounted for 17 and 8% respectively in 1997,
partly as a result of the strong growth in trade in MDF.
Woodpulp, paper and paperboard
Total exports of woodpulp reached 33 million tonnes in 1997, threequarters of which from North America and Europe. Of the other regions,
only Latin America shipped large quantities, about 14% of the world total of
chemical woodpulp, Brazil and Chile being the main exporters. North
America and Europe also accounted for the major share of world exports of
paper and paperboard, which amounted to 89 million tonnes in 1997. North
America exported over half the newsprint total, and Europe nearly threequarters of printing and writing papers and nearly half of other paper and
paperboard. East Asia was also a significant exporter of other paper and
paperboard, with 12% of the world total.
Pattern of imports
Theoretically, the world totals of imports of wood products in Table 5.5
should be close to those of exports in Table 5.4. This is not always the case
for a number of reasons. Firstly, there can be problems of classification: the
same product being classified under different Standard International Trade
Classification (SITC) headings in different countries. Secondly, where
volumes or quantities have to be converted into metric units from other
units, inappropriate conversion factors may be used. Thirdly, there may be
a time factor: a consignment may be reported as shipped by the exporter in
one year but not reported as received by the importer until the following
year. There may be other reasons too: for example, some shipments, such as
107
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
illicit exports or imports, may not be reported at all. The fact that the world
export and import volumes are within a few per cent of each other for most
products and that the greater the product aggregation the closer they are
suggests that, generally speaking, the statistics can be accepted with a fair
degree of confidence.
Wood raw material
East Asia was by far the largest importer of wood raw material in 1997, with
44% of the world total of coniferous roundwood, 34% of non-coniferous
roundwood and 69% of chips and residues. There was an unfortunate change
in classification when SITC Revision 3 was introduced (UN 1994), which
made it no longer possible to distinguish between sawlogs and veneer logs
and pulpwood, the two main categories of industrial roundwood. Consequently, roundwood imports consist of both these categories as well as some
other industrial roundwood, such as pitprops and poles. Some idea of the
type of roundwood can be gained from its origin. For example, the Nordic
countries import large quantities of non-coniferous pulpwood from the
former USSR, while other European countries import tropical hardwood
sawlogs and veneer logs from Africa and other southern hemisphere regions,
as well as temperate zone hardwood sawlogs, veneer logs and pulpwood
from Europe and temperate zone hardwood sawlogs and veneer logs from
North America.
Sawnwood
North America accounted for 45% of world imports of sawn softwood in
1997, but a large proportion of that consisted of intra-regional trade, mostly
from Canada to the USA. Most of Europe’s imports, 33% of the world total,
are also from intra-regional trade, but with supplies also from the former
USSR and North America. East Asia is the third largest importing region with
13%. For sawn hardwood, Europe had 37% of world total imports, East Asia
28% and Other Asia-Pacific 15%, consisting partly of tropical species from
the southern hemisphere and temperate zone species from Europe and
North America.
Wood-based panels
East Asia was the largest regional importer of plywood and veneer sheets in
1997, with 50 and 43% respectively of the world totals, followed by Europe
with 24% of each. As for sawn hardwood, the pattern of East Asia’s plywood
imports has changed over the past decade or so, as Japan and South Korea
108
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
in particular have come to rely less on imports of sawlogs and veneer logs
for processing themselves into sawnwood and plywood, and have increased
their imports of the latter products at the expense of domestic production.
Europe is the predominant importer of both particle board and fibreboard,
with around half the world total of each. North American imports of particle board accounted for more than a third of the world total of imports of
those boards, a large and relatively new trade flow being of OSB from Canada
to the USA.
Woodpulp, paper and paperboard
Europe and East Asia are the most important importers of woodpulp,
between them accounting for nearly 70% of the world total in 1997. Although
very large importers of wood raw material for the production of woodpulp,
Japan and other East Asian importers are importing increasing volumes of
woodpulp for paper manufacture. Europe, mainly the Nordic countries, also
imports considerable volumes of pulpwood from the former USSR, but the
region as a whole is, like East Asia, a heavy importer of woodpulp from other
regions, notably North and Latin America. Europe is the leading importer
of paper and paperboard, much of the trade being intra-regional; similarly
most of North America’s imports are from intra-regional trade, notably of
newsprint between Canada and the USA, which made up 35% of the world
total in 1997.
Trends in trade
In recent decades, trade in wood products has grown strongly and the rate
of growth has outstripped that of production and consumption. For the main
product groups the volume increases in production and exports between
1970 and 1995 were as follows:
Sawnwood
Wood-based panels
Woodpulp
Paper and paperboard
Production
(% increase)
Exports
(% increase)
3
110
59
123
50
327
98
220
The trends in consumption were similar to those of production, and of
imports to those of exports. Thus, as was seen in Chapter 4, trade has been
109
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 5.6 Value of world trade in wood products and regional shares in 1980 and
1995, and changes between 1980 and 1995
Share of
world total
Value
1980
1995
1980
(billion US$)
1995
Increase
1980–1995a
(%)
160
157
188
(%)
EXPORTS
WORLD, of which:
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
56.74
17.95
23.14
2.70
2.04
7.72
1.57
1.61
147.73
46.09
66.65
4.90
6.36
14.31
2.90
6.52
100.0
31.6
40.8
4.8
3.6
13.6
2.8
2.8
100.0
31.2
45.1
3.3
4.3
9.7
2.0
4.4
IMPORTS
WORLD, of which:
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
63.27
8.37
30.67
0.84
12.94
5.95
1.79
2.71
152.99
25.49
71.23
0.37
35.21
11.57
3.13
5.99
100.0
13.2
48.5
1.3
20.5
9.4
2.8
4.3
100.0
16.7
46.6
0.2
23.0
7.6
2.0
3.9
b
212
85
85
305
142
204
132
b
172
94
75
121
a
The values in 1980 and 1995 are in current US dollars; therefore the changes shown are not real changes
but are still of interest for comparison between one region and another
b
As the USSR was one country in 1980 but had become 15 by 1995, the 1995 figure cannot be compared with 1980. The actual increase of exports is less than the apparent one of 81% and the actual
decrease in imports more than the apparent one of 56%
Source: FAO database
playing an increasingly important role in the overall supply–demand balance
of wood products.
Trends in value of trade
Table 5.6 shows how the value of world exports and imports changed over
the 15 years from 1980 to 1995. Note that, since the values are given in
current US dollars and have not been adjusted for inflation, the increases
shown exaggerate the growth in real terms. However, the table is interesting in showing the differences in growth rates between the regional groups,
with much faster expansion in exports than the world average of 160% in
110
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
Table 5.7 Value of world exports of wood products by commodity groups in 1980
and 1995, and changes between 1980 and 1995
Share of
world total
Value
1980
1995
1980
(billion US$)
TOTALb
Wood raw material
Sawnwood
Wood-based panels
Woodpulp & waste paper
Paper & paperboard
Unspecified
56.74
8.68
12.34
5.16
10.29
20.03
0.24
147.73
11.55
24.78
16.39
25.42
69.14
0.45
1995
Increase
1980–1995a
(%)
100.0
7.8
16.8
11.1
17.2
46.8
0.3
160
33
101
218
147
245
88
(%)
100.0
15.3
21.7
9.1
18.1
35.3
0.4
a
The values in 1980 and 1995 are in current US dollars; therefore the changes are not real changes but
are still of interest for comparison between one commodity group and another
b
The totals are slightly less than the world totals in Table 5.6, the difference being mainly due to the exclusion of fuelwood and charcoal in this table
Source: FAO database
Latin America and East Asia, although in both regions the values were relatively small in 1980. On the other hand, export growth in the former USSR,
Other Asia-Pacific and Africa was much less than average, partly associated
with the fact that wood raw material and sawnwood, both of which
expanded relatively slowly, made up a sizeable part of their exports.
The two regions where imports increased faster than the world average
were North America and East Asia, as a result of which they raised their shares
of the total to 17 and 23% respectively. Europe raised its imports by 132%
over fifteen years, somewhat slower than the world average, but still held
about 47% of the total value in 1995. Imports into Other Asia-Pacific and
Africa expanded more slowly than average, while those into the former USSR
declined appreciably, as the economic depression following the break-up of
the Soviet Union made it difficult to afford imports. The shares of world
imports of the three southern hemisphere regions, Other Asia-Pacific, Africa
and Latin America, were all lower in 1995 than 1980.
While world trade in the wood products covered in Table 5.7 (fuelwood
and charcoal are not included) expanded by 160% between 1980 and 1995,
that of wood-based panels, paper and paperboard rose considerably faster,
by 245 and 216% respectively, and as a consequence their shares of the total
were also raised, to 47% in the case of paper and paperboard. On the other
hand, there was only slow growth in trade of wood raw material (33%) and
slower than average growth in that of sawnwood (101%), and their shares
111
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 5.8
Trends in world exports of wood products by main groups, 1965–1995
1965
1970
Units
Wood raw material
Sawnwood
Wood-based panels
Woodpulp
Recovered paper
Paper & paperboard
m3
m3
m3
mt
mt
mt
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
111.2
89.0
30.6
24.9
13.3
55.6
130.9
111.2
42.5
33.6
16.5
74.9
(million units)
53.6
50.1
5.3
12.5
..
16.5
93.6
57.4
10.0
16.9
1.8
23.4
98.7
52.4
12.4
15.1
2.5
23.1
114.3
79.6
16.3
21.2
5.5
35.1
105.0
86.0
19.3
21.8
8.5
41.0
Source: FAO database
dipped. There has been a tendency for some exporting countries to ban or
limit the export of roundwood with the aim of encouraging domestic
processing and export of processed products. Canada, Indonesia and
peninsular Malaysia are examples of this policy. In the case of sawnwood,
the slow growth in trade is partly associated with the modest rise in demand,
but also with the tendency towards further processing, for example into
doors, windows and other building components, as well as into furniture.
Despite rapid growth in trade in waste (recovered) paper since 1980,
the share of woodpulp and waste paper in aggregate in total trade was
slightly lower in 1995 than in 1980. There has been a trend towards the integration of pulp and paper making, which has resulted in a stagnation or lowering of woodpulp exports from some traditional exporters such as Sweden
and Finland, which was more than compensated by stronger growth in paper
and paperboard shipments. Partly offsetting this, however, has been the
emergence of a number of new woodpulp producers and exporters, based
on fast-growing plantations, for example in Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and South
Africa.
Trends in volume of exports
Trade reported in volume or quantity does not give a good idea of the
relative importance of the various products, but does show the real trend
over time. Table 5.8 shows the trends in world exports between 1965
and 1995 of the volumes of the main wood products groups, and Fig. 5.2
traces the trend over the same 30-year period as indices, taking 1980 as 100.
The fastest growth over the 15 years 1980 to 1995 was in waste paper, an
increase of nearly 200%. This was followed by wood-based panels (161%)
and paper and paperboard (114%). There was slower growth in exports of
112
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
Index – 1980 = 100
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1965
1970
1975
1980
Wood raw material
Wood-based panels
Waste paper
1985
1990
1995
Sawnwood
Woodpulp
Paper & paperboard
5.2 World exports by volume of main product groups, 1965–1995 (source: FAO
database).
woodpulp (58%), sawnwood (40%) and wood raw material (15%). Both
before 1980 and after, the long-term trend in trade of all the wood products
groups has been upward, although least decisively for wood raw material as
a group.
Within the main product groups, the long-term trends in trade have
varied, as may be seen in Table 5.9. In the wood raw material group,
chip exports (and imports) more than doubled between 1980 and 1995,
while those of industrial roundwood (mainly sawlogs, veneer logs and pulpwood) stagnated. Because of the changes in classification of roundwood,
mentioned earlier, it is difficult to trace the long-term development of trade
of the categories within the roundwood group at the global level. However,
more will be said about this later when the regional patterns of trade are
analysed.
Plywood showed the fastest growth in trade over the 15 years among
the wood-based panels, although in the 10 years 1985 to 1995 there were
sharp increases in trade in particle board, boosted by the emergence of OSB
and trade in that product between Canada and the USA, and in fibreboard,
in this case spurred by the dynamic worldwide growth in MDF. In the paper
and paperboard group, the rapid growth in trade of printing and writing
paper contrasts with the more prosaic increase in that of newsprint. Figure
5.3 shows how the shares of products within each product group have
evolved over the 30 years to 1995. For the sake of conciseness, details of the
trends in import volumes of wood products at the world level are not given
here, since they closely mirror those of exports. Obviously, trends in exports
and imports differ at the regional and country levels, and these are given
attention in chapters 6 and 7.
113
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 5.9
Trends in world exports of wood products, 1980–1995
1980
Units
1985
1990
1995
Change
1980–1995
(%)
(million units)
Wood raw material
• Industrial roundwood
• Wood chips
• Wood residues
m3
m3
m3
93.31
17.47
3.53
86.68
14.63
3.68
83.40
24.42
3.37
88.82
37.02
5.10
-5
112
45
Sawnwood
• Sawn softwood
• Sawn hardwood
m3
m3
66.44
13.19
73.81
12.23
73.82
15.19
94.35
16.90
42
28
Wood-based panels
• Veneer sheets
• Plywood
• Particle board
• Fibreboard
m3
m3
m3
m3
1.42
6.63
5.95
2.31
1.78
8.85
6.44
2.27
2.14
15.65
9.34
3.49
2.80
19.51
14.30
5.93
97
194
140
156
Woodpulp & waste paper
• Mechanical
• Semi-chemical
• Chemical pulp for paper
• Dissolving pulp
• Waste (recovered) paper
mt
mt
mt
mt
mt
1.25
0.11
18.18
1.65
5.53
1.33
0.12
18.99
1.33
8.53
1.30
0.87
21.36
1.42
13.27
1.27
1.62
29.13
1.55
16.48
2
1398
60
-6
198
Paper and paperboard
• Newsprint
• Printing & writing
• Other paper & paperboard
mt
mt
mt
12.30
7.25
15.53
13.93
9.91
17.12
15.34
16.32
23.97
17.83
25.65
31.47
45
254
103
Source: FAO database
Cyclical trade movements
By showing export volumes at five-year intervals, the cyclical nature of trade
is partly hidden. Nevertheless, the checking or falling back of trade of some
wood products in the mid-1970s in the aftermath of the first oil price shock
and subsequent economic recession in 1973/74 is apparent from Table 5.8
and Fig. 5.3. Some products are more prone to cyclical trade movements
than others, as may be seen in Fig. 5.4, which shows annual exports of
selected wood products for the period 1970 to 1998. The trade cycle in the
mid-1970s was particularly marked, with peaks being reached for roundwood, sawnwood and plywood in 1973 and for woodpulp and paper and
paperboard in 1974, followed by troughs in 1975 for all products. Exports
of industrial roundwood exceeded 100 million m3 in 1973, a level never
reached before or since. For industrial roundwood and sawnwood, cyclical
114
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
140
120
Million m3
100
Wood chips
80
Wood residues
60
Industrial roundwood
40
20
0
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
A. WOOD RAW MATERIAL
120
Million m3
100
80
Sawn hardwood
60
Sawn softwood
40
20
0
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
Million m3
B. SAWNWOOD
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Fibreboard
Particle board
Plywood & veneers
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
C. WOOD-BASED PANELS
5.3 Volumes of world exports of wood products, 1965–1995 (source: FAO
database).
peaks were subsequently reached in 1979 and 1988, with troughs in 1981
(following the second oil price shock) and in the case of sawnwood 1991.
Exports of sawn softwood and plywood hit all-time ‘highs’ in 1997 of 97 and
20.6 million m3 respectively, before falling back partly as a result of the financial crisis in some Asian countries. Exports of sawn hardwood attained an
115
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
60
Million mt
50
40
Waste paper
30
Woodpulp
20
10
0
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
D. WOODPULP AND WASTE PAPER
80
70
Million mt
60
50
Other paper & paperboard
40
Printing & writing
30
Newsprint
20
10
0
1965
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990
E. PAPER AND PAPERBOARD
1995
5.3 Continued
all-time record in 1988 of 17.8 million m3, since when they have moved
within fairly narrow limits with no clear upward or downward trend.
Chemical woodpulp exports reached peaks in 1980, 1988 and an alltime high of 30.4 million tonnes in 1997 and troughs in 1982 and 1992. The
cycles for newsprint were similar: peaks in 1981, 1987, 1995 and an all-time
high of 18.8 million tonnes in 1997 and troughs in 1982, 1991 and 1996.
For printing and writing paper, growth in trade has been strong and almost
uninterrupted; the only decline since 1975 was in 1996. It is noticeable that
the trend of exports of the pulp and paper products selected is more clearly
upward than that of roundwood, sawnwood and plywood. If particle board
and fibreboard, as well as chips, had also been included in the figure, these
would also have shown a marked upward trend.
Trends in export unit values
The market cycles for wood products are apparent from Fig. 5.5, which
shows the average world export unit values for the same products as given
116
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
120
100
Million m3
80
60
40
20
0
1970
1980
Industrial roundwood
1990
Sawn softwood
2000
Sawn hardwood
Plywood
A. INDUSTRIAL ROUNDWOOD, SAWN SOFTWOOD, SAWN HARDWOOD AND
PLYWOOD
35
30
Million mt
25
20
15
10
5
0
1970
1980
1990
Chemical woodpulp
Newsprint
2000
Printing &writing
B. CHEMICAL WOODPULP, NEWSPRINT AND PRINTING & WRITING PAPER
5.4 Annual trend of world exports of selected wood products, 1970–1998
(provisional) (source: FAO database).
in Fig. 5.4. For roundwood, sawnwood and plywood, unit values reached
peaks in 1974, 1980 and, depending on the product, the early or mid-1990s.
It should be recalled that the unit values are shown as indices with 1980
being 100 and are calculated from current US dollars per unit, i.e. they have
not been adjusted to take account of inflation. If a deflator had been applied,
the trend in unit values would probably have been flat, with the possible
exception of sawn hardwood, for which a modest long-term rise in unit value
might have occurred.
117
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
180
160
Index – 1980 = 100
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1970
1980
Industrial roundwood
1990
Sawn softwood
2000
Sawn hardwood
Plywood
A. INDUSTRIAL ROUNDWOOD, SAWN SOFTWOOD, SAWN HARDWOOD AND
PLYWOOD
180
160
Index – 1980 = 100
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1970
1980
1990
Chemical woodpulp
Newsprint
2000
Printing &writing
B. CHEMICAL WOODPULP, NEWSPRINT AND PRINTING & WRITING PAPER
5.5 Average world export unit values (not deflated) for selected wood products,
1970–1998 (provisional) (source: FAO database).
The cyclical movement of unit values for woodpulp and paper was not
quite the same as for the other products. In the 1970s and 1980s, it followed
the same general trend but with a time lag of one or two years. A new peak
was reached towards the end of the 1980s, after which there was quite a
strong downward trend until about 1993 or 1994, followed by a sharp rise
to 1995/1996 and renewed weakness thereafter.
Long-term trends in prices for traded wood products, as distinct
from medium-term cyclical movements, are dependent on the underlying
118
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
supply–demand relationship. The evidence seems to suggest that for most
products the balance has remained fairly stable over the last three decades
or so, resulting in no very marked upward or downward trend in prices,
when expressed in constant value terms. One apparent exception to this,
among the seven products represented in Fig. 5.5, is sawn hardwood, of
which the average unit value of world exports rose from US$193 to US$401
per cubic metre (current, not deflated values) in the 20 years from 1985 to
1995 or 108%, compared with 74% for sawn softwood and 44% for plywood.
That rise in unit value may be associated with the fact that trade in sawn
hardwood has grown more slowly than that for most other wood products
(Table 5.9) and that availability of hardwood sawlogs from the tropical
forests, from which a substantial part of the exports come, is in decline.
Trade in added value wood products
Up to now we have concentrated on those wood products for which statistics are available from all countries and in value as well as quantity. These
are the ‘traditional’ products in unprocessed (roundwood), semi-processed
(chips, sawnwood, woodpulp) form, or at the primary processing stage
(wood-based panels, paper and paperboard), which are contained in FAO’s
database. There is, however, a volume of trade, which has now reached very
large proportions, of secondary processed or added value wood products.
Data are collected by the United Nations Statistical Office (UNSO) from all
countries at an aggregated level and compiled in more detail for major groups
of countries by OECD and EUROSTAT. A global analysis of trade in added
value wood products does not seem to have been undertaken yet, however.
Partly because added value wood products may include elements not made
from wood, as for example in furniture, their importance in the overall wood
balance is difficult to evaluate.
The value of imports of these secondary processed wood products is
shown in Table 5.10 (by main product groups) and in Table 5.11 (by selected
OECD countries).
OECD countries’ trade in added value wood products
OECD countries probably account for more than 90% of total world trade in
added value wood products, also termed secondary processed wood products. The value of these countries’ imports in 1996 was about US$28 billion,
of which wooden furniture accounted for nearly US$19 billion and builders’
woodwork for US$4.3 billion (16%). The value of OECD imports from
119
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 5.10 Value of imports of OECD countries of secondary processed wood products by main product groups, 1992 and 1996
IMPORTS FROM
DEVELOPING
MARKET ECONOMIES
AND CHINA
TOTAL IMPORTS
1992
1996
1992
Increase
(%)
(million US$)
TOTAL
Packings, pallets, etc.
Coopers’ products
Builders’ woodwork
Domestic/decorative
products
Other articles of wood
Wooden furniture
1996
(million US$)
Increase
(%)
23 142
27 870
20
5368
8266
54
603
110
3 150
1 353
801
154
4 340
1 745
33
40
38
29
29
1
615
945
47
2
937
1292
62
26
52
37
1 520
16 405
2 109
18 722
39
14
560
3217
781
5208
39
62
Source: ITC, ITC/UNSO Comtrade database
Table 5.11 Value of imports of secondary processed wood products by selected
OECD countries, 1992 and 1996
TOTAL
1992
1996
(million US$)
TOTAL OECD
United States
Germany
Japan
France
United Kingdom
Netherlands
Switzerland
Austria
Belgium–Luxembourg
Canada
Norway
Other OECD
23 142
3 930
5 179
1 247
2 336
1 554
1 612
1 214
945
1 348
752
428
2 597
WOODEN FURNITURE
1992
Increase
(%)
27 870
6 509
5 304
2 750
2 331
1 656
1 453
1 431
1 287
1 279
672
583
2 615
20
66
2
121
–
7
-10
18
36
-5
-11
36
1
Source: ITC, ITC/UNSO Comtrade database
120
1996
(million US$)
16 405
2 671
3 587
744
1 919
1 061
1 267
946
685
1 000
557
329
1 639
18 722
4 550
3 357
1 589
1 807
1 031
1 002
1 087
918
927
463
423
1 568
Increase
(%)
14
70
-6
114
-6
-3
-21
15
34
-7
-17
29
-4
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
developing market economies and China (DMECs) increased by 54%
between 1992 and 1996, much faster than from the rest of the world, including intra-OECD trade (10%). The share of the former in total OECD imports
rose from 23 to 29% over the 4-year period.
At the country level (Table 5.11) the trend of imports of secondary
processed wood products in total was very uneven between 1992 and 1996.
The USA and Japan showed strong growth; the rest of the OECD countries
in aggregate showed little change. This pattern was similar for wooden furniture. In several countries there were quite marked declines in furniture
imports, for example in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium–Luxembourg
and Canada.
European Union trade in added value wood products
Data from EUROSTAT for the countries of the European Union (15 countries
at the time of writing) allow the share of added value products in these
countries’ total imports of wood products to be evaluated as is shown in
Table 5.12 (which gives the exports also). Note that the term ‘primary
processed wood products’ has been used in this table to denote wood raw
material as well as sawnwood and wood-based panels.
Total exports of wood products, primary processed and added value, of
the 15 countries of the European Union amounted to ECU26.1 billion; this
excludes exports of woodpulp, paper and paperboard and their manufactures. The corresponding figure for imports was ECU28.5 billion. Of the
export total, ECU14 billion or over half consisted of added value products;
and their share of the import total was ECU11.8 billion or two-fifths. Added
value products thus account for an important part of the total trade in
wood products of the European Union, in terms of value. Admittedly,
much of the trade in added value products, nearly two-thirds, is shipments
between EU member countries, but as Table 5.12 shows, there are sizeable
volumes of trade with third parties (non-EU countries). What is striking is
that the EU’s exports of value added wood products to non-EU countries
are higher than its imports, so that in 1997 it was a net exporter, even
if a modest one, of these products. This is in marked contrast with its
external trade in ‘primary processed wood products’, which was heavily
in deficit, with imports from non-EU countries more than double exports
to them.
The range of added value wood products entering trade is wide, and for
convenience they have been grouped under seven main headings in Table
5.12. The most important group by far is wooden furniture, which accounted
for nearly two-thirds of the value of the EU’s added value wood products
121
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 5.12 Trade in added value and other wood products (excluding woodpulp, paper and
paperboard) of the European Union (15 countries) in 1997
Total
exports
Exports
to non-EU
countries
Total
imports
Imports
from non-EU
countries
Net trade
with non-EU
countriesa
(million ECU)
Wooden furniture
Windows, doors, frames
Cases, boxes, drums,
barrels, pallets, etc.
Mouldings, beadings,
blocks for parquet
Parquet panels
Joinery, carpentry, etc.
Other
Total added value
products
9 116
960
701
3549
309
244
6 243
1 023
860
1 939
430
344
1610
-121
-100
677
196
806
362
-166
791
683
1 100
14 028
213
218
369
5098
642
601
1 672
11 847
197
304
1 045
4 621
16
-86
-676
477
‘Primary processed’
wood productsb
12 055
3022
16 613
7 966
-4944
TOTAL
26 083
8120
28 460
12 587
-4467
a
Exports to non-EU countries minus imports from non-EU countries
Wood raw material, sawnwood, wood-based panels
Source: EUROSTAT COMEXT
b
exports in 1997 and over half of its imports. The statistics distinguish
between such categories as desks for offices with wooden frames, wooden
furniture and cupboards for offices, fitted kitchen units and wooden furniture of a kind used in kitchens, wooden furniture for bedrooms, for dining
rooms and for shops, and other categories of wooden furniture. The EU is a
large net exporter of furniture, in contrast to most other added value wood
products of which it is a net importer. Another large group is made up
of windows, French windows and doors, including their frames, which
accounted for about 7% of the EU’s exports of added value products and 9%
of imports in 1997. Wood products used for transport and storage of goods
include packing cases, boxes, drums, barrels and pallets, the last of which
is the most important item in this group. Mouldings, beadings and blocks
and strips for parquet make up another sizeable group, as do parquet panels
and joinery and carpentry products. There are four groups of products in
the table that are used principally in the construction industry (windows,
etc., mouldings, etc., parquet panels and joinery, etc.), which between them
accounted for 22% of the EU’s exports of added value wood products and
122
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
26% of imports, and this constituted the most important aggregated group
of products after furniture.
Products included under ‘Other’in the table are very diverse, and include
such items as wooden frames for pictures, handles for cutlery and tools,
shuttering for concrete formwork, shingles and shakes for roofing and
siding, tableware, statuettes, carvings, marquetry, spools and spindles and
match splints, among others.
Trade in added value paper and paperboard products
A different approach has been used to obtain some idea of the importance
of added value paper and paperboard products. Export and import data
published by the United Nations of paper and paperboard and their manufactures have been compared with FAO’s data of exports and imports of
paper and paperboard, which have not been further processed. The results
for selected countries, which are among the main trading countries in these
products, are shown in Table 5.13 for 1995.
The manufactures of paper and paperboard include a variety of products that have been made up from the basic rolls or sheets, such as writing
and note pads, envelopes, corrugated paperboard, blocks of paper ready for
use in photocopiers, fax machines, computers and so on, tissues ready for
household use, etc., etc. On average in the 16 countries shown in Table 5.13,
these added value products accounted for 30% of the total value of exports
of paper and paperboard and their manufactures in 1995 as well as a higher
proportion of imports. It is noteworthy that for several of the major
exporters of paper and paperboard, such as Canada, Finland and Sweden,
the share of manufactures is relatively low, while in others that are better
recognised as importers of wood products in general, such as Belgium–
Luxembourg, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United
Kingdom, the share of manufactures in exports is relatively high. The share
of countries’ imports of paper and paperboard manufactures is spread quite
widely above and below the average for the 16 countries of 37%, but there
is not a perceptible pattern to explain the spread.
As said earlier, it is unfortunately not possible to give a global estimate
of the importance of added value products in the total trade of wood products. But from the evidence presented here it is clear that they are of considerable importance and merit greater attention than they have generally
received up to now in market and trade analyses. The lacuna can be
explained by the fact that trade data on added value products are often only
available in value, not in quantity. Also for many of them wood is not the
only component in their manufacture, and it is difficult to estimate the
volume of that component and hence its significance in wood trade balances.
123
124
78 240
TOTAL 16 countries
23 118
30
32
50
12
42
59
9
39
35
43
29
47
4
33
13
48
33
(%)
Manufactures
as proportion
of total
69 306
1 203
3 984
2 795
5 529
1 606
373
7 317
9 553
4 045
2 215
4 537
929
2 969
831
8 246
13 174
25 711
537
1 546
1 447
1 093
529
159
3 852
4 046
1 753
520
2 779
160
790
412
3 392
2 696
Manufacturesa
(million US$)
Total paper
& paperboard
imports
IMPORTS
37
45
39
52
20
33
43
53
42
43
23
61
17
27
50
41
20
(%)
Manufactures
as proportion
of total
a
Calculated by deducting value of paper and paperboard exports and imports, as reported by FAO, from that of paper and paperboard and manufactures thereof, as reported by
UN. Note that the data from the two sources may not be completely compatible (see text)
b
1994
Sources: UN International Trade Statistics Yearbook 1995,Vol I; FAO Yearbook of Forest Products 1997
2 656
3 241
11 462
2 887
610
6 997
6 369
12 548
3 906
2 405
4 059
1 178
1 528
5 870
2 636
9 888
843
1 634
1 368
1 225
363
621
2 493
4 381
1 685
706
1 925
53
500
764
1 264
3 293
Manufacturesa
(million US $)
Total paper
& paperboard
exports
EXPORTS
Trade in paper and paperboard and manufactures thereof of selected countries in 1995
Austriab
Belgium–Luxembourg
Canada
China
Denmark
Finlandb
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
South Korea
Spain
Swedenb
United Kingdom
USA
Table 5.13
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
OVERVIEW OF WORLD TRADE IN WOOD PRODUCTS
The share of added value products in the total wood products trade has
almost certainly been growing in recent decades, and is likely to continue
to do so. This should be kept in mind when the pattern and development
of trade in the primary processed wood products are examined in greater
depth in the following chapter, even if they still account for the major part
of total trade.
125
CHAPTER
6
Trade flow patterns
and trends
Some basic principles
The country groupings
A
map of the world showing the pattern of trade flows in wood products would look like an extremely complex cat’s cradle. The objective
of this chapter is to simplify that picture by drawing attention to the
main trade flows between regions and also within regions. The products
covered in this analysis are those that were termed ‘primary processed wood
products’ in the previous chapter, comprising wood raw material, sawnwood, wood-based panels, woodpulp, paper and paperboard and recovered
(waste) paper. These are the products covered in the FAO database. Information on trade patterns of added value products is not adequate for them
to be dealt with here in a satisfactory way.
A large part of trade flows from the countries with extensive forest
resources or important wood-processing industries or both to those with
dense populations and, with some exceptions, advanced economies. For
simplicity, the countries have been placed into seven groups, as described
in the Introduction, which to the extent possible reflect these characteristics while broadly following geographic lines. The resulting groupings may
not be entirely logical, but a compromise can seldom be so. North America,
126
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
for example, has large forest resources and wood-processing industries as
well as, in parts of it, dense population concentrations with very high personal incomes. It is therefore both a large exporter and importer of wood
products, but much of the trade is intra-regional, mostly from Canada to the
USA. Europe’s situation is somewhat similar. The countries of East Asia
(China, including Hong Kong Special Administrative Area and the Province
of Taiwan, Japan and South Korea), on the other hand, are not well endowed
with forests, have a quite large wood-processing industry and huge populations, and are consequently heavily dependent on imports of wood products, especially raw materials. Other Asia-Pacific is the most heterogeneous
group of the seven, comprising both countries that are well endowed with
forest (South-East Asia) and those that are not (the Indian sub-continent and
the Middle East), some with advanced economies (Australia, New Zealand),
some with emerging economies, and others that are still with low per capita
income levels. The trading patterns in this region therefore need special
attention. The other regions, the former USSR, Africa and Latin America,
while holding smaller shares of the total, also have their particular characteristics determining their place in the world trade pattern, which will also
be looked at later.
Methodology for creating a trade flow database
A word needs to be said about the methodology used to produce the statistics of trade flows used in this chapter. It was seen earlier that for various
reasons there are very often discrepancies between the volume and value of
exports of a given product from country A to country B reported by country
A with the corresponding figures of imports reported by country B. In order
to create a coherent set of trade flow data, it is necessary to reconcile these
discrepancies. This complex exercise has been carried out principally by Dr.
Bruce Michie on behalf of the European Forest Institute (Wardle and Michie
1998) and the team which prepared World Forests, Society and Environment
(Palo and Uusivuori (eds) 1999), using the United Nations COMTRADE
data as a basis. The results have been incorporated in the EFIDAS database.
Because the product coding and definitions were different in the UN
Standard International Trade Classification, Revision 3 (SITC Rev. 3)
(United Nations 1994) to those in SITC Rev. 2, the trade statistics for the individual years have had to be converted to a standard classification, which can
be achieved for all years only for a broad product group (e.g. industrial roundwood) but not for a narrower one (pulpwood or sawlogs and veneer logs).
Country names and boundaries have also changed over the years and have to
be standardised for consistent data series. Value is consistently reported, but
volume may be reported as weight and have to be converted to volume,
127
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
volume units may be unrecognisable or missing, in which case an estimate of
volume based on average unit value for the reported volume is entered: this
is the first kind of estimate, which is based entirely on the reported data. In
certain cases major volumes are clearly inconsistent (Canada/USA sawnwood
trade flows and countries’ trade in wood chips and particles trade in general),
in which cases an intervention using external data is necessary to get a reasonably consistent series: this is the second kind of estimate. Out of a total of
220 or so countries in the world, only between 80 and 120 actually provide
data in any given year to the United Nations Statistical Office (UNSTAT) for
inclusion in the COMTRADE database. The reporting countries report trade
flows with non-reporting countries; by gathering together all trade flows of a
non-reporting country that are reported by its trading partners an estimate
can be made of its trade. The EFIDAS/WFSE trade flow database includes estimates of trade flows (and from them of total trade) of all non-reporting countries and territories that can be identified from reporting trading partners’
data. This brings the total number of countries and territories in the database
up to approximately 220. To give an idea of the differences between the
figures obtained for trade flows and those of exports and imports as reported
by FAO in its forestry database, which are also mainly based on COMTRADE,
Table 6.1 shows some world totals for 1997.
The comparison of the data in Table 6.1 shows that in general the world
trade flow totals are acceptably consistent with the world aggregates of countries’ exports and imports reported to FAO. Indeed, there is just as often as
large a difference between the official export and import totals as between
them and the trade flow totals. There are two cases where the discrepancies
are marked: for the volumes (but not the values) of wood chips and sawn
softwood. In both cases the explanation may lie in the factors used to
convert the volumes in national units to metric ones.
The set of data obtained from this process is unique and valuable for
analyses of trade flows, such as the one in this chapter. It makes it possible
to build up a comprehensive picture of the direction of trade of each wood
product and how the pattern has changed over time. What follows is only a
summary of the information available, but should be enough to highlight
some of the principal features.
General trade patterns
The value of world trade in wood products (excluding value added products) amounted to US$137 billion in 1997, and Table 6.2 shows the share of
each region in total exports and imports and the flow of trade between the
128
129
15.9
13.7
1.6
67.6
13.7
25.9
31.5
Woodpulp
• Chemical woodpulp for paper
Waste (recovered) paper
Paper and paperboard
• Newsprint
• Printing and writing
• Other paper and paperboard
Adjusted to improve consistency with value data
Sources: FAO database; EFIDAS database
a
4.8
4.9
2.6
28.8
20.2
8.6
17.2
8.9
3.5
2.4
3.8
4.1
1.8
25.7
19.2
6.6
17.1
8.7
3.6
2.5
16.7
14.6
2.0
67.1
14.6
24.3
32.3
145.0
138.3
16.1
13.8
1.6
63.2
9.7
25.7
27.8
4.5
4.5
1.8
27.7
20.0
7.7
17.1
8.6
3.6
2.5
136.8
Trade flow
totals (exports)
(EFIDAS)
(billion US$)
Imports
(FAO)
TOTAL WOOD PRODUCTS
Wood raw material
• Coniferous industrial roundwood
• Non-coniferous industrial roundwood
• Wood chips
Sawnwood
• Sawn softwood
• Sawn hardwood
Wood-based panels
• Plywood
• Particle board
• Fibreboard
Exports
(FAO)
VALUE
34.9
30.4
17.3
88.6
18.8
30.4
39.4
47.5
37.4
31.9
113.8
97.0
16.8
50.5
20.6
17.8
8.6
..
Exports
(FAO)
..
(million m3)
49.6
41.3
38.5
117.6
96.6
21.1
49.0
19.5
16.6
9.1
(million mt)
34.3
30.1
18.7
85.6
18.6
28.4
38.7
Imports
(FAO)
35.4
30.6
17.1
87.0
18.3
30.7
38.1
48.3a
40.5a
33.6a
116.1
98.9a
17.2
49.8
18.4
18.0
7.9
..
Trade flow
totals (exports)
(EFIDAS)
QUANTITY
Table 6.1 Comparison of world totals of exports and imports of the main wood products in 1997 from FAO data with derived trade flow totals
based on export data (EFIDAS)
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
130
100.0
19.3
44.9
0.9
20.7
8.0
2.0
4.2
WORLD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
Source: EFIDAS database
136.82
26.41
61.45
1.22
28.36
10.94
2.68
5.76
From:
WORLD
31.1
15.7
4.5
–
6.7
1.6
0.2
2.5
42.61
21.48
6.13
0.01
9.18
2.12
0.29
3.40
N. America
44.2
1.6
35.8
0.5
1.7
2.7
1.2
0.7
60.48
2.14
48.91
0.69
2.33
3.69
1.71
1.02
Europe
Trade pattern of total wood products in 1997
To:
WORLD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
Table 6.2
East Asia
7.07
0.41
0.12
–
5.71
0.77
0.02
0.04
3.1
0.1
1.6
0.3
0.6
0.3
0.1
–
5.2
0.3
0.1
–
4.2
0.6
–
–
(% of world total)
4.25
0.07
2.21
0.48
0.89
0.41
0.16
0.03
(billion US$)
Former USSR
10.0
0.6
0.9
–
6.0
2.4
0.1
–
13.73
0.76
1.27
0.02
8.22
3.26
0.19
0.02
Other Asia-Pacific
2.0
0.9
–
0.6
0.2
0.1
–
0.1
2.69
0.09
1.29
–
0.81
0.28
0.19
0.03
Africa
4.4
1.1
1.1
–
0.9
0.3
0.1
0.9
6.00
1.47
1.53
–
1.23
0.42
0.12
1.23
Latin America
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
regions. In order of importance, the largest exporting regions were Europe,
North America and Other Asia-Pacific, which between them accounted for
85% of the world total. On the import side, the most important regions were
Europe, East Asia and North America, with 85% of the total.
The fact that Europe and North America figure in the top three exporting and importing regions shows the importance of their intra-regional trade
flows, which make up more than half of the world total. North America’s
main external markets are East Asia and Europe; Europe’s are Other AsiaPacific and East Asia. One-fifth of Other Asia-Pacific’s exports are traded
within the region; of the remainder nearly four-fifths goes to East Asia. On
the import side, North America’s largest external supplier of wood products
is Europe, followed by Latin America. North America, followed by the former
USSR, is the largest external supplier to Europe; and North America and
Other Asia-Pacific are the main suppliers to East Asia.
The relative importance of intra-regional trade and trade with other
regions is shown in more detail in Table 6.3. At the world level about threefifths of total trade in wood products takes place within the regions and twofifths is between the regions. Most of Europe’s and East Asia’s exports, around
four-fifths, remain within the respective regions, and about half of North
America’s. This is in contrast to the situation in the former USSR, Africa
and Latin America, most of whose exports go to other regions. As regards
imports, North America and Europe obtain a large part, 80% or more, from
within their respective regions. On the other hand, East Asia imported 80%
from other regions. Despite being relatively well endowed with forests,
Other Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America obtained major shares of their
imports from other regions, over 90% in the case of Africa. This partly reflects
the relatively slow development of wood-processing capacity in many of
their countries, which makes them continue to depend on imports particularly of paper and paperboard from overseas.
Trade flow patterns of individual wood products
To appreciate the diversity of trade flows in wood products, it is necessary
to look at the individual products. The trade patterns for the main products
entering international trade are shown for 1997 in Tables 6.4 to 6.7.
Coniferous industrial roundwood
There are two principal components of this group: coniferous sawlogs and
veneer logs for the manufacture of sawn softwood (coniferous sawnwood)
131
132
Source: EFIDAS database
136.82
42.61
60.48
4.25
7.07
13.73
2.69
6.00
Total
exports
81.26
21.48
48.91
0.48
5.71
3.26
0.19
1.23
Intraregional
55.56
21.13
11.57
3.77
1.36
10.47
2.50
4.77
136.82
26.41
61.45
1.22
28.36
10.94
2.68
5.76
Total
imports
(billion US$)
To other
regions
Of which:
55.56
4.93
12.54
0.74
22.65
7.68
2.49
4.53
Of which:
From other
regions
59.4
50.4
80.9
11.3
80.8
23.7
7.1
20.5
As per cent
of total
exports
59.4
81.3
79.6
39.3
20.1
29.8
7.1
21.3
(%)
40.6
49.6
19.1
88.7
19.2
76.3
92.9
79.5
40.6
18.7
20.4
60.7
79.9
70.2
92.9
78.7
Imports as per
cent of total
imports
Trade with other regions:
As per cent
Exports as
of total
per cent of
imports total exports
Intra-regional trade:
Inter- and intra-regional trade in total wood products and their shares of total exports and imports in 1997
WORLD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
Table 6.3
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
From:
WORLD
N. America
Europe
3
East Asia
(million m )
Former USSR
Trade flow patterns of the main categories of wood raw materials in 1997
133
Adjusted to improve consistency with value data
Source: EFIDAS database
a
0.25
–
0.03
–
0.15
0.03
0.05
–
5.43
0.01
2.40
–
2.23
0.45
0.33
0.01
2.14
–
–
–
2.14
–
–
–
9.02
0.01
0.11
–
7.14
1.74
0.02
–
9.67a
–
–
–
9.63a
0.04
–
–
Africa
6.48a
0.09
–
–
5.81a
0.58
–
–
Other Asia-Pacific
A. CONIFEROUS (SOFTWOOD) INDUSTRIAL ROUNDWOOD
To:
WORLD
48.28
9.88a
12.54
16.47
0.09
North America
2.57
2.42a
–
0.03
–
Europe
19.60
0.02
12.11
7.00
–
Former USSR
0.72
–
0.01
0.71
–
East Asia
23.78
7.21
0.19
8.23
0.09
Other Asia-Pacific
1.25
0.10
0.06
0.48
–
Africa
0.22
–
0.16
0.01
–
Latin America
0.14
0.12
–
–
–
B. NON-CONIFEROUS (HARDWOOD) INDUSTRIAL ROUNDWOOD (TROPICAL AND TEMPERATE)
To:
WORLD
40.53
1.76a
10.29
8.93
3.18
North America
1.61
1.40
0.02
0.01
–
Europe
20.17
0.14
8.71
7.58
0.04
Former USSR
0.22
–
0.01
0.21
–
East Asia
15.07
0.16
1.20
1.00
3.09
Other Asia-Pacific
2.8
0.05
0.24
0.13
0.04
Africa
0.58
–
0.11
–
–
Latin America
0.08
0.01
0.01
–
–
C. WOOD CHIPS (SOFTWOOD AND HARDWOOD)
To:
WORLD
33.58
8.59a
3.61
0.91
2.96
North America
2.44
2.22
–
–
–
Europe
4.83
0.06
3.57
0.73
–
Former USSR
0.01
–
–
0.01
–
East Asia
26.19
6.29
0.02
0.16
2.96
Other Asia-Pacific
0.08
0.01
0.02
0.01
–
Africa
0.01
–
–
–
–
Latin America
0.03
0.02
–
–
–
Table 6.4
5.70
0.21
0.47
–
5.01
–
–
–
1.93
0.16
1.20
–
0.24
0.15
0.13
0.05
2.58
0.03
0.42
–
2.10
0.01
–
0.02
Latin America
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
and plywood; and coniferous pulpwood for the manufacture of woodpulp,
particle board and fibreboard. There are also small quantities of other assortments, such as pitprops, poles and pilings. As explained earlier, the current
Standard International Trade Classification (SITC Rev. 3) does not distinguish between these assortments, which is unfortunate from the analytical
point of view, since the way in which they are utilised and the industries
using them are quite distinct and the unit value of sawlogs and veneer logs
is usually appreciably higher than that of the other assortments.
The former USSR, Europe and North America are the main exporters of
coniferous industrial roundwood, accounting between them for 86% of the
world total of 48 million m3 in 1997. In recent years supplies from fastgrowing plantations in New Zealand and Chile have become increasingly
important and this is reflected in the export figures of Other Asia-Pacific and
Latin America respectively in Table 6.4. The main trade flows are from the
Russian Federation to East Asia, notably Japan, and the three Nordic countries; from the United States to East Asia and Canada; and from New Zealand
and Chile to Japan and South Korea. The volume of intra-European trade is
large, over 12 million m3 in 1997, and consists mainly of trade between neighbouring countries, for example from Germany and the Czech Republic to
Austria and Italy, and between the Nordic countries. There has also been
significant growth in exports from the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia
and Lithuania, included in the former USSR) during the 1990s, and in 1997
their exports, mainly to the Nordic countries, had reached 3.3 million m3,
compared with 12.2 million m3 exported by the Russian Federation, half of
which went to East Asia.
Non-coniferous industrial roundwood
The components of this product group comprise non-coniferous sawlogs
and veneer logs for the manufacture of sawn hardwood (non-coniferous
sawnwood), plywood and veneer sheets, non-coniferous pulpwood, and
relatively small quantities of other non-coniferous industrial roundwood.
Particularly in the case of sawlogs and veneer logs, there is a further
distinction between logs of tropical origin and those of temperate-zone
origin, even though many of their uses are the same. Out of the 41 million
m3 of world trade in non-coniferous industrial roundwood in 1997, shown
in Table 6.4, over 16 million was exported from the southern hemisphere regions (other Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America), and virtually
all of that was in the form of tropical hardwood sawlogs and veneer
logs. By far the most important destination for those logs was East Asia, with
Europe and Other Asia-Pacific in second and third positions some way
behind.
134
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
In the late 1990s, Malaysia (Sarawak), Papua New Guinea and the
Solomon Islands were the largest Asia-Pacific exporters of tropical logs, and
Gabon, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea the largest African ones. Later we
shall look at how the pattern of exports has changed over time; some
countries have largely disappeared as major exporters of logs and others
have at least partly taken their place. Apart from the East Asian countries,
India, France, the Philippines and Thailand are the main importers of tropical hardwood logs. As with exporters, the pattern of importers has changed
significantly over recent decades, and these changes are perhaps more
marked than for any other wood product.
The former USSR and Europe are the largest exporting regions of temperate-zone non-coniferous industrial wood. Most of the former’s exports are
in the form of pulpwood, mainly going from the Russian Federation and the
Baltic states to the Nordic countries. Much of Europe’s trade is between
neighbouring countries, for example from France to Belgium, Italy, Germany
and Spain. While it is difficult to separate sawlogs and veneer logs from pulpwood, it may be estimated that less than half of the total European exports
of non-coniferous industrial roundwood of some 10 million m3 in 1997 consisted of sawlogs and veneer logs.
Wood chips
In volume terms, world trade in wood chips of about 37 million m3 was lower
in 1997 than that of coniferous and non-coniferous industrial roundwood;
its value is less than half the value of those product groups. No separation
is made in the statistics between coniferous (softwood) and non-coniferous
(hardwood) chips, but it is assumed that, apart from those exported from
Other Asia-Pacific, most of them entering international trade are coniferous.
Chips come from two sources: from the wood-processing industries, notably
as by-products of sawmilling; and directly chipped from roundwood. Australia is by far the largest producer and exporter of the latter to East Asia,
mainly from natural eucalyptus stands, which have been the subject of protracted controversy on environmental grounds. North America ships large
quantities of coniferous chips as industry by-products, also mainly to East
Asia, predominantly Japan, which in total accounts for over three-quarters
of total world imports, and Japan alone for around two-thirds. Chile and
South Africa are also major suppliers of chips to East Asia. European trade in
chips is, apart from some supplies from former USSR, mainly intra-regional
and between neighbours, for example from Germany to France and Austria,
and Austria to Italy. Likewise, there is two-way trade in North America
between Canada and the United States.
135
136
32.50
0.13
26.59
0.03
1.63
1.20
2.91
0.01
Europe
17.20
2.10
7.01
0.22
3.57
3.06
0.65
0.59
3.58
1.64
0.97
–
0.58
0.15
0.05
0.19
4.44
0.03
3.55
0.03
0.15
0.20
0.47
0.01
(TROPICAL AND TEMPERATE)
51.55
41.44
1.22
–
7.15
0.76
0.08
0.90
N. Americaa
Adjusted to improve consistency with value data
Source: EFIDAS database
a
B. SAWN HARDWOOD
To:
WORLD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
98.90
43.12
34.66
1.08
11.44
3.42
3.97
1.22
From:
WORLD
Trade flow patterns of sawnwood in 1997
A. SAWN SOFTWOOD
To:
WORLD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
Table 6.5
East Asia
0.62
–
0.38
0.19
0.01
0.03
0.01
–
9.55
0.03
6.57
1.05
0.67
0.56
0.63
0.05
1.23
0.02
0.02
–
1.15
0.04
–
–
0.32
0.01
–
–
0.30
0.01
–
–
(million m3)
Former USSR
4.73
0.15
0.70
–
1.52
2.34
0.02
–
1.62
0.28
0.02
–
0.72
0.59
0.01
–
Other Asia-Pacific
1.06
0.02
0.87
–
0.03
0.04
0.09
–
0.21
0.01
0.02
–
–
–
0.17
–
Africa
1.55
0.23
0.53
–
0.13
0.25
0.01
0.40
3.16
1.23
0.23
–
0.97
0.29
0.18
0.26
Latin America
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
Sawn softwood
Of the world total trade in sawn softwood in 1997 of 99 million m3, twofifths took place within North America, mainly from Canada to the United
States, and one-quarter within Europe. The rest of the world accounted for
only one-third of the total, including other regions’ trade with North America
and Europe. Of the other regions, the former USSR was by far the most
important exporter with 69% of its exports going to Europe. The Russian
Federation is the largest exporter among the countries of the former USSR,
while the Baltic states have seen their exports increase considerably during
the 1990s to take an important share of the total.
Canada is the world’s leading exporter of sawn softwood with a volume
in 1997 of 48 million m3, 85% of which went across the border to the United
States. Of the 7 million m3 shipped overseas, the largest volumes went to East
Asia, chiefly Japan. The United States is the largest supplier to East Asia after
Canada.
Exports from Sweden, Finland and Austria in 1997 amounted to
23 million m3 or nearly three-quarters of total European exports; other
important shippers include Germany, the Czech Republic, Portugal and
Poland (the three Baltic states are treated as part of the former USSR – see
above). Imports are more evenly spread among countries and it takes
six countries, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,
Denmark and France, to account for three-quarters of total European
imports. The largest trade flows are between the Nordic countries and
their neighbours to the south and west and between Austria and other
central European countries and their neighbours, and these flows are
supplemented by exports from the former USSR and North America into
Europe.
East Asia is the most important importing region of sawn softwood after
North America and Europe and the largest importer from other regions.
North America is its principal supplier, but the former USSR (almost entirely
the Russian Federation), Other Asia-Pacific (mostly New Zealand) and Latin
America (mostly Chile) are also of importance, while Europe, notably
Sweden, Finland and Austria, has increased exports significantly in recent
years to Japan and China.
North America is the largest supplier of sawn softwood to Other AsiaPacific, of which Australia is the leading importer, and to Latin America,
notably Mexico. The largest volume of sawn softwood exported from Europe
to other regions goes to Africa; all five African countries bordering the
Mediterranean are sizeable importers, in order of importance Egypt,
Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, which between them account for the
bulk of Africa’s imports. These countries also import considerable volumes
from the former USSR, as do some countries in the western part of Other
137
From:
WORLD
N. America
Europe
138
Source: EFIDAS database
East Asia
1.01
0.03
0.02
–
0.67
0.27
0.01
–
0.37
0.01
–
–
0.32
0.04
–
–
0.24
0.01
0.12
0.05
–
0.05
0.01
–
10.78
0.84
0.81
–
7.35
1.51
0.25
0.02
0.78
–
0.01
0.01
0.55
0.20
0.01
–
1.22
0.04
0.01
–
1.08
0.09
–
–
Other Asia-Pacific
0.53
0.24
–
–
0.32
–
0.17
–
–
0.23
0.04
0.01
–
–
–
–
FIBREBOARD)
0.92
0.14
0.58
0.08
0.01
–
0.07
0.40
(million m3)
Former USSR
Trade flow patterns of the main categories of wood-based panels in 1997
A. PLYWOOD
To:
WORLD
18.42
2.52
2.03
North America
2.04
0.65
0.04
Europe
4.74
1.15
1.81
Former USSR
0.10
–
0.01
East Asia
8.85
0.37
0.03
Other Asia-Pacific
1.76
0.04
0.10
Africa
0.38
–
0.04
Latin America
0.55
0.30
–
B. PARTICLE BOARD (INCLUDING ORIENTED STRAND BOARD, etc.)
To:
WORLD
18.04
6.71
9.26
North America
6.34
6.02
0.17
Europe
8.71
0.05
8.29
Former USSR
0.43
–
0.25
East Asia
1.61
0.51
0.23
Other Asia-Pacific
0.51
0.02
0.24
Africa
0.10
–
0.06
Latin America
0.33
0.11
0.02
C. COMPRESSED FIBREBOARD (HARDBOARD AND MEDIUM DENSITY
To:
WORLD
6.52
0.71
3.56
North America
0.70
0.43
0.05
Europe
3.40
0.09
3.07
Former USSR
0.09
–
0.04
East Asia
1.29
0.10
0.10
Other Asia-Pacific
0.64
0.03
0.20
Africa
0.13
0.01
0.06
Latin America
0.28
0.04
0.04
Table 6.6
0.05
–
0.03
–
–
–
0.02
–
0.04
–
–
–
–
–
0.04
–
0.10
–
0.08
–
–
–
0.02
–
Africa
0.58
0.17
0.08
–
0.09
0.04
0.01
0.19
0.47
0.13
0.05
–
0.10
–
–
0.20
0.86
0.33
0.30
–
0.02
0.01
0.01
0.19
Latin America
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
Asia-Pacific, particularly Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates,
which are also supplied by Europe.
Up to now the countries of the Indian sub-continent, despite their large
populations and housing needs and scarce forest resources, have not been
significant importers of softwood, but there are signs that this is changing,
in India at least, although it is not clear whether import growth is likely to
be in the form of logs or sawnwood. The situation is similar for hardwoods.
Sawn hardwood
As with hardwood logs, a distinction can be made between trade in tropical
and temperate sawn hardwood. The three southern hemisphere regions
exported over 7 million m3 of sawn hardwood in 1997 or over 40% of the
world total of 17 million, and nearly all of their exports were of tropical
species. Some tropical sawn hardwood produced from imported logs is also
exported from Europe and East Asia. Other Asia-Pacific is the largest exporting region, and about half of its exports is intra-regional and a further third
goes to East Asia. Malaysia is by far the largest exporter in the region (and in
the world), followed by Indonesia, Singapore (re-exports) and Laos, while
the main importers in the region are Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines,
Malaysia and Australia.
Europe and North America are the main exporters of temperate sawn
hardwood, with about 80% of Europe’s exports being traded within Europe
and 46% of North America’s within the region, mainly from the United
States to Canada (the reverse of the sawn softwood flow). Europe’s main
exporters are France, Croatia, Romania, Germany and Poland. The main
European importers, of tropical and temperate sawn hardwood combined,
are Italy, Spain, Belgium–Luxembourg, Netherlands, Germany, the United
Kingdom and France. Africa, mainly the Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Ghana,
is the largest supplier of tropical sawn hardwood to Europe, followed by
Other Asia-Pacific, notably Malaysia and Indonesia, and Latin America, led by
Brazil.
The United States, the largest sawn hardwood exporter after Malaysia,
has built up its trade with other regions in recent decades, particularly
Europe and East Asia, on the basis of the extensive hardwood forest resource
in its eastern states.
Plywood
World trade in plywood amounted to over 18 million m3 in 1997 (Table 6.6).
Other Asia-Pacific exported 59% of the total, with Indonesia being by far the
largest single exporter; and 48% was imported by East Asia, with Japan and
139
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
China being the world’s leading importers. Plywood is the only product of
which North America imports more from overseas than from intra-regional
trade, but its total plywood exports are still larger than total imports, with
Europe being its main overseas market.
Plywood is produced either from hardwoods, tropical or temperate, or
from softwoods, or from a mixture, e.g. hardwood surfaces with softwood
core. No precise figure can be given of the respective volumes of the different categories entering international trade, but a rough estimate is that
about 70% of the world total is produced from tropical hardwoods, including tropical plywood from imported logs in temperate countries, 20% from
softwoods and 10% from temperate hardwoods.
Particle board
Whereas trade in plywood is concentrated in Pacific Rim countries, that of
particle board is largely centred on Europe, which accounted for approximately half the world total of exports and imports of 18 million m3 in 1997.
Intra-European trade alone made up 46% of the total. The other main trade
flow is within North America, and this constitutes one-third of the world
total. In the latter case, the notable feature has been the rapid expansion of
trade in OSB in recent years; unfortunately the international trade classification does not yet allow the separation of OSB from other types of particle
board. OSB has been successfully substituting plywood in a number of mass
volume uses, such as concrete shuttering and wall panels.
Compressed fibreboard
(hardboard and medium density fibreboard)
The figures for compressed fibreboard in Table 6.6 cover hardboard and
medium density fibreboard (MDF) but not insulating board (non-compressed
fibreboard) which, however, accounts for only about 13% of international
trade in fibreboard. Of the world total of 6.5 million m3 in 1997, Europe
accounted for over half of exports and imports, while Other Asia-Pacific
and East Asia were the next most important exporting and importing
regions respectively. After many years of more or less stable volumes of
trade, the fibreboard market was reactivated in the 1990s by the emergence
of MDF, which has accounted for a large part of the growth in production
and trade. It is being used increasingly in furniture and joinery as a substitute for sawnwood, particularly sawn hardwood, and other wood-based
panels.
140
141
7.66
0.06
5.78
0.01
0.57
1.17
0.06
–
B. WASTE (RECOVERED) PAPER
To:
WORLD
17.05
North America
2.51
Europe
6.02
Former USSR
0.07
East Asia
3.92
Other Asia-Pacific
2.92
Africa
0.09
Latin America
1.51
Source: EFIDAS database
6.91
0.03
6.53
0.02
0.09
0.21
0.03
–
A. BLEACHED SULPHATE WOODPULP
To:
WORLD
27.22
13.74
North America
5.07
4.37
Europe
13.10
3.93
Former USSR
0.03
–
East Asia
5.83
3.60
Other Asia-Pacific
1.80
0.81
Africa
0.19
0.11
Latin America
1.21
0.91
7.55
2.35
0.21
–
2.62
0.95
0.01
1.42
Europe
From:
WORLD
East Asia
0.07
–
0.01
0.05
–
–
–
–
0.70
–
0.48
0.02
0.14
0.06
0.01
–
0.77
–
–
–
0.69
0.08
–
–
0.08
–
–
–
0.05
0.03
–
–
(million mt)
Former USSR
Trade flow patterns of bleached sulphate woodpulp and waste paper in 1997
N. America
Table 6.7
0.79
–
0.01
0.01
0.05
0.71
0.01
–
1.46
0.02
0.26
–
0.80
0.37
–
–
Other Asia-Pacific
0.02
–
–
–
–
–
0.02
–
0.21
0.01
0.13
–
–
0.05
0.02
–
Africa
0.19
0.10
–
–
–
0.01
–
0.09
4.13
0.64
1.76
–
1.14
0.27
0.02
0.30
Latin America
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Bleached sulphate woodpulp
This category of woodpulp accounts for about 78% of world trade in woodpulp, and the trade patterns shown in Table 6.7 are therefore reasonably representative of woodpulp as a whole. North America exported half the world
total of bleached sulphate woodpulp of 27 million tonnes in 1997, Europe
taking a quarter and Latin America 15%. Europe imported nearly half of the
total, East Asia more than a fifth and North America less than a fifth. The main
trade flows are intra-European, intra-North American and from North America
to Europe and East Asia. Latin American exports to Europe and East Asia have
grown appreciably in the past decade.
Waste (recovered) paper
Also referred to as secondary fibre, waste paper or recovered paper is
included as a wood product by virtue of the fact that it mostly originated
from wood and is an integral component of the wood supply–demand
balance. In many countries it has become an increasingly important
part of the fibre furnish for paper and paperboard. In 1997 world exports
amounted to 17 million tonnes, with Europe and North America each
accounting for some 45% of the total. Europe, East Asia and Other Asia-Pacific
between them accounted for three-quarters of total imports. Trade is therefore concentrated between these regions, with intra-European being the
most important. Trade and use of waste paper have been stimulated in some
countries by legislation requiring that the fibre furnish of certain paper and
paperboard grades contains a given proportion of secondary fibres for environmental reasons.
Newsprint
Paper and paperboard are included here in order to have a complete view
of the trade in wood products as a whole, but more detail can be found in
the companion volume The International Paper Trade by Tom Bolton
(1998). Of the three groups of paper and paperboard shown in Table 6.8,
newsprint is the most homogeneous, with a single end-use – newspapers.
Of the world total of exports in 1997 of 18 million tonnes, North America
and Europe between them accounted for 90%. Because of the large volume
of intra-regional trade, they also accounted for an appreciable share, 70%,
of imports, but Other Asia-Pacific, East Asia and Latin America were also
sizeable importers.
142
From:
WORLD
143
Source: EFIDAS database
22.13
1.45
17.33
0.18
0.58
1.55
0.39
0.65
19.04
0.38
15.68
0.19
0.70
1.23
0.58
0.28
10.31
2.90
1.80
–
2.15
1.18
0.19
2.08
6.54
0.11
5.27
0.02
0.23
0.74
0.12
0.05
Europe
4.70
3.58
0.17
–
0.20
0.22
0.03
0.50
9.91
6.31
0.77
–
1.12
0.58
0.07
1.06
N. America
East Asia
0.54
–
0.23
0.14
0.02
0.13
0.01
–
0.23
–
0.05
0.08
–
0.04
0.05
0.01
0.84
0.02
0.18
0.11
0.12
0.38
0.01
0.02
5.77
0.08
0.05
–
5.31
0.30
0.01
0.02
1.77
0.08
0.01
–
1.39
0.26
0.01
0.01
0.23
0.06
–
–
0.10
0.06
–
–
(million mt)
Former USSR
Trade flow patterns of paper and paperboard in 1997
A. NEWSPRINT
To:
WORLD
18.29
North America
6.55
Europe
6.23
Former USSR
0.13
East Asia
1.76
Other Asia-Pacific
2.11
Africa
0.22
Latin America
1.30
B. PRINTING AND WRITING PAPER
To:
WORLD
30.66
North America
5.24
Europe
17.73
Former USSR
0.26
East Asia
2.65
Other Asia-Pacific
2.61
Africa
0.64
Latin America
1.52
C. OTHER PAPER AND PAPERBOARD
To:
WORLD
38.08
North America
3.55
Europe
17.99
Former USSR
0.34
East Asia
8.95
Other Asia-Pacific
3.58
Africa
0.88
Latin America
2.79
Table 6.8
1.45
0.02
0.05
0.01
0.67
0.66
0.03
–
0.92
0.01
0.04
–
0.45
0.36
0.06
0.01
0.52
0.02
–
–
0.17
0.32
–
–
Other Asia-Pacific
0.23
–
0.07
–
0.06
0.05
0.05
0.01
0.06
–
0.01
–
–
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.05
–
–
–
0.01
0.02
0.02
0.01
Africa
0.75
0.16
0.10
–
0.05
0.03
0.01
0.40
0.85
0.12
0.11
–
0.03
0.17
0.09
0.33
0.21
0.01
0.01
–
0.01
0.02
–
0.16
Latin America
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Printing and writing paper
Those types of printing and writing paper connected with computerisation
and electronic communications, such as typing, photocopy, fax, and computer print-out paper, have experienced rapid growth over the past decade
or two, which has been reflected in the expansion of trade. In 1997 world
exports had reached nearly 31 million tonnes, of which Europe accounted
for 72% of exports and 58% of imports. Intra-European trade alone made up
for more than half the world total. Trade in North America came a quite
distant second, followed by East Asia and Other Asia-Pacific. Europe has built
up a strong net export position in these papers, exports exceeding imports
by 4.4 million tonnes in 1997 and shipments overseas being widely distributed to other regions.
Other paper and paperboard
Within this heterogeneous group of products, the two largest categories are
household and sanitary tissues and wrapping and packaging paper and
paperboard. World trade in other paper and paperboard as a group reached
38 million tonnes in 1997. Europe accounted for half the export total and
just under half of the imports. North America and East Asia between them
made up a further 42% of exports and 33% of imports. As with printing and
writing paper, therefore, trade in other paper and paperboard is concentrated in the industrialised northern regions, although Other Asia-Pacific,
Africa and Latin America between them accounted for 19% of world imports
in 1997, and the volume of trade from North America and Europe to them
was substantial.
Major changes in trade flows
The opening up of new forest areas, the over-exploitation of others, the
building of new wood-processing capacities and changes in import demand
are among the reasons for the patterns of trade to alter over time. Figure 6.1
shows the changes in the shares of the main intra-regional and inter-regional
trade flows of wood products in total between 1983 and 1997. The total
value of world trade increased by 186% over the 14-year period. Trade flows
which expanded at a rate greater than the world average and increased their
shares of world trade were intra-Europe and intra-Asia Pacific (i.e. East Asia
and Other Asia-Pacific combined). Those that lost some of their share of the
world total were intra-North America and North American exports to AsiaPacific and Europe.
144
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
% of value of world trade
40
35
33.9
35.8
30
25
20
15
10
19.5
17.0
18.3
15.7
13.1
10.2
8.6 8.3
6.4
5
0
4.5
4.4 4.4
Intra-Europe Intra-North Intra-AsiaNorth
North
Europe to
America
Pacific
America to America to Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific
Europe
1983
All other
trade flows
1997
6.1 Shares of main trade flows of wood products in total, 1983 and 1997 (source:
EFIDAS database).
Some of the more important changes in the volumes of trade in specific
products between regions from 1983 until 1997 inclusive are shown in
Tables 6.9 and 6.10. In the case of industrial roundwood, coniferous and nonconiferous, changes in classification have made it difficult to reconcile trade
data from the mid-1990s onwards with earlier data. This is why statistics for
1983, 1988 and 1993 are not shown in the table. Nevertheless, some general
comments on long-term trends in trade of coniferous and non-coniferous
industrial roundwood can be made.
Coniferous industrial roundwood
A very large trans-Pacific trade flow in coniferous industrial roundwood,
mainly from the Pacific North-West of the USA to Japan, reached a peak in
the early 1990s, since when it has declined sharply as supplies were constrained under pressure to protect the environment. This trade has been
partly replaced by exports from the Far East of the Russian Federation, New
Zealand and Chile to East Asia. Exports from the former USSR to Europe have
risen substantially since 1983, but after the disruption caused by the breakup of the Soviet Union, the three Baltic states have emerged as important
exporters, mainly to the Nordic countries, partly at the expense of the
Russian Federation.
145
146
East Asia
East Asia
East Asia
East Asia
North America
East Asia
Wood chips
North America
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
Sawn softwood
North America
North America
22 221
4 638
4 575
11 033
748
–
..
..
..
..
..
Non-coniferous industrial roundwood
Europe
Europe
Former USSR
Europe
Other Asia-Pacific
East Asia
Africa
Europe
Africa
East Asia
1983
..
..
..
..
To:
Coniferous industrial roundwood
North America
East Asia
Former USSR
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
East Asia
From:
33 850
7 209
6 738
10 166
839
695
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
1988
35 650a
8 610a
9 310
9 394
540
4 017
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
1993
9 254
6 905
6 076
5 985
1995
40 240a
8 375a
..
..
2 661
5 867
7 721
12 319
10 327
2 854
962
(1000 m3)
42 210a
8 865a
..
..
2 559
5 090
6 328
6 740
9 605
2 164
1 535
9 254
5 222
6 894
6 315
1996
41 440a
7 150a
8 590a
9 630a
2 139
5 010
8 707
7 575
7 143
2 402
2 230
7 214
7 003
8 232
6 480a
1997
Table 6.9 Major changes in trade flows between regions of selected wood raw materials, sawnwood and wood-based panels, 1983–1997
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
147
Europe
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Europe
Europe
East Asia
Sawn hardwood
Other Asia-Pacific
Other Asia-Pacific
Other Asia-Pacific
Plywood
Former USSR
Latin America
Other Asia-Pacific
Adjusted to improve consistency with value data
Source: EFIDAS database
a
Compressed fibreboard (hardboard and MDF)
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
Other Asia-Pacific
East Asia
Particle board, including OSB
North America
North America
Europe
Europe
East Asia
Europe
East Asia
North America
East Asia
Europe
Former USSR
Other Asia-Pacific
Latin America
Latin America
119
523
17
537
4 298
162
61
500
2 152
738
1 663
8
3 474
259
46
36
78
1 026
74
1 457
5 708
239
227
4 248
2 129
2 929
3 013
12
4 311
287
306
13
245
1 640
358
2 820
6 448
333
291
8 196
1 214
3 030
3 962
288
3 026
644
443
368
301
2 178
553
4 114
7 436
571
326
8 449
720
2 121
2 990
811
4 598
721
636
644
336
2 623
550
5 232
7 920
552
312
8 908
673
1 705
2 927
1 175
5 515
748
977
560
425
3 066
669
6 023
8 292
582
298
7 345
695
1 521
2 340
1 627
6 571
717
1 226
966
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
148
Source: EFIDAS database
Other paper and paperboard
North America
North America
North America
East Asia
North America
Latin America
Europe
Europe
Europe
Other Asia-Pacific
East Asia
East Asia
North America
North America
Europe
East Asia
East Asia
Printing and writing paper
North America
Europe
Europe
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
939
795
781
7933
744
526
787
344
4969
135
3
266
2734
74
East Asia
Europe
Other Asia-Pacific
Newsprint
North America
Europe
Former USSR
1983
1632
27
151
629
256
To:
1201
1081
960
9773
803
602
1981
1184
9032
397
52
546
3769
104
2783
32
361
563
323
1988
1 942
1 410
1 277
11 985
1 066
1 300
2 493
1 437
12 469
985
124
918
4 428
255
3 297
169
629
1 648
901
1993
(1000 mt)
2 338
1 565
1 701
13 804
1 056
1 644
3 003
1 595
15 401
1 112
208
1 006
4 858
387
3 811
368
679
1 725
829
1995
2 559
1 981
1 761
14 297
1 160
3 887
3 001
1 160
15 390
1 594
315
1 277
4 702
332
3 769
743
647
1 825
1 083
1996
Major changes in trade flows between regions of bleached sulphate woodpulp and paper and paperboard, 1983–1997
Bleached sulphate woodpulp
North America
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
East Asia
Latin America
North America
Latin America
Europe
Latin America
East Asia
From:
Table 6.10
2 902
2 145
2 081
15 681
1 228
5 312
3 580
1 449
17 330
1 388
447
1 119
5 268
375
3 602
804
636
1 764
1 142
1997
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
Non-coniferous industrial roundwood
Exports from Africa, mainly west Africa, of non-coniferous industrial roundwood, almost entirely hardwood sawlogs and veneer logs, to Europe in the
late 1990s were appreciably lower than in the 1980s and earlier, but this was
offset by a strong rise in exports to East Asia. There was also a shift in the
importance of the exporting countries: in the earlier period the Côte d’Ivoire
accounted for as much as half of Africa’s exports, and Gabon for a quarter.
In the 1970s Ghana had been among the leading exporters and in the 1960s
Nigeria also, but resource depletion in these countries caused log exports
to decline. By the late 1990s the largest African exporters of tropical hardwood logs were Gabon, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, and their main
customers in Europe were France and Italy, and in East Asia China and Japan.
A similar pattern of change occurred in the Pacific Basin. Exports from
Other Asia-Pacific to East Asia declined considerably, although this trade,
consisting of tropical hardwood sawlogs and veneer logs, remained the
largest inter-regional flow. Whereas in the 1970s Indonesia, Malaysia (Sabah
and Sarawak but not peninsular Malaysia) and the Philippines were the major
tropical hardwood log exporters, after the mid-1980s Indonesia and the
Philippines virtually disappeared as log exporters as a result of resource
depletion and log export bans, leaving Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the
Solomon Islands as the largest exporters in the late 1990s. Indonesia compensated for the cessation of log exports by growth first in exports of sawn
hardwood and then of plywood and is currently the world’s largest plywood
exporter.
In the northern hemisphere, the volumes of trade in temperate sawlogs
and veneer logs did not vary greatly over time, and the main changes concerned trade in other non-coniferous assortments, mainly pulpwood. The
Nordic countries imported large quantities from the Russian Federation as
well as the from Baltic states in the 1990s.
Wood chips
East Asia, and in particular Japan, has grown to become the predominant
importer of wood chips from the rest of the world, with increasing supplies
of softwood chips coming from north-west North America, both the USA and
Canada, hardwood (eucalyptus) chips from Australia, softwood chips from
South Africa and softwood and hardwood chips from Chile. Whereas the
chips from North America are produced from sawmilling and plywood
residues, those from other sources are mainly produced directly from forest
trees and this has been a matter of environmental controversy in Australia
for many years.
149
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Sawn softwood
The largest volume expansion in sawn softwood trade between 1983
and 1997 was that within North America, from Canada to the USA. There
were also strong increases in East Asian imports from North America, both
Canada and the USA, Latin America, mainly Chile, and even from as far away
as Europe, mainly Sweden, Finland and Austria. Chile also increased its
exports strongly to North America. While total exports of sawn softwood
from the former USSR generally fluctuated between 7 and 8 million m3 a year
in the 1970s and 1980s, there was a decline from the Russian Federation in
the early 1990s, which was offset, as far as exports to Europe were concerned, by increasing shipments in the latter part of the decade from the
Baltic states to the United Kingdom, Germany and other western European
countries.
Sawn hardwood
Sawn hardwood exports from Other Asia-Pacific, led by Malaysia, reached a
peak in the early 1990s, thereafter showing a declining trend, partly because
of resource constraints but probably more importantly as the trade in added
value products developed. The decline after 1993 was common to shipments
to all Other Asia-Pacific’s main markets, East Asia, Europe and intra-Other AsiaPacific. Some of the fall in Pacific Basin trade in 1997, 1998 and 1999 (data
not to hand at time of writing) could be attributed to the downturn in
markets as a result of the financial crises in some Asian countries, which
were recovering in 2000.
Plywood
There was a dramatic expansion in Indonesia’s production and exports of
plywood in the 1980s, starting from a low level to become the world’s
leading exporter during the 1990s. Growth of exports from Malaysia in the
late 1980s and early 1990s was also impressive, and by 1997 these two countries accounted between them for three-fifths of world exports, their main
markets being in East Asia, as Table 6.9 shows. There have been marked
shifts in the export pattern of plywood in the Pacific Basin over the past
three decades or so. In the 1970s, South Korea and Taiwan Province of China,
both in-transit processors of imported tropical logs, were the leading
exporters, with another in-transit processor, Singapore, also prominent. In
the 1980s production shifted closer to the forest resource, and Japan,
which had been largely dependent on domestic production from imported
150
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
logs, as well as China and South Korea, began importing large volumes of
plywood.
Europe, although a smaller market for plywood than East Asia, considerably increased its imports of plywood from the former USSR and Latin
America, mainly Brazil, partly to make up for stagnating domestic production in countries that had earlier imported tropical logs. Latin American
exports to North America rose between 1983 and 1997, as did North
America’s to East Asia. In general, the trade flow pattern of plywood in the
late 1990s showed significant changes from that in the early 1980s, reflecting shifts in the raw material base and in production strategies in many of
the leading trading countries.
Particle board
The main growth in trade in particle board between 1983 and 1997 was
intra-European and intra-North American. In Europe, the increasing specialisation of production led to expanding two-way trade. Germany, for example,
which is the region’s largest producer, exported 1.48 million m3 and
imported 1.55 million m3 in 1997, mainly to and from its neighbours. In the
case of North America, the main factor during the 1990s was the steep rise
in production of OSB in Canada and its exports to the USA.
Compressed fibreboard (hardboard and MDF)
Intra-European and intra-North American trade was also the area of growth
for compressed fibreboard in the 1990s, and in both regions the driving force
was the expansion of the MDF market. In Other Asia-Pacific, Malaysia and
New Zealand were the leading exporters of MDF, with their main markets
in East Asia.
Bleached sulphate woodpulp
East Asia has grown to be the leading importing region of bleached sulphate
woodpulp, complementing its role as the main importer of wood chips for
pulping (Table 6.10). It has drawn increasing supplies of woodpulp from
North America, Latin America, mainly Brazil and Chile, and Other Asia-Pacific,
notably Indonesia and New Zealand. Latin America has also become an
increasingly important supplier to Europe and North America, benefiting
from production based on fast-growing pine and eucalyptus plantations.
151
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Newsprint
The volume of intra-North American trade in newsprint remained the largest
flow in the 1980s and 1990s. While that trade remained fairly stable, intraEuropean trade nearly doubled between 1983 and 1997. Although the
volume was quite small in comparison, exports from the former USSR to
Europe grew strongly, and newsprint was one of the few products of which
exports from the former USSR were markedly higher in 1997 than in the
1980s. North American exports to East Asia also showed considerable
growth.
Printing and writing paper
Practically all trade flows in printing and writing paper in 1997 were much
greater in 1997 than in 1983 – that from Europe to the former USSR was one
exception. Table 6.10 shows some of the larger changes, notably in intraEuropean trade, intra-North American and intra-East Asian.
Other paper and paperboard
Trade flows in other paper and paperboard were also generally much larger
in 1997 than in 1983; and as for printing and writing, the largest increases
were intra-European, intra-East Asian and intra-North American. Exports from
North America to other regions also rose considerably, notably to Latin
America and Other Asia-Pacific, which also imported on an increasing scale
from Europe.
The figures in Tables 6.9 and 6.10 highlight many of the important
changes in trade flow patterns during the 1980s and 1990s, but there have
also been some interesting smaller changes. One has been the growth of
exports of coniferous industrial roundwood and sawn softwood from the
Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), which is concealed within the
total figures for exports from the former USSR. Another has been the rise in
exports of MDF from Ireland, reflecting its shift from being heavily importdependent for wood products towards becoming eventually a net exporter
based on its expanding plantations. The role of plantations in a number of
other countries, including Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and Portugal, in providing the raw material base for exports of raw materials or
products has also become increasingly important. At the same time, the possibilities to harvest and export high-quality wood from old-growth or natural
stands have been diminishing. This was already apparent many years ago in
the virtual disappearance of some countries, such as the Philippines, Nigeria
152
TRADE FLOW PATTERNS AND TRENDS
and the Côte d’Ivoire, as hardwood log exporters, and the more recent
decline in softwood log exports in the United States. In some cases, these
developments have resulted in new trade flows emerging, for example the
growth of hardwood log exports from Papua New Guinea, despite the fact
that the species composition of exports from there was quite different to
that from South-East Asian suppliers. Converters and consumers in importing countries have learned how to adapt to the different properties of new
species. In other cases, importers and consumers have adapted by taking up
alternative materials, such as MDF for sawnwood and other types of panels,
OSB for plywood, and so on. The role of in-transit processing has also been
declining, as capacity has either been concentrated closer to the raw material base – as for example plywood in Indonesia and woodpulp, paper and
paperboard in the Nordic countries – or to the consumer, as partly the case
with paper and paperboard in Japan.
These shifts are part of a continuing process, the future course of
which is not easy to predict. No doubt one of the factors that will influence
such shifts, at least for certain wood products, will be the future course of
globalisation and the merging of wood products industries into ever fewer
and larger companies.
153
CHAPTER
7
The major players
Trading structures and corporate players
Trading structures
B
etween the forest and the ultimate consumer there may be many
stages in handling, transforming, transporting and utilising the tree.
Between the stages there may be a change of ownership of the wood
raw material or product, involving a commercial transaction. The number of
stages varies according to the degree of sophistication of the final product
and the distance between the forest and the consumer, and a flowchart of
all the movements of wood along the different chains of supply would be
quite complex. The main stages include the following:
•
•
•
•
•
Felling of the standing tree.
Primary conversion (e.g. cutting of the log to length, debarking,
chipping).
Primary processing (e.g. production of sawnwood, veneer sheets,
particle board, woodpulp).
Secondary processing (e.g. production of plywood, fibreboard, paper and
paperboard and other products of woodpulp).
Tertiary and further processing (e.g. production of furniture, building
154
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
•
components and prefabricated buildings, packaging and other manufactures of sawnwood and wood-based panels, manufactures of paper and
paperboard).
Application (e.g. in construction, printing, etc.) or use of the product.
People are not only involved at each stage, but also in the movement
and handling of the wood, both as raw material and processed product,
between the stages. This includes extraction from the felling site, transport
to the primary processing mill and of the processed products along the chain
to the final consumer, storage and handling at wholesalers, retailers and consumers, and at all stages the negotiations and paperwork connected with the
commercial transactions involved.
International trade may be involved at any stage of supply after the wood
raw material has left the forest and it may occur more than once.Thus, roundwood from country A’s forest may be exported for processing into sawnwood
in country B, which exports the sawnwood for secondary or tertiary
processing in country C, which exports the final product, e.g. furniture, to
country D. The flowpath could be a lot simpler than that or even more complicated. An example of a simpler path, not involving international trade,
would be the sale of roundwood by a forest owner to a neighbour for use
in unprocessed form as fencing material or building poles. A more complex
path might involve the following steps:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Felling of tree, extraction to roadside, sale to sawmill.
Road transport to mill, storage, cutting to length, debarking, sawing
into sawnwood, air-drying or kiln-drying, sorting, packaging, sale for
export.
Rail transport to port, loading on board ship, ship transport to
port of destination, unloading, transport to importer’s timber yard,
storage.
Regrading and resawing to specifications of customer, e.g. roof truss
manufacturer, sale and road transport to customer.
Use of sawnwood in truss production, sale of trusses to building contractor, transport to building site.
On-site incorporation of trusses in housing, sale of houses to ultimate
consumer, the new home owner.
To this highly simplified description of a flowpath a number of
comments should be added:
1
The roles of sawnwood producer and exporter have been combined here. In practice, the sawmiller may consign his product to
a specialised export organisation.
155
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
2
3
4
5
6
The exporter is supported by an agent, whose role is to act as
go-between in the negotiations between him and the importer,
including shipping arrangements.
The example does not include the production, handling and utilisation of by-products, such as bark, sawdust, mill residues and
chips at the sawmilling stage as well as at later stages of processing, e.g. sawdust, shavings and other residues from resawing and
truss production.
Different forms of transport may be used at each stage. For the
transport of logs to the mill, floating is still used in some countries,
for instance Finland and some tropical countries, but road transport is the most common method and in some cases rail. Road,
rail, barge or ship, or combinations of all of them, may be used to
move the processed products, according to location of the mill and
the customer.
In this example, the roles of importer, wholesaler and retailer are
in effect merged.
Variations to this flowpath are possible. For instance, the production of roof trusses might be carried out in the exporting country,
even as an integrated operation with sawmilling. Or the producer/exporter of sawnwood may sell and ship directly to the truss
producer in the importing country, thereby reducing the cost of
‘middlemen’. This type of operation has become increasingly used
as improvements in communications and such developments as
containerisation and roll-on roll-off ferries, as well as the need for
‘just-in-time’ deliveries to reduce storage costs, have made it more
attractive.
The growth in international trade in wood products in past decades has
been made possible to a considerable extent by advances in transport and
handling technology, some of which have already been mentioned, such as
packaging, containerisation and roll-on roll-off ferries. There has also been
the development of specialised carriers such as container ships and bulk
carriers for logs, chips, sawnwood and other products, which play a particularly important role in trans-Pacific trade.
Inland waterways have also been a common means for the movement
of wood products by barge, while in the past, floating was one of the ways
of transporting roundwood to the mill in some places such the Nordic countries and North America, as well as in the tropics. Increasingly, however, rail
and road transport have come to account for the major part of non-maritime
shipments, for example within Europe and within North America. Where
distances are not too great, the convenience of road transport for door-todoor delivery may outweigh the disadvantage of possibly higher costs.
156
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
Corporate players
Thousands of companies are involved in the wood products trade. The way
these companies operate varies from country to country and to some
extent according to the types of product they are trading. To take the
sawnwood trade in Europe as an example, many of the exporters and
importers were traditionally family-owned companies, established in the
eighteenth or nineteenth century, but in some cases earlier. During the
latter part of the twentieth century, the increasingly rapid changes in
trading practices and intensifying competition resulted in many of them
going out of business or merging into larger, sometimes joint stock companies. To some extent the old family traditions of trading have disappeared
and been replaced for better or worse. This process has not finished, and
new developments, notably e-commerce, are bringing constant change to
the trade.
In the main exporting countries with formerly planned economies such
as the USSR, Poland and Czechoslovakia, trade used to be handled by a Statecontrolled central organisation. Producers allocated a proportion of their
output to the organisation for export sale. For example, up to the end of the
1980s, all wood products exports from the USSR, as well as its imports, were
traded by EXPORTLES, the All-Union Wood Agency. As a result of the transition process towards a market economy, export activity was liberalised
during the 1990s. While EXPORTLES continues to operate in the form of a
joint stock company, a number of other companies have been established,
the primary activity of which is the export of wood products (Burdin 2000).
Individual mills may export, subject to licence.
In Japan, international trade in wood products is concentrated to a large
extent in the hands of a number of general trading houses, or sogo shosha,
most of which are parts of larger groups arranged around traditional family
firms or banks. While there are several thousand sogo shosha, only a handful,
including Mitsubishi, Marubeni and C Itoh, control most of the trade in wood
products and have been involved in large-scale timber operations overseas
(Dudley and Stolton 1994). There are also, however, a large number of
smaller companies that buy wood from abroad. Several paper companies also
have overseas forest concessions, mills or subsidiaries, including Honshu
Paper Co., Oji Paper and Sanyo-Kokusaka Pulp Co.
South Korea’s industry and trade structure, which is dominated by a few
large groups called chaebol, is quite similar to that of Japan. Most of the large
chaebol are involved in the wood products trade, but in addition to them
there are many small and medium-sized trading firms.
Countries where the international trade in wood products is a monopoly through State control or an oligarchy through domination by a small
number of big enterprises are in a small minority. In most countries such
157
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
trade is conducted by private companies, either family-owned or joint stock
companies, operating for the most part under open market conditions. As in
industry and trade in general, there is a trend towards greater concentration
and integration, but it would be reasonable to conclude that this trend has
not reduced competitiveness in the market. On the contrary, competition in
the international market for wood products remains keen, one indicator
being the relatively modest level of profitability achieved over the years in
parts of the sector. Indeed, a self-criticism sometimes heard within the sector
is that too much effort is expended by wood companies competing with
each other, and not enough on fighting the competition from alternative
materials.
Major trading nations
In Chapter 5, Table 5.3 showed the ‘Top 20’ exporting and importing nations
of wood products. In fact, as many as 15 of them figured in the lists of both
exporters and importers, so that the number of countries accounting for the
bulk of international trade in wood products is fairly limited. Here, we take
a look at these countries on an individual basis, pointing out why they are
important as trading nations, the main commodities in which they trade and
their main trading partners. They are divided into three groups: (1) those
that are very important both as exporters and importers: the USA, Germany
and France; (2) major net exporting countries: Canada, Finland, Sweden,
Indonesia, Austria, Malaysia, Russian Federation, Brazil; and (3) major net
importing countries: Japan, China, United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands,
South Korea. There are also a number of others, which deserve special
mention because of their importance in international trade in particular commodities, and these are also discussed. Among exporting countries, they
include Chile, New Zealand, Portugal and South Africa; and among importing countries, Australia (also deserving mention as an exporter), Mexico and
Thailand.
Some basic trade data for these countries are given in Table 7.1. The
three countries that are very important as both exporters and importers, the
USA, Germany and France, are all net importers, although the ratio of the
value of their exports to imports, which is between 0.8 and 0.9, is closer to
unity than that of the major net importing countries in the table. Among the
net exporting countries, Finland has the highest export to import ratio
with 14.5, followed by Sweden and Canada with 7.4 and 6.5 respectively
(1997 data).
Table 7.1 is also interesting in showing the considerable differences
between countries in the shares of product groups in total exports and
158
159
6.45
14.54
7.36
5.27
4.24
1.90
4.00
2.01
3 976
716
1 398
976
931
2 016
752
1 314
16 684
12 641
9 993
6 823
4 658
3 740
1 498
281
1 470
309
1 107
476
1 528
Major net exporting countries
Canada
25 648
Finland
10 414
Sweden
10 295
Indonesia
5 142
Malaysia
3 952
Austria
3 835
Russian Federation
3 008
Brazil
2 647
Major net importing countries
Japan
1 640
China
3 743
United Kingdom
2 124
Italy
2 651
Netherlands
2 667
South Korea
1 214
Other important trading countries
Australia
802
Chile
1 436
Mexico
445
New Zealand
1 418
Portugal
1 422
South Africa
832
Thailand
575
Source: FAO database
0.82
0.90
0.80
Countries important as both exporters and importers
USA
19 835
24 134
Germany
9 828
10 916
France
4 664
5 866
0.54
5.11
0.30
4.59
1.28
1.75
0.38
0.10
0.30
0.21
0.39
0.57
0.33
Ratio of
exports to
imports
Exports of
all wood
products
(million US$)
55.1
17.7
0.4
33.1
3.0
24.6
4.4
0.1
9.6
0.9
0.2
1.0
–
0.8
0.8
1.2
0.4
21.7
2.5
34.8
2.3
11.1
3.5
6.2
Wood
raw
material
11.3
22.8
48.5
36.3
19.4
2.7
24.1
3.1
36.4
9.0
26.0
11.2
5.8
42.9
22.1
25.9
73.1
75.9
40.9
32.2
33.0
18.0
17.9
23.0
Sawnwood
& woodbased
panels
1.0
48.0
1.8
15.0
35.1
46.1
7.9
3.0
1.5
4.5
0.4
9.4
–
19.7
7.8
14.1
11.8
0.1
3.8
12.3
38.7
19.0
4.0
6.9
Woodpulp
& waste
paper
32.5
11.5
49.2
15.6
42.5
26.6
63.7
93.8
52.5
85.6
73.4
78.3
94.1
36.6
69.3
58.7
14.8
2.2
52.9
20.5
25.9
51.8
74.7
63.9
Paper &
paperboard
Share of product groups in total
wood products exports (%)
Exports and imports of the leading trading countries of wood products in 1997
Imports of
all wood
products
(million US$)
Table 7.1
0.1
–
0.8
0.3
17.8
0.4
11.8
32.0
10.7
1.2
7.8
1.1
26.2
9.7
44.9
29.1
4.3
1.5
17.7
0.9
0.1
0.6
2.4
5.3
Wood
raw
material
24.6
0.4
18.6
11.9
15.5
23.2
31.8
48.4
27.8
30.6
33.5
32.5
29.5
21.5
16.4
23.9
6.2
12.5
25.7
16.0
14.9
40.2
26.8
21.7
Sawnwood
& woodbased
panels
6.7
1.4
22.3
1.6
5.6
9.1
19.4
10.8
12.6
10.0
22.5
14.4
31.2
8.0
9.2
11.3
63.9
3.9
16.0
4.0
10.9
11.4
20.0
19.1
Woodpulp
& waste
paper
68.6
98.2
58.4
86.1
61.2
67.3
36.9
8.8
48.9
58.2
36.2
52.0
13.1
60.7
29.5
35.7
25.6
82.1
40.5
79.2
74.1
47.8
50.8
53.7
Paper &
paperboard
Share of product groups in total
wood products imports (%)
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
imports. The factors explaining these differences will be discussed below for
individual countries, but they include legislation restricting the export of
wood raw material (low percentage of that product group in Canada’s
and Indonesia’s exports); development of woodpulp exports based on fastgrowing plantations (Brazil, Chile and South Africa); sawnwood and/or
plywood exports based on natural tropical hardwood forest (Indonesia and
Malaysia); among net importing countries, the use of waste paper in paper
and paperboard manufacturing and the greater relative importance of paper
and paperboard in total exports than in total imports; and so on.
In the table for each country, its main trading partners are abbreviated
as follows:
ARG
AUS
AUSL
BL
BRA
CAM
CAN
CHI
CHN
CIV
CRO
CZR
DEN
EGT
FIN
FRA
GAB
GER
HUN
IN
IND
IT
JAP
= Argentina
= Austria
= Australia
= Belgium–Luxembourg
= Brazil
= Cameroon
= Canada
= Chile
= China
= Côte d’Ivoire
= Croatia
= Czech Republic
= Denmark
= Egypt
= Finland
= France
= Gabon
= Germany
= Hungary
= India
= Indonesia
= Italy
= Japan
LAT
LIT
MAL
MEX
NL
NOR
NZ
PHI
PNG
POL
POR
RUF
SAF
SIN
SK
SOL
SP
SWE
SWZ
THAI
TUR
UK
USA
= Latvia
= Lithuania
= Malaysia
= Mexico
= Netherlands
= Norway
= New Zealand
= Philippines
= Papua New Guinea
= Poland
= Portugal
= Russian Federation
= South Africa
= Singapore
= South Korea (Rep. of Korea)
= Solomon Islands
= Spain
= Sweden
= Switzerland
= Thailand
= Turkey
= United Kingdom
= United States of America
A word of warning should be given about the comparability of the data
in the country tables. The source of the figures for total exports and imports
of wood products in 1997 is the FAO database. The percentages of total trade
taken by a country’s main trading partners are calculated from figures in the
FAO Yearbook of Forest Products and the UN-ECE/FAO Timber Bulletin and,
for reasons associated with the compilation of trade flow data, they may not
always be consistent with the FAO database figures. The percentage shares
160
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
of total trade should therefore be treated as indicative rather than as fully
reliable.
Countries important as both importers and exporters
The three countries in this group, the USA, Germany and France, between
them accounted for a quarter of world exports of wood products by value
in 1997, and a slightly higher proportion of imports. While all three are net
importers, the margin between their imports and exports is much less than
that of other net importing countries. Features that they have in common to
a greater or lesser degree include advanced economies, high per capita levels
of consumption of wood products, important areas of forest available for
wood supply, and well-developed wood-processing industries. Of the three,
France has probably the most potential for moving closer to full selfsufficiency in wood products.
United States of America
The USA is the largest importer of wood products in the world, and the
second largest exporter after Canada. In 1997 its imports amounted to
US$24.1 billion and exports to 19.8 billion, giving a net import value of 4.3
billion and an export to import ratio of 0.82. Being the leading world
economy and with per capita income levels for all wood products among
the highest in the world, its demand for wood products is huge. Despite a
considerable forest resource and a wood-processing sector that is the largest
in the world, it is still obliged to import part of its needs, all but a small part
of which comes from its northern neighbour, Canada. At the same time, the
USA is a major supplier of certain wood products to other regions, notably
Japan and other countries around the Pacific Rim and in Europe. The principal wood products traded by the United States of America in 1997 and its
main trading partners are shown in Table 7.2.
With 217 million ha, the USA possesses the third largest area of forest
among temperate and boreal countries after the Russian Federation and
Canada. Ninety-one per cent (198 million ha) is classified as forest available
for wood supply (FAWS), with a growing stock of 27 billion m3 ob (overbark)
and net annual increment of 694 million m3 ob or 3.5 m3 ob per hectare.
Annual removals in the late 1990s amounted to around 490 million m3 ub
(underbark), so that even allowing for the volume of bark on removals and
harvesting losses, the volume taken from the forest was still somewhat less
than annual growth, although the margin was less than in most other temperate and boreal countries. The scope for further increasing removals of
coniferous species, which accounted for about three-fifths of the total,
161
162
19 835
9 413
1 451
6 212
3 886
2 890
1 595
6 328
1 066
1 667
8 223
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Non-coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Chips (m3)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Plywood (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Newsprint (mt)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
JAP 20.2%; CAN 18.8%; CHN 7.9%; MEX 7.3%
JAP 48.3%; CAN 40.5%; SK 7.9%; CHN 1.4%
CAN 66.8%; JAP 7.8%; IT 3.8%; CHN 3.5%
JAP 80.9%; CAN 17.1%; SK 1.1%
JAP 36.9%; CAN 19.3%; SP 3.6%; IT 3.5%
CAN 31.3%; CHN 10.8%; JAP 8.5%; IT 7.2%
CAN 19.2%; UK 17.9%; GER 15.1%; NL 9.1%
JAP 14.3%; MEX 11.4%; IT 10.9%; SK 9.6%
JAP 36.7%; CHN 12.8%; BRA 8.0%; MAL 3.5%
CAN 41.4%; AUSL 4.2%; SIN 3.0%
CHN 16.6%; CAN 15.0%; MEX 7.3%; JAP 5.4%
CAN 77.7%; BRA 3.1%; FIN 2.9%; IND 2.0%
CAN 96.6%; CHI 0.6%; NZ 0.4%
CAN 44.2%; IND 19.9%; CHN 6.5%; BRA 5.4%
IND 43.1%; CAN 16.1%; BRA 14.0%; MAL 7.6%
CAN 94.1%; SWE 1.6%; NZ 0.4%
CAN 84.6%; BRA 10.4%; SAF 1.5%; CHI 1.1%
CAN 96.7%; NOR 0.7%; SWE 0.4%
CAN 48.0%; FIN 15.6%; NOR 6.7%; GER 6.5%
CAN 74.8%; FIN 4.8%; GER 3.4%; JAP 2.1%
Main trading partners
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: FAO database; FAO Yearbook of Forest Products 1997; UN-ECE/FAO Timber Bulletin Vol. LI, Nos. 2 & 5
24 134
42 514
1 096
1 868
5 948
5 805
7 168
5 257
1 933
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Plywood (m3)
Particle board (incl. OSB) (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Newsprint (mt)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
The principal wood products traded by the USA in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.2
54.2%
98.1%
81.9%
99.1%
63.3%
57.8%
61.3%
46.2%
61.0%
48.6%
44.3%
85.7%
97.6%
76.0%
80.8%
96.1%
96.6%
97.8%
76.8%
85.1%
Share of four main
partners in total
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
appears to be limited, if the principles of sustainability are to be respected,
but that is not yet the case for broadleaved species. Concerns over environmental protection have resulted in a marked reduction in commercial
logging activity in publicly owned forests, particularly in coniferous forests
in the Pacific North-West, leading also to the closure of wood-processing
plants.
For most wood products, the USA is the leading world producer. In
1997, US production of sawnwood amounted to 114 million m3, of woodbased panels 39 million m3, of woodpulp 60 million tonnes, and of paper
and paperboard 76 million tonnes, which represented about one-quarter of
the world total – even more in the case of woodpulp. Particularly for woodpulp, paper and paperboard, there are many large-capacity mills, while the
process of integration has reached the point where many of the top dozen
or so international wood products companies are American-owned. Compared with many other exporting countries, the USA has a rather well
diversified range of wood products exports, from softwood logs and chips,
through sawnwood, both softwood and hardwood, plywood and woodpulp,
to paper and paperboard. It exports throughout the world, but Japan and
Canada are its largest markets, followed by China and Mexico. European
countries are also important trading partners.
In contrast to the diversified pattern of its exports, the USA depends to
a large extent on one country, Canada, for its imports of wood products, this
trade accounting for as much as 78% of its total imports. Its main imports
are sawn softwood, paper and paperboard, woodpulp and particle board
(mainly OSB), for all of which Canada is the leading supplier – for nearly 97%
of the total in the case of sawn softwood and newsprint. Other countries
that are important suppliers to the USA include Indonesia (sawn hardwood
and plywood), Brazil (plywood and woodpulp) and several European
countries (printing and writing paper).
Germany
Ranking fourth among importing countries in 1997 and fifth among
exporters, Germany is a key player in the international trade in wood products. Its imports amounted to US$10.9 billion and exports to US$9.8 billion,
with net imports of 1.1 billion and an export to import ratio of 0.9. This
high degree of self-sufficiency is rather remarkable, given that Germany is
Europe’s leading economy with high levels of consumption of wood products and a forest resource which is quite modest in terms of area of forest
per inhabitant (0.13 ha/capita compared with a European average of 0.3).
The principal wood products traded by Germany in 1997 and its main
trading partners are shown in Table 7.3.
Germany possesses 10.7 million ha of forest, all but 6% of which is
163
164
9 828
3 277
755
3 522
1 895
1 544
770
4 384
2 636
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Non-coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Wood chips (m3)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Particle board (m3)
Fibreboard (m3)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
10 916
1 415
355
5 280
852
1 095
1 630
4 069
1 286
3 769
2 801
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Non-coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Plywood (m3)
Particle board (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Newsprint (mt)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
FRA 12.2%; UK 10.3%; IT 8.5%; NL 8.0%
AUS 36.4%; IT 13.7%; SWE 10.3%; CZR 9.9%
DEN 20.6%; SWE 16.6%; IT 16.0%; AUS 8.9%
FRA 49.1%; AUS 16.0%; BL 9.0%; SWE 8.9%
IT 25.7%; FRA 18.8%; NL 15.7%; AUS 10.4%
NL 15.8%; FRA 11.3%; DEN 10.6%; AUS 8.6%
BL 16.1%; POL 12.1%; NL 11.3%; FRA 10.3%
FRA 15.2%; UK 12.8%; IT 8.4%; NL 6.9%
FRA 18.4%; NL 12.1%; BL 11.5%; UK 10.2%
FIN 15.6%; SWE 15.6%; FRA 8.2%; USA 7.3%
CZR 38.6%; BL 31.5%; RUF 4.6%; SWE 3.3%
USA 50.0%; FRA 14.5%; CAM 10.7%; GAB 2.2%
SWE 22.0%; FIN 15.4%; CZR 11.6%; LIT 10.8%
USA 11.9%; IT 10.2%; POL 8.8%; MAL 8.3%
FIN 21.3%; IND 14.2%; USA 13.6%; FRA 6.2%
BL 27.8%; AUS 22.4%; SWZ 14.2%; FRA 6.2%
CAN 23.5%; SWE 20.8%; FIN 18.2%; USA 9.4%
SWE 38.8%; FRA 13.9%; FIN 9.9%; NOR 6.5%
FIN 28.1%; FRA 11.1%; SWE 9.5%; AUS 8.8%
SWE 17.3%; FIN 12.1%; NL 11.2%; USA 8.7%
Main trading partners
The principal wood products traded by Germany in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.3
39.0%
70.3%
62.1%
83.0%
70.6%
36.1%
49.8%
43.3%
52.2%
46.7%
78.0%
77.4%
59.8%
39.2%
55.3%
70.6%
71.9%
69.1%
57.5%
49.3%
Share of four
main partners
in total
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
classified as available for wood supply. The volume of growing stock on
FAWS amounts to 2.8 billion m3 ob, the third largest amongst European
countries after Sweden and France, and net annual increment (NAI) is nearly
90 million m3 ob or 8.8 m3 ob per hectare. The latter figure is the highest in
Europe, and is explained partly by favourable growing conditions and partly
by the high intensity of silviculture practised in the country. Removals in the
late 1990s amounted to about 38 million m3 ub a year and, allowing for bark
and unrecovered fellings, fellings were equivalent to only about 55% of NAI,
meaning that the volume cut could be increased appreciably without
jeopardising sustainability and explaining why the volume of growing stock
has been rising quite strongly in recent decades. Supplementing wood from
the forest, Germany has high recovery rates for industrial wood residues and
waste paper as raw material for its wood-processing industries.
Germany is the largest producer in Europe of paper and paperboard and
wood-based panels in Europe and second largest after Sweden of sawnwood,
but is not among the main producers of woodpulp, of which it imports about
70% of its requirements. Strict environmental regulations limit the possibilities for the establishment of pulpmills, but favour the recovery and utilisation of waste paper for papermaking.
Germany is a major importer of most assortments of processed wood
products, but its imports of wood raw material are relatively limited, amounting to only 2.4% of the total value of imports. Its purchases of imported wood
products tend to be concentrated in its neighbouring countries, with
Finland, Sweden and France accounting for two-fifths of the total, and the
Czech Republic, Belgium–Luxembourg, the Russian Federation, Lithuania,
Poland, Austria, Italy and Norway also being important suppliers, depending
on the product. For example, the Czech Republic is its largest supplier of
coniferous industrial roundwood, and Belgium–Luxembourg of particle
board (mainly flaxboard). Overseas suppliers are of importance for nonconiferous industrial roundwood (USA, Cameroon, Gabon), sawn hardwood
(USA, Malaysia), plywood (Indonesia, USA) and woodpulp (Canada, USA).
In terms of value, nearly three-quarters of Germany’s wood product
exports consist of paper and paperboard and a further 18% of sawnwood
and wood-based panels. As is apparent from Table 7.3, the main partners for
its exports are almost exclusively its neighbours in the European Union, but
the destinations of its exports are quite diversified, and for example substantial volumes of sawn softwood and paper and paperboard are shipped
to the USA, Japan and China.
France
France ranks seventh among both exporters and importers. In 1997 its
imports amounted to US$5.9 billion and exports to 4.7 billion, with a net
165
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
import value of 1.2 billion and an export to import ratio of 0.8. It is among
the leading economies in Europe and a large consumer of wood products.
Given that it has extensive areas of forest, it might be expected to be more
self-sufficient in wood products than it is, but its net import position may
be partly explained by the nature of its forest resource, which consists predominantly of broadleaved species, much of mediocre quality. The principal
wood products traded in France in 1997 and its main trading partners are
shown in Table 7.4.
France has over 15 million ha of forest, the largest area after Sweden and
Finland, and 95% of it is classified as available for wood supply. The volume
of growing stock on FAWS amounts to 2.9 billion m3 ob, the same volume as
in Germany but with a proportion of broadleaved species of 64% compared
with only 31% in Germany and 15% in Sweden. Net annual increment on
FAWS, at 92 million m3 ob, is the highest in Europe, and at 6.4 m3 ob/ha is
well above the European average of 4.4. Annual removals in the late 1990s
amounted to over 40 million m3 ub. Allowing for the volume of bark on
removals and unrecovered fellings losses, the fellings to NAI ratio is 0.65,
indicating considerable scope for raising the volume of removals without
jeopardising sustainability.
France is a large producer of wood products. It is the leading producer
of sawn hardwood in Europe, and second after Finland of plywood; for both
products it is partly dependent on imports of tropical hardwood logs. It is
also the second largest European producer after Germany of particle board.
France’s imports of wood products are well diversified in terms of
commodity composition and, as for Germany, its trade is largely with its
European neighbours. Exceptions to that are non-coniferous (hardwood)
industrial wood and sawn hardwood, Gabon and Cameroon being major suppliers of the former and Brazil, the USA and Malaysia of the latter. For woodpulp also, an important part of its imports comes from overseas, Canada, the
USA and Brazil.
Regarding exports, France’s principal customers are, for the most part,
its neighbours, led by Germany, Italy, Spain and Belgium–Luxembourg, and
with the Netherlands and the United Kingdom also prominent. For some
products, it is also shipping sizeable quantities to North African countries
and the USA, and in a more recent development to China and other Asian
markets.
Major net exporting countries
The eight countries in this group are Canada, Finland, Sweden, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Austria, the Russian Federation and Brazil. They accounted for 47%
by value of total world exports of wood products in 1997, but for not much
166
167
4664
1848
565
1252
1292
1670
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Non-coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Particle board (m3)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Data for some major trading partners not available
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
a
5866
1398
1278
1828
565
2136
1590
2105
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Non-coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Chips (m3)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
GER 21.3%; IT 12.3%; SP 11.7%; BL 9.6%
BL 28.5%; IT 28.3%; GER 10.7%; SP 10.2%
BL 20.6%; SP 18.7%; GER 11.9%; NL 9.4%
GER 26.6%; UK 19.2%; SP 16.2%; IT 10.5%
GER 26.5%; UK 16.1%; BL 9.5%; SP 9.3%
GER 18.7%; UK 15.5%; IT 13.8%; SP 13.1%
GER 16.8%; FIN 12.9%; SWE 11.0%; BL 7.3%
GAB 27.4%; CAM 15.9%; GER 18.1%
GER 84.0%
FIN 33.2%; SWE 21.2%; GER 18.1%; RUF 9.3%
BRA 25.6%; IT 9.8%; USA 7.8%; MAL 6.6%
CAN 18.2%; USA 18.2%; SWE 15.8%; BRA 8.8%
GER 23.9%; FIN 21.9%; IT 8.4%; BL 8.0%
GER 23.1%; SWE 15.9%; NL 9.7%; IT 8.2%
Main trading partners
The principal wood products traded by France in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.4
54.9%
77.7%
60.6%
72.5%
61.4%
61.1%
..
81.8%
49.8%
61.0%
62.2%
56.9%
a
48.0%
Share of four main
partners in total
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
more than 8% of imports. They are mostly characterised by having extensive
forest resources and large export-oriented wood-processing industries. With
the exception of the Russian Federation, exports make up an appreciable
part of their output of wood products. Depending on the state of their industrial development, the relative importance of the different groups of products in total exports varies. For example, wood raw material holds the largest
share of exports by the Russian Federation, sawnwood and wood-based
panels in Canada, Indonesia and Malaysia, woodpulp in Brazil, and paper
and paperboard in Finland, Sweden and Austria. An interesting feature with
regard to the last three named countries is the large amount of wood
raw material which they import to supplement the input to their woodprocessing industries from domestic sources, while about 64% by value of
Indonesia’s total imports consists of woodpulp.
Canada
Canada is the world’s largest exporter of wood products, with a value of
US$25.6 billion in 1997. Surprisingly perhaps, it is also a major importer,
ranking ninth in the world with a value of nearly US$4 billion. Nevertheless,
with exports more than six times imports and a net export value of US$21.7
billion, Canada’s positive balance in wood products far outstrips that of any
other country. A large part of its trade is with its neighbour to the south, the
USA, to which it exported 71% of its total shipments in 1997 and from which
it imported as much as 88% of its total imports. The principal wood products traded by Canada in 1997 and its main trading partners are shown in
Table 7.5.
With 245 million ha of forest and a further 173 million of other wooded
land, Canada possesses the third largest area of forest and other wooded land
in the world after the Russian Federation and Brazil. However, little more
than half its area of forest, 126 million ha, is classified as available for wood
supply, much of the remaining area being considered non-available for economic reasons, that is to say inaccessible to markets. Rather more than half
the total forest area is described as being ‘undisturbed by man’, meaning that
it is natural or old-growth forest, with the remainder having experienced significant intervention by man at some time or other in the past. The volume
of growing stock on FAWS is estimated at 17 billion m3 ob, nearly threequarters of which consists of coniferous species. With such a high
proportion of undisturbed forest, it is very difficult to assess the net annual
increment. Natural losses, notably from fire, insects and disease, can approximately offset the gross annual growth. However, NAI on all forest has
been estimated at about 440 million m3 ob, of which about half is on FAWS.
Annual removals in the late 1990s were of the order of 190 million m3
ub, which after allowing for bark and unrecovered felling losses, roughly
168
169
3 976
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
25 648
47 664
1 003
863
6 072
11 037
8 992
3 152
2 395
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Plywood (m3)
Particle board, incl. OSB (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Newsprint (mt)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
71.3%; JAP 10.4%; GER 2.5%; CHN 2.5%
85.0%; JAP 11.4%; UK 0.7%; CHN 0.6%
60.9%; CHN 9.6%; UK 4.4%; GER 4.1%
38.7%; JAP 33.6%; GER 10.9%; UK 4.7%
95.1%; JAP 3.4%; SK 0.7%; CHN 0.3%
44.5%; JAP 12.6%; GER 7.3; CHN 6.5%
70.7%; CHN 4.2%; BRA 4.2%; UK 4.0%
93.0%; GER 0.6%; CHN 0.6%; FRA 0.6%
71.8%; CHN 4.2%; BL 4.1%; SK 4.0%
USA 88.4%; FIN 1.6%; GER 1.6%; BRA 1.3%
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
Main trading partners
The principal wood products traded by Canada in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.5
92.9%
86.7%
97.7%
79.0%
87.9%
99.5%
70.9%
83.1%
94.8%
84.1%
Share of four main
partners in total
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
corresponds with the volume of NAI on FAWS. That is to say, it appears that
removals could not be increased without causing a fall in growing stock,
unless either some areas of unavailable forest became accessible to commercial harvesting or the intensity of silviculture were increased on FAWS
or both. In parts of Canada, notably in British Columbia, a fierce debate has
been raging about the negative environmental consequences of further
depletion of old-growth stands, which have been the source of most of the
wood harvest.
Canada has a very large wood-processing sector, second in size only to
the USA. While domestic consumption is high, both in volume and per
capita, for most wood products exports are more important than the home
market, and this is especially the case for such mass-produced products as
sawn softwood, woodpulp and newsprint. The possibility for Canada to
export sawn softwood (softwood lumber in North America) to the USA at
very competitive prices has been the cause of friction over many years
between the two countries, leading eventually to agreements on the conditions for trading in this commodity. Canadian sawn softwood, however, still
accounts for a third of all sales in the USA.
After the USA, Japan is Canada’s second largest market for sawn softwood, wood-based panels and woodpulp. China has been an expanding
market for several products. European countries have traditionally been
important markets for Canada, notably for sawn softwood, plywood and
woodpulp, but trade with Europe has often been affected by exchange rates
and has consequently fluctuated markedly. In 1997 the United Kingdom,
Canada’s largest customer in Europe, took less than 1% of its exports. The
percentage was much higher in some earlier periods. For geographic
reasons, exports to Japan and other Pacific Rim countries come mainly from
British Columbia. That province does also ship substantial quantities to
Europe and other parts of the world, as do the Maritime Provinces and
Quebec on the eastern side of the country. While there are legal restrictions
on exports of roundwood from Canada, it is quite a significant importer of
wood raw material. These imports, as well as those of other wood products,
notably paper and paperboard other than newsprint, come very largely from
the USA.
Finland
In 1997 Finland was the third largest exporter of wood products after Canada
and the USA, although the value of its trade, year by year, parallels closely
that of Sweden. More than in Sweden, and even Canada, the forest and woodprocessing sector is a key element in Finland’s economy and trade. Its
exports in 1997 amounted to US$10.4 billion, which was 14 times more than
170
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
its imports of US$700 million. The principal wood products traded by
Finland in 1997 and its main trading partners are shown in Table 7.6.
Seventy-five per cent of Finland’s land area is covered by forest and other
wooded land, one of the highest levels of forest cover in the world. The area
of forest amounts to 22 million ha, of which nearly 95% is classified as available for wood supply. The volume of growing stock on FAWS is 1.9 billion m3
ob, the fourth largest in Europe, and consists predominantly of coniferous
species, Norway spruce and Scots pine, while broadleaved species, mainly
birch, make up 18% of the total. Growing conditions vary from the severe
in the Arctic tundra to relatively mild in the south of the country, and the
average net annual increment is 3.5 m3 ob/ha giving a total on FAWS of
74 million m3 ob. Wood removals in the late 1990s amounted to over 50
million m3 ub a year. The ratio of fellings to NAI on FAWS has been calculated
as 0.75, one of the higher ratios in Europe, but still theoretically leaving
some margin for an increase in fellings without jeopardising the principle of
sustainability.
Finland has a well-developed wood-processing sector, oriented strongly
towards the production of paper and paperboard as well as sawn softwood.
Integration of woodpulp and papermaking has been promoted in recent
years, with the result that production and exports of paper and paperboard,
particularly of printing and writing grades, have expanded strongly, while
exports of woodpulp have tended to decline. Another important feature has
been the concentration of many Finnish industries into a small number of
international-sized companies, which has also involved mergers with companies in other countries, both in Europe and overseas.
While exporting throughout the world, Finland’s main customers are
chiefly in Europe along shipping routes across the Baltic and North Seas. Its
four leading customers, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the
Netherlands, account for nearly half its exports of wood products. For sawn
softwood, however, there are sizeable markets in North Africa and the Middle
East, and Egypt alone took 10% of Finland’s total exports of sawn softwood
in 1997, with Algeria and Tunisia also important. Finland’s exports to Japan
have been increasing. Finnish companies have expanded their production
capacity of printing and writing paper very strongly, and exports of these
grades accounted for more than half total exports of paper and paperboard
in 1997 with European Union countries the main destination, but also the
USA as a large market with 10% of total exports.
Among the major net exporting countries, Finland is notable for having
the largest share of exports of wood products by value in the form of paper
and paperboard – 69% in 1997 – while sawnwood and wood-based panels,
mainly plywood, accounted for a further 22%.
In 1997 45% by value of Finland’s imports consisted of wood raw
material, from its neighbours, the Russian Federation and Estonia. Besides
171
172
716
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
10 414
7 509
861
1 751
1 211
6 374
2 576
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Sawn softwood
Plywood (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Newsprint (mt)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
RUF 35.2%; SWE 20.2%; GER 7.4%; UK 4.1%
GER 18.2%; UK 17.1%; FRA 7.0%; NL 6.1%
UK 16.4%; GER 13.7%; EGT 9.9%; FRA 9.5%
GER 27.7%; NL 12.2%; UK 9.3%; FRA 7.0%
GER 42.2%; UK 15.1%; FRA 9.1%; IT 5.5%
UK 24.8%; GER 14.0%; DEN 7.5%; SP 6.4%
GER 17.4; UK 15.6%; USA 9.6%; BL 7.8%
GER 13.8%; UK 12.3%; SP 9.7%; FRA 5.8%
Main trading partners
The principal wood products traded by Finland in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.6
66.9%
48.4%
49.5%
56.2%
71.9%
52.7%
50.4%
41.6%
Share of four main
partners in total
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
coniferous sawlogs and pulpwood, the imports include large volumes of nonconiferous pulpwood.
Sweden
Sweden was the world’s fourth largest exporter of wood products in value
terms in 1997 with a total of US$10.4 billion. It also figured in the ‘Top 20’
list of importers (in nineteenth place) with US$1.4 billion, thus having net
exports of 9 billion and an export to import ratio of 7.4. The principal wood
products traded by Sweden in 1997 and its main trading partners are shown
in Table 7.7.
The area of its forest and other wooded land amounts to 30.3 million
ha, or 74% of the total land area. This is equivalent to 2.4 ha per inhabitant.
The values of forest cover and forest per inhabitant are very high by international standards and show that Sweden has a strong raw material base from
which to export a substantial part of its production of wood derivatives.
There are 21.2 million ha that are classified as forest available for wood
supply (FAWS) with a growing stock of 2.93 billion m3 ob, the largest in
Europe, of which 85% is coniferous (pine and spruce). Net annual increment
(NAI) on FAWS is 85.4 million m3 ob, while fellings on FAWS amount to 66.5
million m3 ob out of a total reported volume of fellings of 67.8 million m3 ob.
The fellings to NAI ratio on FAWS is thus 77%, explaining the trend towards
a long-term increase in the volume of growing stock. Nevertheless this ratio
is relatively high by European standards and suggests that the scope for
further expansion of fellings may not be very great, assuming that the principle of sustainability will be respected. Annual removals in the late 1990s
were of the order of 60 million m3 ub.
Sweden is a major producer of wood products, the most important of
which are sawn softwood (production of 15.4 million m3 in 1997), chemical
woodpulp for paper (7.3 million tonnes), mechanical woodpulp (3.0 million
tonnes), newsprint (2.4 million tonnes), printing and writing paper (2.5
million tonnes) and other paper and paperboard (4.9 million tonnes). Its
industries are amongst the most technologically advanced in the world and,
as a result of mergers and acquisitions in recent years, there is a high degree
of concentration with three companies accounting for a large part of the
total output of wood products.
Exports reflect the pattern of production, with sawn softwood, woodpulp and paper and paperboard leading the way and accounting for 97% of
the total value of exports of wood products in 1997. Sweden ships to many
countries around the world, although the lion’s share goes to European countries and in particular to its EU partners. It is noteworthy that five of the six
trading partners shown in Table 7.7 are Sweden’s neighbours within convenient shipping distance by road, rail or sea, Italy being the exception. Other
173
1 396
IMPORTS (1000 US$)
Total wood products (1000 US$)
174
FIN 17.2%; NOR 13.8%; GER 11.9%; RUF 7.0%
GER 20.0%; UK 17.4%; NL 9.4%; DEN 6.8%
UK 22.9%; GER 14.4%; DEN 12.3%; NL 8.9%
GER 32.3%; NL 12.7%; FRA 9.7%; IT 7.7%
UK 25.5%; GER 21.3%; DEN 6.7%; NL 5.8%
GER 20.4%; UK 17.4%; NL 10.2%; FRA 7.5%
GER 18.0%; UK 16.1%; NL 10.1%; IT 9.8%
Main trading partners
976
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
5142
8500
1285
1213
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Plywood (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
..
JAP 29.2%; CHN 26.5%; USA 7.6%; SK 6.1%
JAP 38.2%; CHN 18.2%; USA 7.4%; SK 4.7%
CHN 39.9%; SK 18.3%; IT 7.1%; IN 5.9%
CHN 67.6%; JAP 4.3%; MAL 4.1%; AUSL 3.5%
Main trading partners
The principal wood products traded by Indonesia in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.8
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
10 295
10 902
2 863
2 105
2 153
3 957
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Newsprint (mt)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Total exports
(1000 units)
The principal wood products traded by Sweden in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.7
..
69.4%
68.5%
71.2%
79.5%
Share of four main
partners in total
49.9%
53.6%
58.5%
62.4%
59.3%
55.5%
54.0%
Share of four main
partners in total
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
important partners within Europe include Norway, Spain, Belgium–
Luxembourg and Austria, and in other regions the USA, Japan, China and
Egypt for one or more of the commodities shown.
While Sweden is a very large exporter, mainly of semi-processed and
processed products, it also imports considerable volumes of wood products,
mostly wood raw material to augment domestic supplies for industry.
Indonesia
Indonesia held sixth place among the world’s exporters of wood products
in 1997, and first among the developing countries. Its exports amounted to
US$5.1 billion and, with imports of just under one billion, its export to
import ratio was 5.3. The principal wood products traded by Indonesia in
1997 and its main trading partners are shown in Table 7.8.
Indonesia is a major forestry country with an area of forest of 110
million ha or 61% of the land area, as well as 29 million ha of other wooded
land. Natural forest covers 104 million ha, and plantations 6 million. The
natural forests are very diverse and they represent about 10% of the world’s
total of tropical forest. They consist predominantly of broadleaved species
divided into two classes: wetland land forests, comprising mangroves,
swamp, peat and heath forests; and dry land forests, comprising tropical,
montane and sub-alpine rainforests, and monsoon forests. There are small
areas of naturally occurring coniferous forests, mainly Pinus merkusii and
Agathis spp. Forests are mainly owned and administered by the State, and
production forests are granted to private or State companies under logging
concessions.
The officially reported rate of deforestation is 1% a year, roughly a
million ha, but unofficial estimates put the rate two or more times higher as
a result of illegal logging and conversion of the natural forest to palm and
rubber plantations. In several recent years, the smoke haze from fires set to
clear the natural forest has created a hazard to health and air traffic, even in
neighbouring countries. Problems of law enforcement, including corruption,
have made it very difficult to bring illegal logging and exports under control,
which have been compounded by pressures from a large and land-hungry
population.
In 1997 the reported volume of wood removals amounted to 202
million m3, of which 47 million (23%) was industrial wood, and the remainder fuelwood. Indonesia has been a major producer of hardwood plywood
and sawn hardwood, while its output of woodpulp, paper and paperboard
has been rising strongly during the 1990s. Plywood and sawnwood production has been based on a limited number of broadleaved (hardwood) species,
notably meranti (Shorea spp.), ramin (Gonystylus bancanus) and keruing
(Dipterocarpus spp.).
175
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Legislation has heavily restricted the export of roundwood (although
illegal exports are said to be substantial) and more recently of sawnwood,
in order to encourage further processing domestically. On the other hand,
plywood exports are very important – Indonesia is by far the largest world
exporter. Plywood is the main component in the 73% share by value of total
wood products exports held by sawnwood and wood-based panels. Woodpulp and paper and paperboard account for nearly all the rest. As seen in
Table 7.8, a large part of Indonesia’s exports of wood products are sent to
Pacific Rim countries, with Japan and China alone accounting for 56%. For
woodpulp, Italy and India are also important customers, although far smaller
than China and South Korea.
For imports, woodpulp accounted for nearly two-thirds by value of the
total of wood products in 1997, needed to supplement domestic production
to feed the strongly growing paper and paperboard sector.
Malaysia
After Indonesia, Malaysia is the next most important exporting country of
wood products, with a value of nearly US$4 billion in 1997. It comes eighth
in the list of ‘Top 20’ exporters. With imports of over US$900 million, its net
exports amount to US$3 billion and it has a ratio of exports to imports of
4.2. Like Indonesia, the commodity composition of its exports is heavily
weighted towards sawnwood and wood-based panels, which made up 76%
of total wood exports in 1997, with wood raw material (tropical hardwood
logs) accounting for most of the remainder (22%). The principal wood
products traded by Malaysia in 1997 and its main trading partners are shown
in Table 7.9.
Malaysia had a forest area of 15.5 million ha in 1995, covering 47% of
the land area and divided between peninsular Malaysia and the states of
Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo (Kalimantan). Virtually all its
forest is considered natural and is mostly comprised of broadleaved species
from genera in the Dipterocarp family, including Dipterocarpus, Shorea,
Parashorea, and Anisoptera. The area of forest plantations is still quite small,
although there are extensive rubber plantations, which are also used for
wood production. Deforestation is reported at the relatively high rate of 2.4%
a year, although this is in accordance with a strategy for the conversion of
part of the forest resource to other land uses, notably agriculture. There is
official recognition for the need to leave a substantial part of the remaining
forest either under reservation or managed according to principles of sustainability. In fact three-quarters of its remaining natural forests have been
designated as Permanent Forest Estate (PFE) to be managed and developed
sustainably.
176
931
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
177
..
JAP 45.3%; CHN
JAP 44.7%; CHN
THAI 31.3%; JAP
JAP 41.1%; CHN
21.8%; THAI 8.3%; SIN 8.0%
31.8%; IN 10.3%; SK 5.6%
16.3%; CHN 16.3%; SIN 14.7%
29.3%; SIN 12.4%; USA 3.9%
Main trading partners
2016
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Source: See Table 7.2
3835
4838
1204
1857
819
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Particle board (m3)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
GER 37.5%; CZR 11.4%; SWE 8.9%; FIN 7.8%
IT 31.4%; GER 18.7%; SWZ 6.8%; FRA 5.7%
IT 71.9%; JAP 11.6%; GER 8.7%; SWZ 2.9%
GER 36.5%; IT 31.0%; SWZ 8.9%; UK 3.6%
GER 19.4%; IT 12.5%; FRA 12.0%; UK 11.4%
GER 26.0%; IT 20.1%; FRA 4.8%; BL 4.5%
Main trading partners
The principal wood products traded by Austria in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.10
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
3952
6593
3007
3825
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Non-coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Plywood (m3)
Total
(1000 units)
The principal wood products traded by Malaysia in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.9
65.6%
62.6%
95.1%
80.0%
55.3%
55.4%
Share of four main
partners in total
..
83.4%
92.4%
78.6%
86.7%
Share of four main
partners in total
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Wood removals in 1997 amounted to 39 million m3, of which 31 million
were industrial wood (in contrast to most developing countries, fuelwood
made up only a minor share of the total). Wood-processing has centred on
sawn hardwood and plywood, of which Malaysia is among the leading world
producers. It is also strongly pursuing a strategy to expand the production
and export of added value products, notably furniture and joinery. On the
other hand, production of woodpulp, paper and paperboard has been
developing more slowly, which explains why in 1997 imports of paper and
paperboard accounted for 82% by value of Malaysia’s total imports of wood
products.
Malaysia’s exports of wood products are still heavily oriented towards
wood raw material (22% of the total by value in 1997) and sawn hardwood and wood-based panels (76%). The latter are shipped mainly from
peninsular Malaysia, with the main markets for sawn hardwood being
Thailand, Japan, China and Singapore, the last also serving as a transit point.
Plywood accounts for the major part of wood-based panels exports, with
shipments mainly to Japan, China and Singapore, but Malaysia’s exports of
MDF and to a lesser extent of particle board have been rising steeply in
recent years.
Roundwood exports from peninsular Malaysia have been legally
restricted for many years, and the large volumes still being exported, though
less than in the past, come mainly from Sarawak, with Japan and China the
main destinations. Until fairly recently, Malaysia has been largely a threeproduct exporting country – tropical hardwood logs, tropical sawn hardwood and plywood – but diversification has been taking place into value
added products and MDF, a trend that is likely to be pursued.
Austria
Lying in the heart of Europe and neighbouring large importing countries
such as Germany, Italy and Switzerland, Austria with its important forest
resource and well-developed wood-processing industries is in a good position as an exporter. In 1997 its exports of wood products amounted to
US$3.8 billion, placing it ninth among world exporting countries. It is also
a medium-sized importer, with US$2 billion, leaving a net export value of
1.8 billion and an export to import ratio of 1.9, the lowest among the major
net exporting countries. The principal wood products exported by Austria
in 1997 and its main trading partners are shown in Table 7.10.
The area of Austria’s forest is 3.8 million ha, of which 87% is classified
as available for wood supply. While this area is by far the smallest among
leading exporting countries, it is offset by the fact that the average volume
of growing stock, at 310 m3 ob/ha, is one of the highest in the world, giving
178
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
a total growing stock on FAWS of over 1 billion m3 ob. Net annual increment
amounts to 27 million m3 ob, of which 80% is coniferous. Annual removals
in the late 1990s averaged less than 15 million m3 ub, and even after allowing for the bark volume on removals and unrecovered felling losses, the
fellings to NAI ratio was about 0.7, leaving scope for some potential growth
in removals without threatening sustainability.
Austria has a well-developed and well-balanced wood-processing sector
supplying a domestic population with high per capita levels of consumption
as well as export markets. Regarding the latter, European countries to its
south and west are its main customers, led by Italy, Germany, Switzerland
and France. For sawn softwood, 72% of its exports in 1997 went to Italy.
Interestingly, Japan had grown to become its next largest market in 1997
with over 11% of total exports. For the other main commodities exported,
particle board, printing and writing paper and other paper and paperboard,
Germany was the largest market, followed by Italy.
Sawnwood and wood-based panels accounted for 41% by value of
Austria’s exports in 1997 and paper and paperboard for 53%. On the other
hand, exports of wood raw material and of woodpulp were relatively small.
With regard to imports, Austria is a sizeable importer of wood raw material
to augment its domestic supply of raw material to industry, but not on the
scale of Finland and Sweden. It is also importing quite large volumes of other
wood products, while for some such as sawn softwood it is providing an
export-forwarding service for certain central European neighbours, such as
the Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia.
Russian Federation
Immediately before its break-up, the USSR held a larger proportion of world
exports of wood products than does the Russian Federation today. In 1988,
for example, the USSR exported US$3.8 billion of wood products or nearly
41/2% of the world total. In 1997 the Russian Federation’s exports amounted
to US$3 billion, less than half the 1988 share. To make the figures comparable, exports from other countries, formerly part of the USSR, such as the
Baltic states, Belarus and the Ukraine, should be added to the Russian
Federation’s, but the latter account for the predominant part of the total
exports of the group of countries that is termed here the ‘Former USSR’. The
Russian Federation’s imports were US$750 million in 1997, giving an export
to import ratio of 4.
A description of the Russian Federation’s forest resources requires
superlatives. Its area of forest of 817 million ha is easily the largest in the
world, roughly 22% of the total. It is four-and-a-half times the size of Europe’s
forest area and almost twice that of the whole of North America. Forest avail179
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
able for wood supply comprises 525 million ha, or 64% of the total. However,
a large (but difficult to assess) part of that, mainly in central and western
Siberia, is probably economically inaccessible to commercial exploitation
for the foreseeable future. A large part, 749 million ha of forest, FAWS
and other combined, is classified as ‘undisturbed by man’, representing a
vast pool of more or less natural or virgin forest comparable in size to the
whole of the Amazon Basin in South America. The volume of growing stock
on FAWS is estimated at 61 billion m3 ob, of which nearly three-quarters is
coniferous.
With so much of the forest area, even of FAWS, still in a more or less
natural (undisturbed) state, a large part of gross increment is lost to natural
causes, such as fires, disease and insect attack, and the remaining increment,
the net annual increment, is difficult to assess. The estimate by Russian
experts of NAI on FAWS is 742 million m3 ob and, with a volume of fellings
on FAWS of 126 million, the fellings to NAI ratio is a low 0.17. The physical
potential for raising fellings is therefore considerable, but enormous economic, infrastructural, social and environmental obstacles would have to be
overcome to make it realisable: it is a matter of decades rather than years.
The principal wood products traded by the Russian Federation and its main
trading partners are shown in Table 7.11.
At the time of its dissolution, the former USSR had a large but obsolescent wood-processing sector, which experienced severe difficulties in the
period of transition. There were steep falls in output of all products with the
exception of wood-based panels. The USSR’s production of sawnwood in
1989 was 105 million m3 (by far the largest in the world), in the Russian Federation in 1997 22 million; of woodpulp in 1989 10.4 million tonnes, in 1997
3.8 million; and of paper and paperboard in 1989 10.7 million tonnes, in
1997 3.3 million. Even allowing for production in parts of the former USSR
other than the Russian Federation, the declines were marked. In the latter
part of the 1990s some stabilisation occurred and even signs of recovery,
but the shortage of capital with which to modernise industries, or build new
ones, remained a serious problem.
There was a corresponding fall in supply of raw materials to industry.
Removals of industrial roundwood in the former USSR in 1989 were 305
million m3 ub and in the Russian Federation in 1997 88 million and in the
countries of the former USSR 103 million.
The impact of the transition process on the Russian Federation’s trade
was not as severe as on production and consumption, at least in volume
terms. One reason was that the fall in the exchange rate of the rouble helped
to maintain competitiveness in foreign markets; another was the need to earn
foreign currencies with which to buy essential imports. Russian exports of
some products in 1997, such as plywood and newsprint, were actually
higher than those of the former USSR in the 1980s. For others, such as
180
181
752
3 008
12 174
5 671
4 780
631
983
822
GER 22.0%; FIN 17.6%; SWE 8.3%; IT 7.8%
JAP 20.8%; CHN 7.1%; FIN (..); UK 3.8%
JAP 49.2%; FIN 20.3%; SK 5.7%; SWE 5.6%
FIN 63.7%; SWE 15.7%; CHN 8.9%; JAP 6.7%
JAP 13.2%; EGT 10.3%; UK 7.9%; IT 6.2%
USA 19.1%; UK 13.0%; EGT 10.6%; GER 8.8%
CHN 17.2%; SWZ 14.9%; HUN 11.2%; SK 3.9%
IN 21.0%; TUR 15.8%; CHN 13.7%; GER 5.1%
Main trading partners
1314
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
2647
885
2526
1329
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
..
USA 21.5%; ARG (..); JAP 7.3%; UK 7.2%
FRA 19.9%; PHI 18.1%; USA 11.3%; THAI 7.5%
USA 23.1%; JAP 17.9%; BL 14.0%; UK 8.1%
ARG 24.2%; USA 7.2%; CHN 5.1%; UK 5.1%
Main trading partners
The principal wood products traded by Brazil in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.12
Data for some main trading partners not available
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
a
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Non-coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Plywood (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Newsprint (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
The principal wood products traded by the Russian Federation in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.11
..
..
56.8%
55.8%
41.6%
Share of four main
partners in total
55.7%
55.6%
a
51.5%
a
80.8%
95.0%
a
Share of four main
partners in total
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
industrial roundwood and sawn softwood, exports were appreciably lower,
but the fall was much less than that of production.
The Russian Federation exports wood products to a large number of
countries, shipping from eastern Siberia and the Far East to Pacific Rim countries, and from the European part of the country to Europe, North Africa and
the Middle East. Two-thirds of total wood products by value consist of wood
raw material and sawnwood and wood-based panels, a much higher proportion than in other industrialised countries. Among its largest customers
are Japan, China and South Korea, but between them they account for less
than a third of the total. Finland is its largest European partner, although
the trade consists almost exclusively of industrial roundwood; for nonconiferous roundwood Finland takes 64% of Russia’s exports and Sweden
16%. The United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany are the main
European customers for sawn softwood, while Egypt is an important market
for Russian sawn softwood and plywood, the USA for plywood, and India
and Turkey for newsprint.
Brazil
In 1997, Brazil’s exports of wood products were valued at US$2.6 billion
and its imports at 1.3 billion, leaving a net export value of 1.3 billion and an
export to import ratio of 2.0. It was in fourteenth place among the world’s
wood products exporters and twentieth among importers. The principal
wood products traded by Brazil and its main trading partners are shown in
Table 7.12.
Brazil possesses the world’s largest area of forest after the Russian Federation and the largest area of tropical rainforest. The area of forest is 551
million ha, or 65% of the land area, and all but 5 million ha of plantations
are reported as being natural forest. There are also 106 million ha of other
wooded land, savannah-type woodlands. The humid tropical Amazon rainforests in the north-western half of the country account for 95% of the total
forest area and comprise a wide variety of broadleaved forest types and
species. There are also Atlantic humid evergreen forests scattered along
the Atlantic seaboard and coniferous (Araucaria spp.) forests in the south,
both of which have been extensively cleared for agriculture in the past. The
5 million ha of plantations are mainly of fast-growing pine and eucalyptus
species. The rate of deforestation is reported as being 0.5% a year, or about
2.8 million ha, with forest being burned to make way for smallholdings, cattle
ranching and other types of agriculture, some of which is doomed to failure
within a few years on the often mineral-poor forest soils.
Removals of roundwood in 1997 amounted to almost 200 million m3, of
which 85 million consisted of industrial wood, the highest volume among
developing countries apart from China and in fact exceeded only by the USA,
182
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
Canada and China. Broadleaved species accounted for 61% of the total. The
removals provide the basis for a large and rather well-diversified woodprocessing industry, much of the output of which is destined for consumption within Brazil by a large and expanding population, leaving a smaller
share for export. Most of the production of sawn hardwood and plywood is
based on roundwood from the natural forest, while that of woodpulp, paper
and paperboard is dependent on plantation-grown wood.
The USA is Brazil’s largest market for wood products with 22% of total
exports by value, followed by Argentina, Japan, the United Kingdom and
Belgium–Luxembourg. For sawn hardwood, France, the Philippines, the USA
and Thailand are the main customers, while for paper and paperboard China
comes after Argentina and the USA as leading destinations. A large proportion of woodpulp exports consists of hardwood (eucalyptus) pulp, which
has become increasingly competitive with other hardwood pulps, such as
birch from the Nordic countries. Woodpulp accounts for the largest share of
exports by value, with 39% in 1997, followed by sawnwood and wood-based
panels with 33% and paper and paperboard with 26%.
While Brazil imports some quantities of sawnwood, panels and woodpulp to supplement its domestic production, the biggest share of imports is
taken by paper and paperboard, with 74% of total value.
Major net importing countries
The six countries in this group are Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Italy,
the Netherlands and South Korea (Republic of Korea); five of them are not
only large importers of wood products, but also figure in the list of ‘Top 20’
exporters in Table 5.3; the exception is South Korea. Between them, they
accounted for about 38% of world imports of wood products in 1997 and a
more modest 10% of exports. All of them, with the exception of Japan and
South Korea, are rather poorly endowed with forest resources, and so must
depend to a greater or lesser extent on imports to meet their consumption
needs.
Japan
The value of Japan’s imports of wood products in 1997 was US$16.7 billion,
placing it in second position among importing countries after the USA.
Whereas the USA, as seen earlier, obtains a large part of its external
supplies from one source, Canada, Japan has a very diversified trading
pattern, with suppliers situated not only around the Pacific Rim, but also in
other regions, including Africa and Europe. Japan also figures – just – in the
list of ‘Top 20’ exporting countries, due mainly to its substantial exports of
183
184
1 640
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
16 684
13 961
6 446
26 905
10 326
1 789
5 422
3 405
1 614
Total
(1000 units)
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Non-coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Chips (m3)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Plywood (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Paper & paperboard (mt)
Commodity
..
USA 24.1%; CAN 18.8%; MAL 13.0%; IND 10.5%
RUF 40.3%; USA 38.9%; NZ 13.9%; CHI 1.1%
MAL 45.3%; PNG 22.3%; SOL 5.7%; GAB 3.3%
AUSL 28.2%; USA 22.4%; CHI 15.7%; CHN 9.1%
CAN 51.8%; USA 13.7%; RUF 6.0%; CHI 5.7%
MAL 28.2%; IND 24.7%; CHN 18.55; USA 13.5%
IND 60.0%; MAL 29.0%; CAN 5.5%; CHN 1.2%
CAN 40.5%; USA 26.4%; BRA 13.7%; NZ 7.0%
USA 48.3%; CAN 17.6%; FIN 16.0%; IND 2.8%
Main trading partners
Table 7.13 The principal wood products traded by Japan in 1997 and its main trading partners
..
66.4%
94.2%
76.6%
75.4%
77.2%
85.0%
95.7%
87.6%
84.7%
Share of four main
partners in total
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
paper and paperboard. The principal wood products traded by Japan in 1997
and its main trading partners are shown in Table 7.13.
The forestry situation in Japan is something of a paradox. With 24
million ha of forest and a further million of other wooded land, it has one of
the highest forest covers in the world, with 69% of the land area. That it has
to import roughly half its needs of wood requirements is due to the fact that
it also has a very low area of forest per inhabitant, 0.2 ha/capita. In addition,
because of the age-class structure of its forests, high production costs and
other reasons, it only harvests about 42% of the net annual increment on
the forest available for wood supply. Wood removals in the late 1990s were
about 23 million m3 ub a year; net annual increment on FAWS is reported at
69 million m3 ob.
Japan has a very large wood-processing sector. Its output of paper and
paperboard is third in size after the USA and China, and it is among the
world’s leaders in production of sawnwood and wood-based panels. Production is heavily dependent on imports of wood raw material, both roundwood and chips, which in 1997 accounted for nearly a third by value of its
total wood imports, a higher share than any other country in Table 7.1 except
Finland. More than half of Japan’s paper and paperboard production is based
on broadleaved species, including the substantial import of eucalyptus chips
from Australia. In most other countries coniferous species still account for
the major part of the raw material input.
Japan is the world’s leading importer of wood raw material. Its main
suppliers of coniferous industrial roundwood are the Russian Federation,
the USA and New Zealand, and of non-coniferous (broadleaved) industrial
roundwood Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, but other
countries in Asia and Africa are also suppliers. For chips, Australia is the
largest supplier, followed by the USA and Chile (coniferous).
A decade or more ago, Japan was a relatively small importer of sawnwood and plywood, depending largely on imported logs for conversion by
its domestic industry. However, it has been following the trend seen earlier
in other importing countries to replace part of its own production by
imports, and today it is a major importer of sawn softwood and hardwood
and of plywood. It is also a major importer of woodpulp, with Canada as the
largest supplier, and a quite large importer of paper and paperboard, with
the USA as the leading supplier. Its imports of paper and paperboard are
relatively modest compared with domestic production and not much larger
than its exports.
China
In international statistics ‘China’ includes Taiwan (Taiwan Province of China)
and Hong Kong (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), both of which
185
186
3 743
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Data for some major trading partners not available
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
a
12 641
1 079
5 859
1 864
734
2 830
3 475
1 528
2 458
1 310
2 218
6 936
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Non-coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Chips (m3)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Plywood (m3)
Fibreboard (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Newsprint (mt)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
..
IND 12.6%; USA 12.5%; SK (..); MAL 8.3%
RUF 52.9%; USA 13.2%; NZ 2.6%
MAL 43.2%; GAB 19.7%; RUF 11.7%; CAM 6.3%
IND 21.4%; AUSL 15.4%; CHI 11.4%
CAN 30.8%; CHI 9.0%; USA 5.3%; SWE 1.5%
MAL 32.6%; USA 20.1%; IND 18.4%; CAN 4.5%
IND 44.6%; MAL 32.2%; SIN 1.5%; SK 1.5%
..
CAN 28.9%; USA 17.9%; IND 20.5%; CHI 13.9%
CAN 35.5%; USA 11.8%; RUF 10.7%; SWE 5.0%
SK 30.3%; IND 15.5%; USA 9.2%; FIN 4.6%
USA 35.3%; IND 7.7%; JAP 7.3%; GER 3.5%
Main trading partners
The principal wood products traded by China in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.14
..
46.6%
75.6%
79.8%
..
81.2%
63.0%
59.6%
53.8%
a
80.9%
a
..
Share of four main
partners in total
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
are in-transit processors of wood products. That helps to explain why China
is not only the third largest importer of wood products, with US$12.6 billion
in 1997, but also the tenth largest exporter, with 3.7 billion. Its population
of one and a quarter billion is one-fifth of the world total, and its economy
has enjoyed strong growth in recent decades, even if GNP per capita is still
low, especially among the rural population which make up two-thirds of the
total. Standards of living are appreciably higher in Taiwan and Hong Kong
and are rising fast in the eastern provinces of mainland China. The principal
wood products traded by China in 1997 and its main trading partners are
shown in Table 7.14.
China has 133 million ha of forest, which amounts to only 0.1 ha/capita.
Its removals of roundwood in 1997 were 313 million m3, of which about
one-third was industrial wood. This put it in third position as producer of
industrial wood after the USA and Canada, but the volume per capita of less
than 0.1 m3 falls far short of the latent demand. Even so, it has placed a heavy
strain on the forest resource, and the authorities have had to take steps to
limit production. There has been a very large afforestation programme, with
a reported 20 million ha of plantations, but these have been established for
purposes other than wood production, including soil protection and
the provision of nuts and fruits. It seems inevitable that any increase in
consumption of wood products will have to be met largely from imports.
China is a major producer of wood products, the second largest in the
world after the USA of paper and paperboard and wood-based panels and
third largest after the USA and Canada of sawnwood. Although fairly small
compared with supplies to the domestic market, exports of these products
accounted for 89% by value of China’s exports of wood products in 1997,
the main markets being in Asia and the USA.
China is a major importer of most categories of wood products, the
most important of which are shown in Table 7.14, and it draws its supplies
from a wide range of countries. For coniferous industrial roundwood, the
Russian Federation is the biggest supplier; for non-coniferous roundwood,
it is Malaysia and Gabon; and for chips, Indonesia and Australia. Canada and
Chile are the largest suppliers of sawn softwood for China; Malaysia and the
USA of sawn hardwood; and Indonesia and Malaysia of plywood. The most
important exporters of woodpulp and newsprint to China are Canada and
the USA, the latter also of other paper and paperboard, while South Korea
and Indonesia are the leaders for printing and writing paper.
United Kingdom
In 1997 the value of the United Kingdom’s imports of wood products was
just under US$10.0 billion, which placed it fifth amongst the world’s leading
importing countries. With exports of US$2.1 billion, it was sixteenth among
187
188
2124
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
9993
6491
611
947
1119
1870
1628
3059
2411
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Plywood (m3)
Particle board (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Newsprint (mt)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
GER 13.9%; FRA 9.2%; NL 7.4%; USA 5.9%
FIN 19.4%; SWE 17.9%; GER 9.1%; USA 7.8%
SWE 32.6%; LAT 18.6%; FIN 15.9%; RUF 6.9%
IT 17.3%; USA 13.7%; MAL 8.4%
IND 22.7%; USA 22.3%; RUF 7.6%; MAL 7.0%
BL 27.4%; GER 15.9%; FIN 11.7%; POR 11.3%
USA 20.6%; CAN 17.0%; BRA 14.8%; FIN 12.6%
SWE 27.7%; CAN 25.1%; FRA 10.0%; FIN 7.1%
FIN 36.8%; GER 16.5%; SWE 11.8%; FRA 9.1%
SWE 23.0%; USA 13.7%; FIN 12.9%; GER 12.4%
Main trading partners
The principal wood products traded by the United Kingdom in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.15
36.4%
54.2%
74.0%
39.4%
59.6%
66.3%
65.0%
69.9%
74.2%
62.0%
Share of four main
partners in total
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
exporters. Its export to import ratio of 0.2 was the lowest among the leading
trading countries apart from Japan.
The country is poorly endowed with forest resources and, despite an
active plantation programme over the past 80 years, its area of forest and
other wooded land in the late 1990s amounted to only 2.5 million ha or 10%
of the land area (European average 38%). Being densely populated, the area
of forest and other wooded land per inhabitant is, at 0.04, amongst the
lowest in the world. The area of forest available for wood supply of 2.1
million ha with a growing stock of 317 million m3 ob supplies a minor though
increasing part of the United Kingdom’s requirements of wood products.
Apart from imports of wood raw material, which are small, the commodity pattern of the UK’s imports is diversified, as is the pattern of its
trading partners. In value terms the most important import commodity
group in 1997 was paper and paperboard with 55% of the total, followed
by sawnwood (20%), wood-based panels (11%) and woodpulp (10%). There
is a large domestic paper and paperboard industry, based to a considerable
extent on waste paper and imported pulp and producing about 6.5 million
tonnes a year or over half domestic needs; and also sizeable particle board
and fibreboard industries. Sawmilling, though by no means negligible, meets
only about a quarter of domestic consumption. The principal wood products imported by the United Kingdom in 1997 and its main trading partners
are shown in Table 7.15.
Sweden and Finland supplied nearly half the UK’s imports of sawn softwood in 1997, but it was noteworthy that Latvia had risen within a few years
to become the second largest supplier after Sweden with nearly 19% of the
total volume, while the Russian Federation’s share was only 7% and Canada,
which sometimes in the past had been the UK’s largest supplier, accounted
for only 1% in that year. For sawn hardwood, the United Kingdom draws on
a large number of suppliers, but in 1997 Italy was the leader with 17%, followed by the USA and Malaysia. Indonesia and the USA were the leading
exporters of plywood to the UK; and Belgium–Luxembourg of particle board
(flaxboard), followed by Germany.
There is a contrast between the United Kingdom’s sources of woodpulp
and of paper and paperboard. For the latter, North America accounted for
38% in 1997, followed by Brazil with 15%. For paper and paperboard, the
Nordic countries are overall the largest suppliers, with France, Germany and
the USA also important, depending on the particular commodity.
Italy
Italy is the sixth largest importing country of wood products with US$6.8
billion in 1997, and thirteenth largest exporter with 2.6 billion, leaving a net
import value of 4.2 billion and an export to import ratio of 0.4. It has an
189
190
2651
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Data for some major trading partners not available
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
a
6823
1680
2824
5145
1760
3119
1247
1879
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Non-coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Sawn hardwood (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
GER 20.8%; FRA 14.8%; UK 8.2%; SP 7.2%
AUS 14.3%; GER 12.4%; USA 10.7%; FRA 9.5%
GER 28.0%; SWZ 25.4%; AUS 25.4%; BL 1.5%
HUN 23.3%; FRA 20.7%; CAM 7.0%; GER 5.1%
AUS 59.6%; GER 11.9%; SWE 5.4%; RUF 5.0%
CRO 14.0%; USA 10.2%; CIV 7.0%; HUN (..)
CAN 23.2%; USA 21.5%; SWE 7.2%; CHI 5.7%
GER 27.8%; FIN 15.0%; AUS 14.6%; FRA 13.3%
SWE 19.2%; USA 16.5%; FRA 12.0%; GER 11.7%
Main trading partners
The principal wood products traded by Italy in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.16
51.0%
57.6%
70.7%
59.4%
a
81.9%
a
46.9%
80.3%
Share of four main
partners in total
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
area of forest of 9.9 million ha and nearly a million ha of other wooded land
giving a forest cover of 37% of the land area and 0.2 ha per capita. The area
of forest available for wood supply is 6 million ha, with a growing stock
volume of 877 million m3 ob, of which two-thirds is broadleaved. Net annual
increment on FAWS is 19 million m3 ob and fellings a bit less than half of that
to give a fellings to NAI ratio of 0.47. There has in consequence been an
appreciable rise in growing stock in recent decades. Removals of industrial
wood in the late 1990s amounted to around 4 million m3 ub a year or 43%
of total removals.
Italy is an important producer of paper and paperboard and of woodbased panels. These are mainly destined for the domestic market, but a part
is exported. Three-quarters by value of its exports of wood products consist
of paper and paperboard. It should also be mentioned that Italy is a major
producer and exporter of added value wood products, notably furniture, of
which it is a net exporter. The principal wood products traded by Italy in
1997 and its main trading partners are shown in Table 7.16.
Italy’s imports of wood products are well diversified. Those of coniferous industrial roundwood come mainly from its neighbours, Germany,
Switzerland and Austria, and of non-coniferous industrial roundwood from
Hungary and France, as well as from Cameroon and other tropical, mainly
African, countries. With France and Spain, Italy has traditionally been the
main importer of tropical hardwood sawlogs and veneer logs, although the
volume of imports has been declining over the past decade or more and
partly replaced by imports of sawn hardwood and plywood.
Austria supplies Italy with as much as 60% of its sawn softwood imports,
and Germany with a further 12%. Sweden and the Russian Federation are
other large suppliers. Before the break-up of Yugoslavia, it was the major supplier of sawn hardwood to Italy, along with Romania and France. In 1997,
Croatia was the largest exporter to Italy with 14% of the total, followed by
the USA, Côte d’Ivoire and Hungary.
Canada and the USA are the biggest exporters of woodpulp to Italy. For
paper and paperboard, Italy obtains most of its supplies from within Europe,
notably from Germany, Austria, France and the Nordic countries, but the USA
is also a large supplier of other paper and paperboard.
The Netherlands
In 1997, the Netherlands imported wood products to the value of US$4.7
billion, its exports were 2.7 billion, net imports were 2 billion, and the ratio
of exports to imports was 0.57. It was eighth among the world’s importing
countries and twelfth among exporters, a surprisingly high figure given its
very small forest resource base. The principal wood products traded by the
Netherlands in 1997 and its main trading partners are shown in Table 7.17.
191
2667
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
192
3740
6955
1311
1202
970
1981
1214
EXPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Total
(1000 units)
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Non-coniferous industrial wood (m3)
Chips (m3)
Plywood (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Data for some major trading partners not available
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
a
GER 27.0%; FRA 14.8%; BL 13.4%; UK 13.1%
SWE 18.7%; GER 16.7%; FIN 10.7%; BL 9.7%
SWE 30.0%; FIN 21.1%; RUF 11.9%; GER 10.3%
SWE 21.7%; POR 21.3%; USA 18.0%; CAN 6.8%
GER 25.4%; SWE 15.9%; FIN 15.2%; BL 11.4%
SWE 28.8%; GER 25.5%; FIN 9.7%; USA 8.5%
Main trading partners
..
USA 21.9%; IND 8.4%; CAN 8.2%
NZ 46.4%; CHI 20.2%; RUF 13.2%; USA 13.0%
PNG 37.1%; MAL 31.8%; SOL 15.4%; GAB 3.2%
CHN 53.6%; CHI 7.8%; AUSL 7.0%; USA 6.4%
IND 58.1%; MAL 17.0%; BRA 9.1%; USA 2.8%
USA 35.9%; CAN 31.5%; IND 13.9%; BRA 7.9%
Main trading partners
..
92.8%
87.5%
74.8%
87.0%
89.2%
a
Share of four main
partners in total
68.3%
55.8%
73.3%
67.8%
67.9%
72.5%
Share of four main
partners in total
The principal wood products traded by South Korea (the Republic of Korea) in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.18
Country abbreviations: See page 160
Sources: See Table 7.2
4658
2889
1174
1023
1443
IMPORTS
Total wood products (1000 US$)
Sawn softwood (m3)
Woodpulp (mt)
Printing & writing (mt)
Other paper & paperboard (mt)
Total
(1000 units)
The principal wood products traded by the Netherlands in 1997 and its main trading partners
Commodity
Table 7.17
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
The Netherlands has only a small area of forest and other wooded land,
339 000 ha, which covers only 10% of the land area and amounts to a mere
0.02 ha per capita. Wood production is of secondary importance to other
uses of the forest, such as nature conservation and recreation. Consequently,
for most wood products the country is largely dependent on imports to meet
its needs, although its paper and paperboard industry is fairly important
and is based mainly on imported woodpulp and recycled waste paper – it
has one of the highest waste paper recovery rates in the world. Its exports
of paper and paperboard are almost as much as its imports, and with rather
small volumes of exports of other categories, they account for 78% of the
value of the country’s total wood products exports.
Sweden, Finland and Germany figure prominently among the leading
suppliers of sawn softwood, woodpulp, paper and paperboard to the Dutch
market, but the Russian Federation is also important as a source of sawn softwood, Portugal and Canada of woodpulp, and Belgium–Luxembourg and
the USA for paper and paperboard. Although not shown in Table 7.17, the
Netherlands is a medium-sized importer of sawn hardwood from South-East
Asia (it is Malaysia’s largest European customer), Africa, the USA and Brazil,
of plywood, notably from the USA, Finland and France, and of particle board
(it is Belgium–Luxembourg’s leading customer).
South Korea (the Republic of Korea)
South Korea’s imports of wood products amounted to US$3.7 billion in 1997,
and its exports to 1.2 billion, leaving net imports of 2.5 billion and an export
to import ratio of 0.33. It was the tenth largest importer of wood products,
but did not figure in the ‘Top 20’ exporters. The principal wood products
traded by South Korea (the Republic of Korea) in 1997 and its main trading
partners are shown in Table 7.18.
The area of forest in South Korea is 7.6 million ha or 77% of the total
land area, even higher than Japan’s. Many of its forests are the result of
large-scale reforestation after widespread degradation in the first half of
the twentieth century culminating in the Korean War. Unusually for a developing country, a large part of the forests, about 70%, are privately owned.
Because of their age-class structure the forests are not large producers of
industrial wood, the volume of removals in the late 1990s amounting to
around 1 million m3 ub a year, which covered a minor part of the country’s
needs.
The commodity pattern of South Korea’s imports bears some resemblance to that of Japan, with a large share of wood raw material imports
(26%) in the total value of imports, as well as of sawnwood, wood-based
panels and woodpulp, and a relatively small share of paper and paperboard
(13%). The imports of wood raw materials, as well as of woodpulp, provide
193
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
the basis for the quite large output of all types of wood products. The sources
are mainly from around the Pacific Basin: New Zealand, Chile, the Russian
Federation and the USA for coniferous industrial roundwood; Papua New
Guinea, Malaysia and the Solomon Islands for non-coniferous industrial
roundwood; and China, Chile, Australia and the USA for chips. West Africa
also supplies some quantities of non-coniferous roundwood. Unlike Japan,
South Korea has not yet become a major importer of sawnwood. Its imports
of plywood, however, are substantial, mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia and
Brazil, and this represents an interesting development from the situation
in the 1970s when for a while it was a large in-transit processor of imported
tropical hardwood logs and the world’s leading exporter of plywood. This
was part of the strategy for rapid industrialisation, somewhat similar to that
followed by the Taiwan Province of China.
Other important trading countries
Seven other countries are shown in Table 7.1, which between them made
up about 5% of world exports and imports in 1997. Thus, while not qualifying for inclusion among the ‘Top 20’ trading nations, they are nonetheless
of importance and interest as exporters or importers or both. Four of them
are net exporters: Chile, New Zealand, Portugal and South Africa; three
are net importers: Australia, Mexico and Thailand. It may be noticed that a
number of European countries figuring in the lists of ‘Top 20’ exporters and
importers (Table 5.3) are not listed here: they include Belgium–Luxembourg,
Denmark, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. The reason is that their trading
patterns are not very different from their neighbours’ that have been
described in this chapter, a common feature being the rather high share
of total trade that took place with neighbouring or near-neighbouring
countries as well as the incidence of two-way trading in the same commodity but of different specifications. An obvious example of this is Belgium–
Luxembourg with its exports of non-wood particle board (flaxboard) and
imports of different types of wood particle board, mostly to and from its
neighbours.
Australia
Australia has an area of forest of 189 million ha and of other wooded land of
as much as 424 million ha, together giving a coverage of 76% of the land area.
Of the area of forest, 41 million ha are classed as available for wood supply,
on which 80% of the growing stock is broadleaved and predominantly eucalyptus. While there is an active afforestation programme of both coniferous
and broadleaved species, these plantations cannot yet provide the balance
194
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
of wood raw material needed to meet domestic consumption needs, and
Australia is importing quite substantial quantities of certain products, including sawn softwood and paper and paperboard. In due course, Australia may
become a net exporter of wood products when its plantation programme
has developed further. In the meantime, it is a major exporter to East Asia
of wood chips from its natural eucalyptus forests. The felling for export of
these forests has aroused considerable opposition on environmental
grounds.
Chile, New Zealand and South Africa
What these countries have in common is that their exports of wood products are largely based on fast-growing plantations. Chile has more than 2
million ha of plantations, of which three-quarters are of Radiata pine and
much of the rest eucalyptus, both exotic species. New Zealand has more
than one and a half million ha, mostly Radiata pine, and South Africa over
one million ha, also with Radiata pine and eucalyptus predominating. Besides
these plantations there are quite extensive areas of natural forests in all
three countries which, however, play a minor role as providers of industrial
roundwood.
All three countries export considerable quantities of wood raw material, mainly as coniferous industrial roundwood but also as chips, with the
countries of East Asia being the main markets. Nearly half by value of Chile’s
and South Africa’s exports of wood products in 1997 consisted of woodpulp,
with markets in the USA, Asia and Europe, and Chile also to some Latin
American countries. Chile also exports sawn softwood and wood-based
panels, but these do not make up as large a part of total exports as from
New Zealand (23% by value in 1997 compared with 36%). The USA and Japan
are Chile’s largest markets for sawn softwood, with some quantities also
going to China, Europe and other markets. Australia is New Zealand’s largest
market for sawn softwood, followed by the USA and Japan. Fibreboard,
mainly MDF, is the wood-based panel exported in the largest volume by Chile
and New Zealand. Compared with most other exporting countries, the three
countries’ share of paper and paperboard in total wood products is low.
Mexico
Mexico has 136 million ha of forest and other wooded land, of which 55
million or 41% is forest. The forest cover is about 30%. A broad range of climatic zones gives rise to an equally broad range of vegetation and forest
types. More than 70% of the country is classified as semi-arid or drier, but
there are also wet humid zones, as well as montane and alpine vegetation.
195
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Lowland forest is mostly broadleaved. Montane regions have mixed coniferous (pine and fir) forests, also with significant proportions of oak. There are
some areas of plantations, mainly pine.
Mexico’s imports of wood products, amounting to US$1.47 billion in
1997, were three times its exports. Paper and paperboard accounted for 58%
of the import total, with woodpulp and waste paper taking a further 22%.
Its main trading partners are the fellow-members of NAFTA, the USA and
Canada. Sawnwood and wood-based panels make up nearly half its exports,
which go mainly to the USA.
Portugal
Portugal is also a moderately forested country; its 3.2 million ha of forest
and other wooded land (all but 11% being forest) cover 31% of the land.
Its forests consist mostly of maritime pine (P. pinaster) in the north and
central part of the country, while cork and evergreen oaks (Q. suber and
ilex) are found in the south. Eucalyptus plantations, mostly E. globulus,
are spread along the central and southern coastal regions. Portugal has
one-third of the world’s area of cork oak forests and produces half of the
world’s output of cork. It is the leading exporter of cork and cork manufactures, which are not included in the trade figures in Table 7.1. Their inclusion would lift the total value of forest products considerably and bring
Portugal in the ‘Top 20’ exporters’ club. Its main exports of wood products
in 1997 were paper and paperboard with 43% of the total and woodpulp
with 35%. It also ships moderate quantities of sawnwood, particle board
and fibreboard.
Thailand
Some decades ago, Thailand was still quite an important exporter of wood
products, notably of teak (Tectona grandis). However, since 1960 it has lost
half its forest cover, most of the remaining forests are in relatively inaccessible mountainous areas, and since 1989 there has been a ban on logging
in natural forests. It is now a large importer of wood products with US$1.5
billion in 1997, putting it in sixteenth place in the ‘Top 20’ importers list,
and its exports to imports ratio is 0.4. Thailand is an example of the longterm impact on the trade balance in wood products of the over-exploitation
of a once rich forest resource. Other countries that have trod the same path
include the Philippines and Nigeria.
To feed a still quite large wood-processing sector, Thailand imports
roundwood and sawnwood, mainly from tropical sources, as well as woodpulp and waste paper. Its production of added value products, notably fur196
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
niture, has been expanding, and exports of these have helped to offset the
trade deficit in other wood products.
Emerging and declining suppliers and markets
The preceding section gave a snapshot view of the trade situation in wood
products in the leading exporting and importing countries in the late 1990s
without going into detail about the long-term trends. Nevertheless, there
were some indications of where important changes had occurred. This
section looks at some of the changes and the reasons behind them.
Declining suppliers
There are examples of countries that were in past years important exporters
of wood products but have seen their exports shrink in recent times. Reasons
for this include:
•
•
•
•
Over-exploitation of the forest resource.
Introduction of legislation affecting exports.
Competition from other sources.
Political disturbances affecting production and trade.
Over-exploitation of the forest resource
In several countries ‘timber-mining’ has taken place with no consideration
to the long-term sustainability of the resource. It has involved the cutting of
tree species most in demand on the market and in the most accessible areas.
The Philippines was the world’s largest exporter of tropical hardwood
sawlogs and veneer logs in 1970 with 9.6 million m3; its exports were negligible by the late 1990s. In Africa, Ghana and Nigeria exported 775 000 m3 and
733 000 m3 respectively of these logs in 1961, but only minor volumes in
the 1990s. Exports from the Côte d’Ivoire reached a peak of over 3 million m3
in the early 1970s but had declined steeply by the late 1990s.
Introduction of legislation affecting exports
Sometimes as a measure to bring over-exploitation under control, countries
have introduced legislation banning or restricting the export of wood raw
material, an additional aim being to divert supplies to domestic industries
197
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
and thereby encourage the growth of exports of added value products. Some
countries like Canada have had controls for many years; others, for example
Indonesia, have introduced them more recently. Indonesia’s exports of
tropical hardwood logs reached nearly 15 million m3 in 1980 but fell to virtually nothing in the following decade. Over the same period its exports of
sawn hardwood and plywood rose steeply until further legislation was
brought in to curtail exports of sawn hardwood, which dipped after 1989.
Competition from other sources
During the first two decades after the Second World War, Sweden and Finland
were Europe’s leading exporters of fibreboard. Thereafter, however, their
exports declined, partly as a result of competition from cheaper supplies
from eastern Europe and other sources. A somewhat similar development
occurred with particle board: Finland’s exports peaked in 1973, Sweden’s in
1978, and since then their exports have remained well below those levels.
Political disturbances affecting production and trade
These may be temporary in nature, although the impact can last for a decade
or a generation. An example is the sudden breakdown of totalitarian rule
in the countries of the east European bloc at the end of the 1980s, and the
process of transition of their economies from State planning systems to forms
of market economy. There was also the break-up of the former USSR into
15 separate countries, 12 of them continuing to be linked as members of
the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), while the 3 Baltic states,
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, decided to remain outside the CIS. The introduction of market economy practices had severe impacts, especially in the
CIS countries, whose economies shrank and standards of living fell sharply
in the early 1990s. In the Russian Federation, for example, production
of wood derivatives declined, particularly of sawnwood, which had a noticeable effect on the trend of world production of this product.
Sawn softwood exports from the Russian Federation decreased in the
first half of the 1990s before stabilising in 1996, but the fall was less than
that of production. Exports from the Baltic states increased considerably and
by the late 1990s total exports from the countries of the former USSR were
comparable in volume to those of the USSR in the 1980s.
Romania and the former Yugoslavia were two leading exporters of sawn
hardwood in Europe. Exports from Romania and the countries of the former
Yugoslavia in the late 1990s were about half the peak levels achieved in the
past under the effect of the political and economic changes there. In Africa,
Mozambique’s exports of sawn hardwood were curtailed after the 1970s, as
198
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
were Liberia’s of hardwood sawlogs and veneer logs after the mid-1990s, no
doubt largely as a result of the political difficulties in those countries.
Emerging suppliers
It is sometimes difficult to separate countries that took part in the general
expansion of trade in wood products from those whose appearance on the
market as suppliers was prompted by some special circumstances. Among
the reasons for the latter have been:
•
•
Opening up of existing forest areas or creation of plantations.
Appearance of new products.
In several instances, export development has been based on a combination of the two.
Opening up existing forest areas or creation of plantations
Papua New Guinea is an example of a country that has grown to become a
leading exporter of tropical hardwood sawlogs and veneer logs. As availability of the commercially preferred species from South-East Asia became
increasingly problematical, the possibilities of harvesting and exporting
the different species growing in Papua New Guinea were explored, with the
result that it is now the second largest exporter of this commodity in the
world after Malaysia. The development of Australia’s large export business in
chips during the 1980s was also based on its natural hardwood (eucalyptus)
resource.
Plantations have provided the basis for important manufacturing
industries and exports, as seen in the previous section for Brazil, Chile,
Indonesia, New Zealand and South Africa. Woodpulp accounted for a large
part of the growth of plantation-based exports of wood products from
Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa, while those from Chile and New Zealand
were more diversified, with wood raw material and sawn softwood also
important.
Appearance of new products
The most obvious examples that come to mind are medium density fibreboard (MDF) and oriented strand board (OSB). The explosive growth in the
demand for MDF in the 1990s provided the opportunity for new capacity
to be built in many countries, and in some to develop new export markets.
199
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
A large MDF plant was established in Ireland, using plantation conifers,
mainly Sitka spruce, as raw material, and a large part of its production is
directed to export markets with the UK as the biggest. This has been a case
of plantation wood becoming available at about the same time as a market
emerged for a new product for which the raw material was well suited.
The quadrupling of Canadian exports of particle board during the 1990s
was largely due to the emergence of OSB as an alternative to plywood in a
number of major construction and packaging uses, combined with increasing difficulties in providing raw material supplies (veneer logs) for plywood
production in both Canada and the USA, its principal market. OSB is produced from lower-quality wood, largely non-coniferous, of which there are
abundant supplies.
Declining markets
Trade in a given product may decline for reasons connected with demand,
as well as of supply. Demand may be affected by substitution by other products and/or by changes in the utilising industry. Take the case of pitprops:
after the Second World War, the restoration of the underground coal-mining
industry was crucial for the economic recovery in Europe, and pitprops were
essential for the industry. Volumes of trade in the post-war years were substantial. By the 1970s oil and natural gas had become the main sources of
energy, underground mining was falling in many countries, partly replaced
by surface mining, but wooden pitprops were also being replaced by steel.
Consequently, trade in wooden pitprops declined, notably between the
former USSR and Hungary, the UK and Germany.
The case of wooden sleepers (railroad ties) was somewhat similar. Postwar reconstruction required large quantities of sleepers, but subsequently
the replacement market slowed down and new techniques, such as continuous rails, demanded the use of concrete sleepers rather than wood.
Trade in the latter declined appreciably from the 1980s onwards in line with
the overall market.
Another example of the same trend is dissolving pulp. Used as the basic
material for rayon for the textile industry and other products, it has faced
increasing competition from fossil fuel-based substitutes, and its use and
imports in some countries, such as the USA and the UK, decreased during
the 1990s.
Emerging markets
There are many countries whose imports of wood products have expanded
over the past decades from small beginnings as a natural part of their overall
200
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
economic development. It is not these that are of interest here, but rather
those that are having or may have a significant impact on world trade over
a relatively short period of time by reason of changes in trade policy. Such
changes may include a loosening of import controls, including the lowering
of tariff barriers and the easing of import restrictions. Coupled with this
would be a situation where domestic supply of wood raw material as well
as of waste paper would be incapable of meeting the growth in demand
released by economic expansion.
Two examples come to mind, one where the process of import expansion has been going on for some time but still appears to have a long way
to go, namely China; the other where the process seems to be in its early
stages, namely India. There may be others, but these are the demographic
giants, and may become economic giants as well during the twenty-first
century. In 1997, however, China was still only importing US$10 of wood
products per inhabitant, and India less than one US$ per inhabitant. This
compared with US$297 per person in the Netherlands, US$171 in the UK,
US$133 in Japan and Germany and US$89 in the USA.
No one would suggest that China and India, or most other developing
countries for that matter, are likely to catch up with the economically
advanced countries in the foreseeable future, if ever. There could be reasons
for demand for wood products to become detached from overall economic
expansion, resulting in ‘wood-free economic growth’, a kind of extension
of the concept of the future ‘paperless office’ when electronics would eliminate the need for any kind of printing and writing paper. Neither wood-free
growth nor the paperless office look realistic for the foreseeable future, but
at the same time countries like China and India could not afford to open
the floodgates to unlimited imports of wood products, even if greater trade
liberalisation would benefit the quality of life of their citizens. Yet China’s
imports of wood products rose from US$2.75 billion to 12.6 billion between
1990 and 1997, and this may only be the beginning. India’s rose from US$260
million to 760 million between 1993 and 1997 and it still has quite a way to
go before joining the ‘Top 20’ importers, but the signs are there of important developments to come.
201
CHAPTER
8
Influences on wood
products markets
and trade
H
aving dealt in some detail in the previous chapters with trade patterns and trends, it is time to address some of the factors which
influence them. The cost of production has a strong bearing on the
price at which products can be offered on the international market, while
the competitiveness of exporters in a given country is affected by the
exchange rate between its currency and those of other exporting countries
and of customer countries. Similarly, tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade
have an impact on decisions by importers as to their choice of supply
sources. Measures, such as export bans and import controls, are another
cause of distortion to trade. Less direct but important as an influence on
trade patterns and volumes are the globalisation of markets and regional integration. Also included in this chapter are short sections on futures markets
for wood products and on the international institutions most directly concerned with the international trade in wood products.
Costs, prices and exchange rates
There is a natural link between the cost of producing wood products and
the price at which they are sold on the market, the most obvious being that
202
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
prices cannot over the long term be less than costs, otherwise the producing enterprise would go bankrupt. Depending on the degree of processing,
the cost of raw material plays a progressively declining part in the total cost
of a product. Typically, the price of sawlogs may account for 60 to 70% of
the production cost of sawnwood, but by the time that sawnwood has been
converted into joinery products or furniture the log price component may
have fallen to a relatively minor share of the total. The other main components of the production cost of sawnwood are energy, labour, capital costs
and overheads. For plywood and particle board, other (non-wood) materials,
notably glue, are an important item of cost, as are chemicals in chemical
woodpulp production costs, and fillers and coatings for paper and paperboard.
Production costs vary from mill to mill, or in the case of roundwood
from forest to forest, and according to the specification of the product.
Mainly for this reason, they have not been collected and published in a systematic way at the international level.
Prices
The availability of price data at the international level is considerably better
than that of costs, although efforts to collect prices that are comparable
between countries have met with mixed results. The usefulness of price data
depends to a large extent on how precise they are as regards product
specification, and each country tends to produce to its own grading system.
Furthermore, prices quoted in national currencies have to be converted to
a common currency, usually the US dollar.
Export or import unit values, obtained by dividing the total export (or
import) value of a product by total volume, are sometimes used in analysis
as an alternative to prices, but they suffer from the disadvantage that the
traded product may consist of a wide range of qualities and specifications,
which will change over time. The unit value is therefore an average, which
is comparable neither between countries nor between periods. Changes in
exchange rates may further complicate attempts to analyse trends.
Bearing these problems in mind, and the need to adjust current prices
to take account of inflation, it is not surprising that there are different opinions regarding the long-term development of prices for wood products. One
opinion, based on observed trends within the USA, is that prices for sawnwood (lumber) measured in constant dollars have risen since 1900 at an
average annual rate of 1.4% (Haynes et al. 1995) although the rise has tended
to be in steps, for example in the 1940s and 1970s, followed by periods
of relative stability. Furthermore, as Table 8.1 shows, the price trend has
varied from product to product, at least during the period 1952–1991. For
203
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 8.1
1991
Deflated price indexes for selected wood products in the USA, 1952–
1952
1962
1970
1976
1986
1991
(Index – 1982 = 100)
Sawnwood
• Sawn softwood
• Sawn hardwood
99.8
104.7
88.3
103.7
95.3
118.6
126.0
109.9
114.3
126.2
113.0
127.2
Structural panels
• Plywood
• OSB – waferboard
172.0
156.3
119.0
104.0
109.2
99.2
143.6
111.1
121.1
100.3
94.2
118.7
Non-structural panels
• Plywood
• Other panelsa
184.5
151.4
174.5
115.0
53.4
92.1
110.6
107.1
90.7
..
..
107.1
Paper and paperboard
Paper
Paperboard
93.2
130.4
102.8
121.1
105.1
107.6
104.2
112.9
106.8
106.3
98.9
118.7
a
Hardboard, particle board and fibreboard products
Source: Haynes et al., 1995
example, there appears to be no clear upward or downward trend over the
40-year period in prices for paper and paperboard, but apparently a downward trend for certain types of wood-based panels.
In the past, a large part of the sawnwood produced in the USA came
from logs taken from old-growth (natural) stands, and it could be that as
these sources were cut over and logs had to be brought from more distant
forests, costs tended to increase, which would be reflected in prices. This
trend may have been exacerbated by the restrictions on fellings in public
forests in the Pacific North-west for environmental reasons during the 1990s.
Another opinion about long-term price trends, based on data compiled
by FAO, which are aggregated from available country sources of information
on specific product assortments, considers there is no evidence for a significant change in prices for most wood products between the early 1960s
and early 1990s (UN-ECE/FAO 1993, FAO 1995(b), OECD 1995). Unfortunately, the FAO series has not been up-dated recently, but it does not appear
that the trends in the previous decades have changed during the 1990s.
Figure 8.1 shows the trends in current and deflated prices up to 1992 for
selected wood products. Those in current prices all show a rising trend
because of the upward trend in prices in general (inflation). Those for
deflated prices appear to have been reasonably stable over a period of several
decades or have even moved slightly downwards. This was the case for both
204
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
raw materials (sawlogs, pulpwood) and processed products (sawnwood,
panels, woodpulp). One apparent exception is for tropical sawn hardwood,
for which the price trend has been upward. One reason for this may have
been the declining accessibility or availability and hence the increasing cost
of sawlogs from natural forests in some tropical countries.
150
125
+
+
+
+
Product price index
+
100
+
+
+
+
+
+
75
+
+
1978
1983
+
+
+
+
50
25
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
0
1963
+
+
+
+
+
1968
+
1973
+
+
Current
+
1988
1993
Deflated
A. CONIFEROUS SAWLOGS AND VENEER LOGS
150
+
125
+
Product price index
+
+
+
+
100
+
+
+
+
75
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
+
25
+
0
1963
+
+
+
+
+
1968
+
+
+
+
+
+
1973
1978
+
+
+
Current
1983
1988
Deflated
B.TROPICAL HARDWOOD LOGS
8.1 Price indexes (current and deflated) for selected wood products, aggregated
from available country data, 1963–1992: Index - 1980 = 100 (source: FAO 1995).
205
1993
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
150
+
125
+
Product price index
+
100
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
75
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
+
25
+
+
+
+
+
0
1963
+
+
+
+
1968
1973
+
1978
+
+
1983
Current
1988
1993
Deflated
C. SAWN SOFTWOOD
150
125
+
Product price index
+
+
+
+
100
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
75
+
+
50
+
+
+
+
25
+
+
+
+
+
0
1963
+
1968
+
+
+
+
1973
+
+
1978
+
Current
1983
Deflated
D.TROPICAL SAWN HARDWOOD
8.1 Continued
206
1988
1993
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
150
+
+
+
125
+
+
Product price index
+
100
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
75
+
+
+
+
+
50
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
25
0
1963
1968
1973
+
1978
+
+
1983
Current
1988
1993
Deflated
E. PLYWOOD
150
+
125
Product price index
+
+
+
+
+
100
+
+
75
+
+
50
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
25
0
1963
1968
1973
+
+
1978
+
Current
1983
Deflated
F. PARTICLE BOARD
8.1 Continued
207
1988
1993
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
+
150
+
+
125
+
Product price index
+
100
+
+
+
+
75
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
+
25
+
+
+
+
+
+
0
1963
+
+
+
+
1968
1973
+
1978
+
+
1983
Current
1988
1993
Deflated
G. CHEMICAL WOODPULP
150
125
+
+
+
+
+
Product price index
+
100
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
75
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
25
0
1963
1968
1973
+
+
1978
+
Current
1983
1988
1993
Deflated
H. PRINTING AND WRITING PAPER
8.1 Continued
Changes in relative prices over the long term, i.e. prices of wood products relative to competing materials, are indicative of the supply–demand
balance. Rising relative prices should result in a fall in demand, or slower
growth, unless there are possibilities for supply being stimulated by the
higher prices. Assumptions about future price trends are key elements in
208
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
forest sector modelling, and the different price assumptions used partly
explain the differences in outlook for consumption and supply of wood products presented in Chapter 10. In the short term, prices are a major factor,
although by no means the only one, determining buyers’ decisions in the
market. In international trade they can be quite strongly affected by changes
in exchange rates, resulting not only in shifts in the sources of supply but
also in the quantities traded.
Exchange rates
During a period of turbulence in exchange rates some years ago, a trader in
the United Kingdom made a comment to the effect that he felt he was no
longer a timber importer but a currency speculator. And at a symposium in
1985 in Seattle, a banker concluded his paper on financial issues affecting
international trade in wood products by saying:
I cannot complete a discussion of financial issues in trade
without recognizing the greatest barrier of all: the
unprecedented strength of the U.S. dollar against foreign
currencies. . . . The prices of our logs, lumber, plywood, and
other products have increased abroad by 20 to 35 per cent in
the past year. Only where we have resources that cannot be
obtained elsewhere in the world do we still have the capacity
to compete (Rosenberg in Schreuder 1986).
The last comment about the high US dollar in the mid-1980s is supported by the data in Table 8.2: in 1985 the dollar was appreciably stronger
against the currencies of the major European economies, Japan and Canada
compared with 1980, but it may also be noted that against most of them it
had weakened again by 1990. Over the period 1970–1990 the currencies
of several countries, including Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Japan,
tended to strengthen against the US dollar, while others weakened, including those of the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada. The decline of the Canadian dollar from almost parity with the US dollar in 1970 to US$ 0.722 to
the Canadian dollar in 1997 certainly contributed to the growth in Canadian
exports to the US over the period.
Any assessment of the impact of changes in exchange rates on trading
patterns needs to be carried out on a country-by-country basis, taking into
account the changes between a given country’s currency and that of its main
trading partners. A government decision to devalue the national currency
has among its objectives the expectation that it will boost exports by
making them cheaper to its importing partners and discourage imports.
However, in practice these effects tend to be rather short-lived, as a further
209
Currency
210
b
1000 Cruzeiro
ECU
Source: FAO Yearbooks of Forest Products
a
Major wood products net importers
Japan
1000 Yen
China
Germany
D Mark
United Kingdom
Pound
Italy
1000 Lira
France
1000 F Franc
Netherlands
Guilder
South Korea
1000 Won
Major wood products net exporters
Canada
Can. $
Finland
Markka
Sweden
Sw. Krona
Indonesia
1000 Rupiah
Malaysia
Ringgit
Austria
1000 Schilling
Former USSR
Rouble
Brazil
Cruzeiro
Country
3.370
0.407
2.222
1.530
0.234
0.396
2.070
0.273
2.400
1.600
0.180
0.276
3.220
0.983
0.272
0.241
2.410
0.418
57.540
1.386
0.122
1975
2.778
0.955
0.238
0.193
2.751
0.327
38.462
1.111
0.223
1970
1985
1990
4.428
0.668
0.551
2.326
1.170
0.237
0.504
1.650
0.855
0.268
0.237
1.595
0.460
77.417
1.547
0.019
4.224
0.341
0.343
1.296
0.526
0.112
0.304
1.150
0.732
0.162
0.117
0.901
0.403
48.739
1.193
0.179a
6.940
0.209
0.620
1.785
0.836
0.184
0.551
1.413
0.857
0.262
0.169
0.542
0.370
88.180
1.712
..
(Equivalent in US dollars)
1980
Table 8.2 Exchange rates of national currencies of selected countries against the US dollar
10.696
0.120
1.308b
1.308b
1.308b
1.308b
1.308b
1.298
0.729
1.308b
1.308b
0.445
0.398
1.308b
..
..
1995
8.277
0.121
1.134b
1.134b
1.134b
1.134b
1.134b
1.074
0.722
1.134b
1.134b
0.361
0.363
1.134b
..
..
1997
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
effect may be to increase the rate of inflation, partly because of the higher
cost of imports.
Strengthening of a currency may, by making imports cheaper, have
impacts on the competitiveness of domestic producers. For example the
strong pound sterling at the end of the 1990s was one factor for the weaker
prices for roundwood obtained by United Kingdom forest owners. Conversely, the weakness of the Euro, since it was adopted by 11 European countries on 1 January 1999 (falling to well below parity with the US dollar) was
certainly an assistance to exports to third countries.
Futures markets
For many commodities futures trading is a common feature of the trading
scene. This is the case for many agricultural products, base and precious
metals, energy and currencies, for example. A futures contract legally binds
two parties, the seller and the buyer, to delivery of a standardised commodity
in a set futures contract month. Quantity, quality and location of delivery
point(s) are the same for each contract traded. Only the price is left unspecified until the moment the contract is executed between a buyer and a seller.
Standardisation of the commodity gives futures contracts several advantages.
First, a futures contract can be bought or sold instantaneously at any time
prior to its last day of trading. Second, standardisation makes all futures
contracts interchangeable. Every buyer could be matched with every seller.
Therefore a futures contract can be sold now and later bought back. And
because of interchangeability, every buyer and every seller are anonymous
to one another in the futures market. Lastly, standardisation makes price
the only factor of negotiation. Therefore the futures prices available today
become pure forecasts of where the lumber market will be at some time in
the future, up to 12 months ahead.
The necessity to have standardised commodities may be the reason why
it has proved difficult to create futures markets for wood products. However,
the Chicago Merchantile Exchange (CME) has such markets for two wood
products, Random Length Lumber and OSB, while woodpulp is traded on
the Pulpex-Pulp Derivatives Market. The rationale behind the creation of
the Random Length Lumber futures market is interesting. In its introductory
hedge guide (Chicago Mercantile Exchange 1995), the CME states:
Cash lumber prices are often unpredictable and volatile. In
recent years, domestic lumber supplies have been constrained
due to mill closings, the spotted owl controversy and other
environmental concerns. In Canada, lumber supplies have
been limited as provinces move towards sustainable yields,
where only enough trees can be harvested as can be replaced
211
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
in 40 or 50 years. Unfortunately, demand shifts all too rapidly.
In the past decade, due in part to economic conditions and
interest rate policies, housing starts have ranged from record
highs to 36-year lows. Price, the final arbiter for these and a
host of other factors, must react to supply and demand
imbalances with frequent and often extreme changes. Highly
volatile prices can mean opportunity for large profits. But in
an industry like lumber, where costs are high and margins
tight, volatile prices can also mean risk of loss, sometimes
devastating loss. In 1969 the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
became the first exchange to offer price protection to the forest
products industry with the listing of Random Length Lumber
futures contracts. Since 1969, firms engaged in producing,
processing, marketing or using lumber and lumber products
have been able to hedge – reduce the risk of holding or
acquiring inventory through taking an equal and opposite
position in the Random Length Lumber futures market.
Usually, but not always, hedgers transfer unwanted price risk
to speculators. Speculators are investors who hope to achieve
profits by buying futures when they think prices will rise, or
by selling futures when they think prices will fall. Both hedgers
and speculators are necessary for the efficient operation of a
futures market.
The specifications for a Random Length Lumber Futures contract as
from May 1996 were as follows:
Trading unit:
Price quote:
Description:
Grade:
Species:
Origin:
80 000 board feet (Note: board feet is the unit used in the
USA and Canada. One board foot is a piece one foot long by
one inch thick and one inch wide. 1000 board feet [Mbf]
nominal measure equals 2.36 m3 nominal measure or approximately 1.7 m3 true measure after allowing for shrinkage
during drying, so that 80 Mbf equals approximately 136 m3).
US$ per Mbf.
Nominal 2 ¥ 4s (i.e. 2 inches by 4 inches) of random lengths
from 8 to 20 feet; kiln dried (moisture content of each piece
shall not exceed 19%) and double end trimmed; surfaced four
sides and eased edges and of minimum dressed dimensions.
CONSTRUCTION AND STANDARD; STANDARD AND
BETTER or #1 and #2. #2 may not exceed 50% of the delivery unit. [These are typical North American grades used
principally in timber-frame construction.]
Alpine Fir, Engleman Spruce, Hem-Fir, Lodgepole Pine and/or
Spruce-Pine-Fir.
Manufactured in California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada,
Oregon, Washington, Wyoming in the United States and
provinces of British Columbia and Alberta in Canada.
212
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
The contract also specifies such details as the minimum price fluctuation,
daily price limit, contract months and last day of trading.
While the quantity of lumber (North American term for sawnwood,
and in this instance specifically for sawn softwood) to which this specification could be applied is large, it will be noted that it excludes production
from many parts of the USA and Canada as well as from other countries.
However, there is provision through a system of basis hedging to cover
lumber that does not fully comply with the specification, e.g. that meets the
description and grade but is produced in other areas of the USA or Canada.
Theoretically, therefore, the CME futures trading could cover lumber
imported from countries other than Canada, although in practice this seems
unlikely to occur.
The specifications for futures trading of OSB on the CME are as follows:
Trading unit:
Price quote:
Delivery method:
Delivery point:
Freight costs:
100 000 square feet of 4 ft by 8 ft panels; each 7/16 in
thick and span-rated 24–16; delivered total may vary
from 95 000 to 105 000 sq feet. [100 000 sq ft 7/16≤ basis
equals approximately 103 m3.]
US$ per mbf (1000 sq ft.).
On track at producing mill by rail.
Chicago.
Prepaid by seller to destination, buyer pays from
Chicago to destination.
Other details include minimum price fluctuation, daily price limit, contract
months, trading hours and last day of trading. Note that there is no clause
regarding origin.
The possibilities have been explored of opening futures markets for
wood products elsewhere, but so far without any definite conclusion.
Usually the problem has been to identify a set of conditions, including a
sufficiently homogeneous product made in sufficient quantity for which a
futures market would be viable.
Tariff and non-tariff barriers
Tariffs
Over the past 50 years international trade negotiations under the auspices
of GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, including the Tokyo,
Kennedy and Uruguay Rounds, have centred on measures to improve market
access, principally by the lowering of tariffs. It is fair to claim that they have
213
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
contributed to the strong growth in world trade and economic development.
The Uruguay Round, which was concluded in 1994, marked a further important step towards trade liberalisation, as well as marking the occasion
that the GATT was converted into a new organisation, the World Trade
Organisation (WTO).
Wood products figured prominently in the GATT negotiations, not least
in the Uruguay Round, in which significant reductions in tariffs were agreed.
For much of the information on these reductions and other aspects of tariffs,
acknowledgement is made to the FAO report by Bourke and Leitch (1998),
Trade Restrictions and their Impact on International Trade in Forest Products. There have been some developments since its publication, including
the negotiations between China and the United States and the European
Union, which are the precursor to the likely adhesion of China to WTO.
As a generalisation, it can be said that in developed countries, which as
seen earlier account for the major share of world imports, most tariffs on
wood products are quite low (less than 5% ad valorem on most) and only
have a relatively limited impact on the volume of trade. There are some
country exceptions to this, including tariffs on wood-based panels, especially
plywood, some value-added products, such as items of builders’ woodwork
and furniture, and various types of paper products, with rates between 10
and 15%. Both in developed and developing countries there is often a
mixture of low rates for some products and higher rates for others. Only
a few countries, including Singapore, Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region and to a lesser extent China Taiwan Province and South Korea, have
low tariffs on almost all products. Generally speaking, tariffs are appreciably
lower in developed countries than in developing ones, where they may range
from 10 to 60%.
Quite often special preferences exist which allow exporting countries
to avoid full tariff rates. Members of regional groupings get benefits from
others in the group, and some countries give special rates to those with
which they have close trade or other political ties. Examples include the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the European Union–ACP (African, Caribbean
and Pacific Group of States) and New Zealand–Australia. Most, but not all,
developing countries receive the benefits of the General System of Preferences (GSP), a scheme set up by the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD), under which developed countries may offer
reduced tariffs to selected developing countries without reciprocal benefits.
A feature of many countries’ schedules is tariff escalation, which occurs
when rates rise as the degree of processing increases. Thus tariffs may be
zero on roundwood and low on sawnwood, higher on wood-based panels
and higher still on added-value products. This generally acts as a disincentive
to trade in higher processed products and is designed to protect industries
214
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
and jobs in the importing countries. It is difficult to assess the impact of
tariff escalation on trends in trade of products at different degrees of processing, as other factors also have an impact, for example lower transport
costs per unit weight for higher value products. Nevertheless, the existence
of tariff escalation would appear to have been a disincentive to investment
in wood-processing industries in exporting countries in some instances.
Table 8.3 shows the pre- and post-Uruguay Round tariff rates in the European Union, Japan and the USA, which between them account for a major
part of wood products imports in the world. The rates shown should only
be taken as a guide as they are continuously subject to change. Tariffs will
decline or be completely eliminated as the results of the Uruguay Round are
implemented. Many tariffs will be lowered over a period of years, the extent
and speed varying between countries and also products. The post-Uruguay
rates are ‘bound’, that is to say countries have put a ceiling on them and thus
agree not to raise them above the level indicated. Virtually all pre-Uruguay
Round rates are unbound, whereby they could raise the rates without
warning. Where the bound post-Uruguay Round rates, set through the
general negotiating process, are higher than the earlier ones, in practice
there will not be a rise in the rates.
Table 8.4 shows the tariffs in some of the main importers among the
developing countries. Generally speaking, tariff rates are appreciably higher
than in the developed countries. In quite a number of cases, the postUruguay Round (bound) rates appear higher than the pre-Uruguay Round
(unbound) ones, but the comment made above about the former not exceeding the latter in practice in developed countries also applies to the developing country tariffs. South Korea is following the route of the developed
countries to reduce tariffs on paper and paper products to zero. Generally
speaking, though, rates in developing countries will remain substantially
higher than for developed countries.
An overall indication of how tariff rates will be lowered over a period
of years as a result of the Uruguay Round is given in Table 8.5. For some
products, including wood-based panels and especially plywood, the rates
will remain quite high. On the other hand, tariff escalation will be reduced;
those on wood articles will fall by 67% compared with 43% for wood and
wood products as a whole and 31% for wood-based panels. Tariffs on paper
and paper articles will virtually disappear, as will those on furniture in the
European Union, Japan and the USA.
Non-tariff barriers
In addition to tariffs, there are a wide range of rules and procedures that
may impede the flow of trade. These are called non-tariff measures (NTMs),
215
216
0.0
1.4–2.9
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
3.8
2.0–4.2
0.0
4.5
4.5–5.7
6.0, 10.0
7.2
2.2
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0, 3.0
0.0
0.0
3, 4
7.0
7.0
6, 7
2.4
0.0
0.0
0.0
Post-URc
(bound)
Most Favoured Nation
General System of Preferences
Post-Uruguay Round
Source: Bourke and Leitch 1998
Note: C = Coniferous; NC = Non-coniferous;T = Tropical
c
b
a
N.B. No change in post-Uruguay Round bound tariff if it exceeds pre-Uruguay (unbound) rate
5.7
5.7
0.0
0.0
5.3–7.0
0.0
GSPb
(unbound)
8.2
8.2
0.0–3.8(C)
3.0–4.9(NC)
7.6–10.0
Veneer sheets
Plywood & laminated
wood
Particle board & similar
Fibreboard
Packing cases, drums,
pallets, etc.
Builders’ joinery &
carpentry
Woodpulp
Newsprint
Uncoated kraft in rolls
or sheets
Corrugated paper &
board, etc
Coated paper (printing)
Furniture of wood
0.0
0.0
0.0–2.5
MFNa
(unbound)
European Union
0.0
0.0
4.8–7.0(C)
7.6(NC)
5.0
2.4, 2.9
2.9
0.0
1.8, 2.5
2.8–6.3
0.0
0.0
3.4–4.7
7.5(C)
7.4–12.0(T)
6.3
2.8–3.6
GSPb
(unbound)
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
2.5
(% ad valorem)
MFNa
(unbound)
Japan
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0, 5.0
0.0
0.0
2.8, 3.9
5.0, 7.9
2.6
6.0–10.0
0.0
0.0
0.0–6.0
3.0
0.0–5.6
Post-URc
(bound)
0.0–3.2
0.0–2.1
0.0–7.0
0.0
0.0–6.4
0.0
0.0
0.0, 3.2
0.0–15.2(C)
0.0–8(NC)
0.0–2.4
0.0–1.8
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
MFNa
(unbound)
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
GSPb
(unbound)
United States
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0, 4.8
0.0
0.0
0.0, 10.7
0.0
0.0
0, 8
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Post-URc
(bound)
Current (1996/97) and post-Uruguay Round tariff rates for selected wood products in the European Union, Japan and the USA
Industrial roundwood
Chips & particles
Sawnwood
Table 8.3
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
217
35.0
20.0, 35.0
35.0
40.0
20.0
20.0, 30.0
30.0
22.0
30.0
30.0
35.0
25.0
–
–
10.0
15.0
20.0
30.0
20.0
20.0
–
60.0–70.0
5.0–15.0
MFNa
(unbound)
Most Favoured Nation
Post-Uruguay Round
Source: Bourke & Leitch 1998
Note: C = Coniferous; NC = Non-coniferous
b
a
Post-URb
(bound)
India
N.B. No change in post-Uruguay Round bound tariff if it exceeds pre-Uruguay (unbound) rate
40.0
40.0
1.3–20.0
20.0
2.0(C)
22.5(NC)
20.0
5.0(C)
21.3(NC)
20.0, 35.0
35.0
20.0
20.0, 35.0
Post-URb
(bound)
60.0
18.0
2.0
20.0
5.0–12.0
15.0
22.0
22.0
3.0
3.0
Chips & particles
Sawnwood
Veneer sheets
Plywood & laminated wood
Particle board & similar
Fibreboard
Packing cases, drums,
pallets, etc.
Builders’ joinery, carpentry
Woodpulp (chemical)
Newsprint
Uncoated kraft in rolls
or sheets
Corrugated paper &
board, etc.
Coated paper (printing)
Furniture of wood
2.0
MFNa
(unbound)
China
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
8.0
2.0
9.0
5.0
15.0
8.0
8.0
2.0
5.0
1.0
0.0
0.0
2.2
0.0
13.0
13.0
0.0
0.0
10.0
30.0
25.0
20.0
5.0
10.0
2.0
Post-URb
(bound)
(% ad valorem)
MFNa
(unbound)
South Korea
35.0
35.0
80.0
35.0
40.0
40.0
10.0
0.0–30.0
20.0
20.0
20.0
20.0
10.0
1.0–5.0
1.0
MFNa
(unbound)
30.0
30.0, 50.0
20.0
30.0
20.0
20.0
20.0
30.0
10.0
20.0
20.0
20.0
5.0
10.0
5.0
Post-URb
(bound)
Thailand
15.0
15.0
20.0
15.0
20.0
20.0
1.3
0.0
15.0
15.0, 20.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
12.5
10.0
MFNa
(unbound)
35.0
35.0
35.0
35.0
35.0
35.0
35.0
15.0
35.0
35.0
35.0
35.0
35.0
10.0
35.0
Post-URb
(bound)
Mexico
Current (1996/97) and post-Uruguay Round tariff rates for selected wood products in China, India, South Korea, Thailand and Mexico
Industrial roundwood
Table 8.4
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 8.5 Uruguay Round (UR) changes in tariffs by product categories in developed countries on a trade-weighted basis
Tariff pre-UR
(%)
Tariff post-UR
(%)
Reduction
(%)
Wood in the rough (logs)
Wood-based panels
Semi-manufactures
Wood articles
Total
0.0
9.4
0.9
4.7
2.0
0.0
6.5
0.4
1.6
1.1
–
31
50
67
43
Pulp & waste paper
Paper & paperboard
Printed matter
Paper articles
Total
0.0
5.3
1.7
7.3
3.5
0.0
0.0
0.3
0.0
0.0
–
100
83
100
99
Source: Bourke & Leitch 1998
and they include health and technical standards and measures that influence
prices. The impacts on trade of NTMs are more difficult to assess than tariffs
and wood products face a variety of them, which in some cases can have a
restrictive effect and in others not. Among the measures which have most
impact on trade in wood products are:
1 Quantitative restrictions on imports
These may take the form of overall quotas, a quota on imports from a specific country or a quota restricting eligibility for a particular tariff rate. For
example, the European Union imposes import quotas on wood-based panels:
there is an annual duty-free quota of 650 000 m3 of coniferous plywood;
imports above that volume are subject to tariffs. It also has tariff quotas or
tariff ceilings on newsprint, fibreboard, builders’ joinery and carpentry and
furniture.
2 Technical standards and plant health (phytosanitary) standards
These are concerned with human safety and health, protection of animal and
plant life from pests and diseases, and maintenance of air, water and land
quality. While not trade restrictions in the true sense of the term, one of their
main results is to create difficulties for trade by changing relative costs and
comparative advantages. As an example, Japan and some other countries
have complex systems of standards and codes, especially in construction,
218
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
which create difficulties for external suppliers. Steps in the European Union
to harmonise standards may have a similar impact.
There are some technical regulations and standards that are environmentally motivated. Some are concerned with the physical characteristics
of the products or materials used in their manufacture, while others relate
to the processes used in their production. Examples include restrictions on
the use of formaldehyde glues in wood-based panels; the use of certain
wood preservation processes and materials; certain types of pulp bleaching
process; packaging regulations; and the recovery and recycling of waste
paper. Regulations in importing countries regarding the waste paper content
of certain paper categories can result in trade distortions, for example by
making it necessary for exporters to import waste paper and invest in
processes to incorporate it in the product for export.
An example of a phytosanitary regulation affecting the wood products
trade is the European Union requirement that sawn softwood be treated
prior to importation against the pine nematode infestation. This caused
dispute between the EU and North America over the actual risk from the
nematode and on the appropriate way to deal with it.
3 Other measures imposed by importing countries
These include import licensing procedures; customs procedures; domestic
policies on subsidies, financial assistance, tax concessions and export
encouragement schemes. The question of subsidies can be particularly
vexed; witness the long-running dispute between the USA and Canada,
affecting the massive trade in sawn softwood between the two, concerning
the royalties (stumpage) charged by Canadian provinces for logs. Subsidisation may also take the form of tax concessions, planting subsidies, assistance
with transport and with road building, and so on.
4 Export restrictions
These, like import restrictions, can create distortions to trade, and their use
has been expanding. They are common in most developing countries and
some developed ones, and have a noticeable impact on trade in such products as industrial roundwood and plywood. Export controls include total
bans, export quotas or selective bans based on species. Indirect restrictions
include controls on harvesting levels. Direct charges can take the form of
export taxes or levies, and indirect charges in the form of royalties or reforestation levies. There may also be administrative controls such as permits
and licences. Controls on log exports may have the objective of avoiding
over-exploitation of the forest resource or of diverting a certain proportion
219
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
of fellings to domestic industries. Measures to control log exports have been
particularly prevalent in tropical countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia,
Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Cameroon and Gabon. Log export restrictions
have a long history in North America; in British Columbia, for example, they
date back to 1906. In order to avoid falling foul of GATT/WTO rules, countries are having to replace direct quantitative restrictions by other means
such as export taxes, permits and licences.
Impediments to trade
Tariffs and non-tariff measures, as described briefly above, are seen as formal
institutional measures, which restrict trade, either overtly or covertly. In addition, there are many measures which may be considered as impediments
rather than formal trade restrictions. A common thread that runs through
many of these measures is concern for the environment and especially the
sustainability, in a broad sense, of the forest resource. This will be discussed
in Chapter 9, where questions relating to trade and the environment are
raised. Here, we may note certain types of impediment:
1 Bans and boycotts
In certain European countries, the USA and a number of other developed
countries, restrictions or bans on the use of certain wood products have
been introduced. Some bans on the use of wood products have been
introduced by sub-national government authorities, such as local councils,
housing authorities or government departments, often without any direct
association with official national policy on the matter, on the grounds that
they would support the movement to protect forests. Usually the main target
has been tropical wood. Such actions have most frequently occurred in
Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, as well as the USA.
Doubt has been expressed as to whether restrictions imposed by subnational authorities are consistent with GATT/WTO rules. Whatever their
legal status, however, they have had a negative impact on trade in wood
products from certain provenances by creating uncertainty in the market
place.
In a number of countries, some retailers, including do-it-yourself
stores, and traders have formed voluntary groups, which have agreed to stop
handling products that are perceived as not coming from sustainably or
well-managed forests. In doing so, they have usually been supported by
environmental non-government organisations (ENGOs). It is difficult to
assess what impact such efforts are having on demand and hence on trade
220
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
volumes and patterns; one effect is likely to be to shift market share from
one supplier to another, as well as possibly to cause a general downward
shift in demand. It is also unclear what proportion of the ultimate consumers
are convinced that changes in their purchasing decisions will have a positive impact on the quality of forest management – if they are aware of the
issue at all.
2 Certification and ecolabelling
Certification has been promoted by its proponents as a marketing tool that
will enhance the acceptability of certified products by raising purchasers’
confidence that they come from forests that are sustainably managed. Nevertheless, the fact that its aim is to encourage consumers to discriminate in
favour of certain products, and therefore against others, does suggest that
its application is likely to lead to trade distortion. Furthermore, the existence
of some certified products on the market may lead the consumer to conclude that all uncertified products have been produced in an environmentally unacceptable way, a conclusion that will often be erroneous.
Certification is mentioned here as a possible trade impediment. Further
discussion on this complex issue is postponed to the next chapter, which
deals with various aspects of the environment and its relation to trade in
wood products.
3 International environmental regulations
One such regulation, which may have an increasing impact on the trade in
wood products, is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This is an international agreement
which has clearly trade-restrictive elements and uses a system of permits
issued by designated authorities in member countries to regulate international trade in endangered species. Although in existence for over two
decades, CITES has only relatively recently become an issue for forestry,
mainly because of attempts by developed countries, often at the instigation
of ENGOs, to have a number of commercially important tree species found
in tropical developing countries listed under CITES. In 1992 one species,
Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) was placed on the CITES Appendix I
listing, which bans international trade, and three others, namely ‘true’
mahogany (Sweitenia macrophylla) from central America, afrormosia (Pericopsis elata) from West Africa and lignum vitae (Guaiacus officinale) from
Central America, were put on Appendix II, which requires the monitoring
of international trade (Humphreys 1996). The issue has proved highly
controversial, partly because it raised questions about how to determine
221
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
whether a species is endangered, who does so, who has the right to instigate the listing of species, and what are the rights of the affected countries.
Questions were also raised as to whether CITES or the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) should have the authority to restrict the
trade in endangered tropical tree species.
Some impediments to trade were designed with other objectives in
mind, notably environmental protection, with trade restriction occurring as
a by-product. It is important to recognise that they, as well as tariffs and nontariff measures, are not the only, and not necessarily the principal difficulties, which those engaged in international trade in wood products have to
face. Producers and exporters have the enduring problem of producing and
offering products to the market at competitive prices that the consumers,
through the importers, will buy. Moreover, there are many factors having an
impact on the international trade in wood products that are wholly outside
the control or influence of the market players.
Globalisation and regional integration
Globalisation
Judging by the public demonstrations against globalisation outside recent
meetings of the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, there is considerable concern about its impact on
the livelihood of citizens in certain sections of society. There has been a
feeling that it is a means for the rich to get richer while the poor get poorer.
The cynical might suggest that globalisation is a way for multinational
companies, mostly American, to profit from domination of international
markets without undue interference from national governments, and
without being obliged to take responsibility for any negative social consequences. More reasonably, it could be said that, in the conditions of the late
twentieth century of increasingly free trade and rapid transfer of information, capital, goods and services, international companies became obliged,
if they wished to survive in an intensely competitive environment, to locate
their operations optimally in relation to their markets and sources of supply
of labour and other inputs. In practice, this has been resulting in certain
manufacturing operations, notably the more labour-intensive ones, becoming located in countries with low labour costs. There has also been strong
growth in intra-company or inter-industry trading, for example of components for the construction of vehicles and electronic goods, which exploits
comparative advantages between countries. The benefits have included
cheaper goods for consumers, and industrial development and new labour
222
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
opportunities in developing countries. The disbenefits have included closure
of industries in some industrial sectors, such as textiles, steel-making and
ship-building, and loss of jobs in some countries and some social and environmental abuses, such as the use of child labour and uncontrolled emission
of pollutants.
Part of the problem has been a failure in understanding and communication about what globalisation is, who is directing it, whether governments
and international agencies are unduly influenced by the industrial lobby, and
how it affects different groups of society. One description of globalisation is
given in Pocket Strategy: the Essentials of Business Strategy from A to Z
(1994):
•
•
•
•
The marketing of uniform products around the world, an
idea put forward by Harvard’s Theodore Levitt in an
article published in the Harvard Business Review in 1983.
The growing global uniformity of consumer tastes (in
which, for example, urban Spaniards have more in
common with urban Germans than they have with their
rural fellow countrymen) and computerised
manufacturing and distribution made globalisation
possible. Its reward was huge economies of scale.
A company can follow several strategies in order to sell
its goods or services globally:
Export from one or two domestic production facilities. This
is suitable where there are vast economies of scale to be
made, as the Japanese have done with certain consumer
goods;
Set up franchises of one sort or another around the globe.
This is the pattern followed by those global brands where
there is an important service element . . . The local
franchisee takes responsibility for the running of the sales
operation. The franchiser gets the widest possible marketing
reach for the minimum capital investment;
Set up multinational manufacturing, with plants making
the same products in many different countries. This was a
pattern favoured by the very earliest multinationals
(mostly US and European), which were often no more
than a series of national plants serving national markets.
As the ease of communication has grown, other types of international
company have developed from the earlier models. National managers, who
formerly had considerable powers, have often seen much of those powers
withdrawn from them back to ‘headquarters’. The name ‘multinational’,
which the United Nations has defined as a company which owns and/or
controls economic resources in two or more countries, has proved inadequate. Today’s mega-corporations are no longer multinational; they are more
appropriately termed trans-national or global companies.
223
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
It is becoming apparent that the capacity of a country and its population to benefit from globalisation is linked to their ability to innovate technology or adopt it by importing it from elsewhere (Sachs 2000). A small part
of the globe, comprising most of the industrially advanced countries with
about 15% of the world’s population, falls into the group of technological
innovators (North America, western Europe, Japan, Australia). A second
group, with about half the world’s population, are in the technological
adopters group. The dividing line between them and the technologically
excluded countries, with about a third of the population, does not always
conform with national boundaries. The technological adopters include the
northern part of Mexico, the southerly part of South America, the Iberian
peninsula, some eastern Europe countries, the southern part of India, the
eastern seaboard provinces of China, south-east Asian countries and New
Zealand. The technologically excluded include most of the CIS area, subSahara Africa, northern South America and much of continental Asia. Many
of these, especially in the tropics, are caught in a poverty trap. Among their
greatest problems are tropical infectious diseases, low agricultural productivity and environmental degradation, including deforestation. They are too
poor to buy or license the technologies, even if they exist, on the necessary
scale. Alternatively, the technologies do not exist in a form which they can
use.
The ability or inability to benefit from technological development
appears, therefore, to be a major factor leading to the widening gap between
the rich and poor countries. It will require some fundamental rethinking of
strategies, especially in the international development agencies, to reverse
the trend.
How is globalisation affecting the forest sector and international trade
in wood products? The short answer is probably not very much, at least
directly. One reason for this is that, in comparison with the industries in
some other sectors of the economy, the wood products industries do not
generally rate as mega-corporations, although this is changing as some US
and European companies based on pulp and paper manufacture indulge in
trans-national mergers. Yet no company, large or small, and in whatever
industrial sector, is entirely shielded from the secondary effects of globalisation. Faster and easier global communications improve the possibilities
for companies to enter new markets and intensify competition, which
usually will be to the benefit of the consumer. The traditional suppliers
will be faced with the need to improve their competitiveness through
better quality, or keener pricing, or both. The structure of trading is also
likely to be affected as a result of direct dealing between producer and
consumer, reducing the need for middlemen such as importers and
wholesalers.
Globalisation is here to stay, even if it may come to wear a more ‘human
224
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
face’ in response to the growing concerns about its impact on certain sectors
of society.
Regional integration
Integration can mean many things, but regional integration as used in the
present context refers to the joining of countries into groups for political or
economic purposes. Well-known examples include the European Union,
originally 6, currently 15 and possibly within the next 10 or 20 years 30
countries; the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) now defunct,
which comprised the countries with centrally planned economies of central
and eastern Europe; NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, comprising Canada, Mexico and the USA; Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay,
Uruguay); and ASEAN, the Association of South-East Asian Nations; there are
quite a number of others. The mandates of the regional groupings vary
widely, but one thing that most of them have in common is the objective
of promoting trade among their members. By implication, any expansion
between members, for example by the reduction or elimination of tariffs
between them, might be at the expense of trade with third parties. In practice this is not necessarily the case, if the effect of regional cooperation is
to stimulate member countries’ economies and hence overall demand for
goods and services. Another effect of both globalisation and integration
could be to encourage the international division of labour, including specialisation in the production of goods.
Little analysis seems to have been carried out on the effects of regional
integration on international trade in wood products. One preliminary analysis (Wardle and Michie 1998) indicates that the development of that trade
is strongly related to general economic developments beyond any regional
groupings; that its development in detail is definitely related to the specific
economic trends of the region; and that certain trends are directly associated with membership and changes in membership of regional groupings.
Quite clearly, much more work would be needed before any specific conclusions could be drawn. This would need to identify not only those who
benefit from regional integration, including the members of the ‘clubs’ and
those attached to them in some way by treaties, but also those who stand
to lose, the third parties.
One tentative conclusion can be drawn with regard to specialisation
on the basis of evidence within the European Union. The removal of trade
barriers between members does seem to have stimulated the two-way
trade in certain wood-based panels and paper and paperboard products,
to which attention was drawn earlier in describing major trade flows in
Chapter 6.
225
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
International institutions concerned with wood
products trade
Reference has been made in earlier chapters to a number of international
institutions, both governmental and non-governmental, which are involved
in one way or another in the forest and wood products sector. A list of the
more important ones is given in Appendix 1. Some governmental organisations have mandates covering international trade in wood products on a
global scale, such as FAO, the World Bank, WTO and ITTO; others, including
ASEAN, NAFTA, UN-ECE and EU, deal with trade issues on a regional
basis. A similar distinction can be made amongst the NGOs. This section
will describe briefly the activities of a few of the institutions that have
a particular concern with the markets and trade of wood products.
Governmental organisations
FAO – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FAO was established in 1945 as one of the specialised agencies of the UN.
Nearly all countries are members, the main exception being the Russian
Federation. The responsibilities of its Forestry Department cover all aspects
of the forest and wood industries sector, with special emphasis on assistance
to developing countries. The principal governmental body is the Committee
on Forestry (COFO), supported by six regional Forestry Commissions.
Among a number of other statutory bodies is the Advisory Committee on
Paper and Wood Products. Much of FAO’s effort is devoted to technical assistance projects in developing countries. At its headquarters in Rome, its secretariat not only provides back-up to those projects but produces numerous
publications on a range of topics, including questions relating to forest industries, trade, markets and marketing, and outlook studies. It collects and publishes comprehensive worldwide statistics on the forest resource and forest
products, which are also available from its extensive database. Considerable
use of this valuable source has been made in this book.
ITTO – International Tropical Timber Organization
The agreement to establish ITTO was negotiated in 1983 under the auspices
of UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and
entered into effect in 1985, although ITTO itself did not become operational
until 1987, with headquarters in Yokohama. Membership consists of over 50
countries, roughly half being tropical timber producers and half consumers.
Its main body is the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC), and there
226
INFLUENCES ON WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETS AND TRADE
are three permanent committees dealing with reforestation and forest management, forest industry and economic information and market intelligence.
At the biannual sessions of the ITTC the situation and short-term outlook for
the markets for tropical wood products are analysed. ITTO collects and publishes data on these products.
UN-ECE – United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
The ECE, located in Geneva, is one of five UN regional economic commissions, but is the only one with a specific mandate in the field of forestry and
wood products. Its membership consists of 55 countries of Europe, including the 12 members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and
Canada and the USA. One of its principal subsidiary bodies is the Timber
Committee, established in 1947, which is serviced by the Timber Section, a
unit of the ECE Trade Division. The Timber Committee carries out annual
assessments of the wood products markets in Europe and North America,
and its secretariat publishes market reviews and other market-related publications, including a series of studies on the long-term outlook for the forest
sector. It is also responsible for collecting and publishing statistics on the
forest resource and wood products in ECE member countries, working in
close co-operation with FAO.
UNCTAD/WTO International Trade Centre (ITC)
The ITC, also located in Geneva, is mandated to assist developing countries
to develop overseas markets. This has included technical assistance on the
establishment of export-oriented wood-processing industries and on trading
and marketing of their products, notably added value products. It has produced a series of market studies.
Other inter-governmental organisations
It has perhaps been invidious to single out only four organisations for particular mention, since there are a large number of bodies that are dealing
with wood products trade and markets in one way or another. The intention
was, however, to give examples of organisations active in the field rather
than to be comprehensive. Generally speaking, however, the involvement of
many organisations in wood products trade and markets tends to be either
as a part of a broader responsibility, such as overall economic development,
or on an ad hoc basis. Among the inter-governmental organisations falling
into these categories are the G7 Summit Meeting (G8 including the Russian
227
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Federation), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the
World Trade Organisation (WTO), including its Committee on Trade Barriers
(CTB) and Committee on Trade and the Environment (CTE), the United
Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations
Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), the International Forum
on Forests (IFF), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The European Union and
its executive arm, the European Commission (EU), and EUROSTAT, should
also be mentioned as a supra-national rather than inter-governmental body.
Non-governmental organisations
Among the many thousands of NGOs there are a number that have an interest, either specific or within a broader framework, in the trade and markets
of wood products at the international level. As examples of the former may
be mentioned the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the International Technical Association of Tropical Timber (ATIBT), the Union pour le Commerce
des Bois Tropicaux dans la C.E.E. (UCBT), the African Timber Organization
(ATO), the European Confederation of Wood-Working Industries (CEI-Bois)
and the South-East Asian Lumber Producers Association (SEALPA). Examples
of NGOs operating in a broader framework include Friends of the Earth
(FoE), the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF). There are also many international or national think-tanks and
research organisations which give special attention to wood products trade
and markets, including the World Resources Institute (WRI), Resources for
the Future (RFF), the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
(IIASA), the Center for International Trade in Forest Products (CINTRAFOR),
the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the European Forest
Institute (EFI) including its EFIDAS database, which was used extensively in
Chapter 6, and the International Institute for Environment and Development
(IIED). Most of these institutions have been mentioned elsewhere in this
book, usually as sources of information. Again, the list is selective and
excludes not only some international institutions but also the very many
national institutes and universities that carry out research and analysis on
the international trade of wood products.
228
CHAPTER
9
Trade and the
environment
I
n the closing decades of the twentieth century there was growing awareness of, and concern about, the importance of environmental protection.
The fate of the world’s forests figured prominently in international
debates, triggered initially by reports of destruction and degradation of tropical forests and of damage to temperate and boreal forests apparently caused
by air pollution. The debates have raised, in addition to many other issues,
the nature of the interface between environmental protection and international trade in wood products. What, for example, has been the role of
international trade in contributing to the loss of forests and of biodiversity
in certain regions? And conversely, how have measures to protect the
environment affected the trade and markets for wood products? Some of
the principal issues are discussed in this chapter.
Deforestation, afforestation and reforestation
Deforestation and forest degradation
Until a few thousand years ago, forests covered a large part of the earth’s
land surface. As man changed from being a hunter-gatherer to a more settled
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THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
existence as a farmer, he needed increasing areas of land for his crops and
began to clear the seemingly inexhaustible forest to make way for agriculture. Populations built up gradually in the more habitable parts of the planet,
notably the temperate regions in China and around the eastern Mediterranean. Some of these areas became largely denuded of forest cover and have
remained so to the present day. Later, forest clearance occurred in much of
Europe and later still in the eastern parts of the United States. Compared
with the extensive tree cover in pre-settlement times, today it is only about
2% in the Near East, 14% in China, 31% in Europe as a whole and less than
10% in the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Ireland (these
percentages exclude the area of other wooded land). (FAO 1999, UNECE/FAO 2000)
Until relatively recent times, forests in the boreal and tropical regions
were largely but not entirely spared. Heavy forest clearance and over-cutting
to provide wood for mining and smelting occurred in southern and central
Sweden up to the mid-nineteenth century, until mass emigration and policies to replant the forest reversed the trend. More recently considerable
areas of forest were clear-felled in Canada and the former USSR, partly to
make way for agriculture, partly to meet rapidly growing demand for wood.
Measures to ensure regeneration were often lacking.
In tropical regions, deforestation and forest degradation has become
widespread only during the second half of the twentieth century when, with
improving access to medical care and lengthening life expectancy, populations began to increase rapidly. For as long as populations remained light,
systems of shifting cultivation, in which small areas of forest were cleared
and used for a few years for the growing of crops before being abandoned,
allowed the forest to recover. As populations rose, the period between
successive clearances became reduced, allowing insufficient time for the
restoration of the forest and resulting in progressive degradation; or the
forest was permanently cleared to make way for agriculture and settlement.
In drier parts of the tropics, the problem was compounded by the cutting
of trees for fuelwood and other domestic uses. The sight of village womenfolk trudging increasingly long distances to collect their daily requirements
of fuelwood for cooking became more and more common.
Due to problems of data collection and interpretation, the rate of deforestation and forest degradation in tropical regions has proved difficult to
assess accurately. It was widely accepted that the rate was accelerating up
to the end of the 1980s, with estimates of losses ranging from 10 to 25
million ha a year. This raised fears that within a few generations, most of the
tropical forests would disappear. The latest estimates from FAO, probably the
most reliable but still with some elements of uncertainty attached to them,
put the annual loss of forest area between 1990 and 1995 at 12.6 million ha
(Table 9.1).
230
231
84.6
851.2
563.9
1796.9
Tropical Central America
Tropical South America
• Brazil
TOTAL TROPICAL REGIONS
Source: FAO 1999
42.7
295.0
77.8
76.0
141.2
115.2
Tropical Asia:
• South Asia
• Continental south-east Asia
• Insular south-east Asia
• Indonesia
Tropical Oceania
523.4
48.8
210.7
147.1
Forest area
in 1990
1733.9
827.9
551.1
79.4
41.9
279.8
77.1
70.2
132.5
109.8
504.9
46.3
204.7
141.3
(million ha)
Forest area
in 1995
1701.7
822.4
546.2
79.0
41.8
255.8
61.8
67.9
126
103.7
502.7
46.0
204.4
140.7
Of which:
Natural forest
Estimated rate of decrease in forest area in tropical regions between 1990 and 1995
Tropical Africa:
• West moist Africa
• Central Africa
• Tropical southern Africa
Table 9.1
12 593
4 655
2 554
1 037
151
3 055
141
1 164
1 750
1 084
3 695
492
1 201
1 158
Annual loss
1990–1995
(1000 ha)
0.7
0.6
0.5
1.3
0.4
1.1
0.2
1.6
1.3
1.0
0.7
1.0
0.6
0.8
Annual loss
1990–1995
(%)
TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
One uncertainty is whether the figures of the area loss are gross or net,
that is to say, whether and to what extent they take account of areas that were
cleared of forest, which subsequently had a forest cover restored naturally or
artificially by planting. Nevertheless, there is no doubt whatsoever that the
tropical forest area that has been lost permanently to other uses or to no use
at all is very considerable and contrasts with an increase, admittedly fairly
modest, in the area of temperate and boreal forest, as was noted in Chapter 2
(Fig. 2.4). Furthermore, the declining trend is common to all tropical regions
and countries, albeit with differences in rate. Among individual countries,
the largest decreases reported between 1990 and 1995 were in Brazil with
2.55 million ha and Indonesia with 1.08 million per year. Some unofficial
estimates put the rate of forest losses appreciably higher.
While there has been wide consensus that the principal causes of tropical deforestation have been socio-economic, led by the needs for more land
for agriculture and for more trees to be cut for fuelwood, there has been
considerable controversy as to the importance of the role of commercial
logging. On the one hand, removals of industrial wood in the tropical countries, although steadily increasing in relative importance, still accounted for
a minor part of total wood removals, about 20% in 1997 in tropical countries, including removals from plantations. Besides that, the exports of wood
products originating from natural tropical forest were equivalent to only
about one-quarter of total industrial wood removals in tropical developing
countries. Therefore, the argument goes, commercial exploitation of the
tropical forest, and especially commercial exploitation for export, has played
only a small role in total deforestation.
The counter-argument is that commercial exploitation is a far more
important component among the causes of tropical deforestation than the
bare statistics show and is based on a number of premises. One is that it
involves the opening up of the natural forest with logging roads and tracks
in order to extract the few trees per hectare that are commercially attractive, and that in so doing it damages a lot of the remaining trees and disturbs
the environment. Furthermore, it allows access to the forest to colonisers
and others, who can then carry on the process of clearance and burning in
order to grow crops and establish homesteads.
Another aspect concerns biodiversity and the extremely complex interdependence of species that is characteristic of the tropical forest. The
removal of one or two species of tree, which is typically the case when the
tropical forests are ‘creamed’ of the attractive commercial species, can lead
to a breakdown in the linkage between those species and others, including
animals, birds, insects, fungi and other fauna and flora, possibly leading to
extinction of some of them in extreme cases. A major part of all terrestrial
plant and animal life is found in tropical forests, and a correspondingly high
proportion of the biodiversity loss occurs as a result of the degradation and
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TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
removal of the tropical forest. Harvesting operations may also result in the
fragmentation of large forest blocks into smaller areas, with associated ‘edge
effects’, which can negatively affect wildlife habitat and biodiversity. Various
measures are being introduced to reduce the damage to the forest from harvesting operations, including the application of less destructive extraction
techniques and the harvesting of a wider range of species so that logging
can be concentrated on a smaller area.
A further argument for seeking to bring a halt to deforestation, wherever it occurs and from whatever cause, is the contribution, even if small
compared to that of the burning of fossil fuels, it is making to the accumulation of ‘greenhouse gases’ in the atmosphere and to possible changes in
climate, which are discussed later in this chapter.
Commercial exploitation of natural forests has by no means been confined to the tropical regions: a large proportion of the removals in the former
USSR and North America has come from these forests. Particularly in North
America, felling of natural forests has attracted criticism from the environmental movement on the grounds of loss of habitat of certain rare species,
such as the northern spotted owl in the northwestern states of the USA.
Even though there are strict policies for the restoration of such areas after
felling by natural regeneration or by planting, fellings in publicly-owned
forests have been seriously curtailed.
Worldwide, therefore, there has been increasing pressure to reduce the
amount of fellings in natural forests or at least to introduce sustainable forest
management in these forests. This, coupled with the fact that exploitation
of the remaining natural forests has become progressively more difficult and
expensive due to increasing distance to markets and reduced accessibility,
points to a lowering availability and/or greater cost of the higher qualities of
wood found in the natural forests. Among the consequences for markets
could be some substitution of the products of these quality assortments, such
as plywood and joinery and furniture grades of sawnwood by OSB and MDF,
and changes in the volume and pattern of trade of the former. For example,
it is probable that Indonesia and Malaysia may not be able to maintain the
present high levels of plywood exports, or Malaysia its sawn hardwood
exports. On the other hand, any broadening of the range of species harvested
from tropical forests could go hand in hand with the trend towards greater
secondary processing in the exporting countries, for example of furniture
and building components.
Afforestation and reforestation, including plantations
Afforestation is the establishment of forest stands on non-forest land, and
reforestation is the regeneration of trees on forest land after clearance by
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Table 9.2 Area of forests according to the degree of ‘naturalness’ in the developed temperate and boreal regions in the mid-1990s
Total
forest
Forests
undisturbed
by man
Semi-natural
forests
Plantations
(million ha)
North America
Europe
Former USSR
Othera
TOTAL
Share of
plantations
in total
(%)
462
169
863
189
143
7
751
24
305
151
88
152
14
11
24
13
3
7
3
7
1683
925
696
62
4
a
Australia, Japan, New Zealand
Source: UN-ECE/FAO 2000
felling, fire or other causes. Both may be achieved either naturally or artificially by planting. The definition of plantations is ‘forest stands established
by planting or/and seeding in the process of afforestation or reforestation.
They are either: of introduced species; or intensively managed stands of
indigenous species which meet all the following criteria: one or two species
at plantation, even age class, regular spacing’ (UN-ECE/FAO 2000). The dividing line between plantations and semi-natural forests may be difficult to
discern, since a stand which began as a plantation may later develop into
semi-natural forest depending on the silviculture applied.
In Chapter 2, the temperate and boreal forests in developed countries
were sub-divided into three categories of ‘naturalness’: those undisturbed by
man; semi-natural forests; and plantations (Fig. 2.3, Table 9.2). The reported
area of plantations in those countries in the mid-1990s was 62 million ha, or
4% of the total area of forest. The proportion was higher – 7% – in Europe,
Japan, Australia and New Zealand, but lower – 3% – in North America and
the former USSR. The principal purpose of plantations in these regions is for
the production of industrial wood, but there are some areas, for example in
parts of Spain, France and the former USSR, where they are intended for soil
and water protection, slope stabilisation or wind protection. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia, plantations were
created initially with the intention of building up a strategic wood reserve
and of reducing dependency on imports of wood products, although in some
cases this objective subsequently became of less priority. In others, such as
New Zealand, Portugal and Ireland, they have become the basis for a flourishing export industry. Among the countries where plantations make up
a sizeable part of the total forest area are Ireland and the Netherlands
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TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Table 9.3 Reported forest plantation areas and annual establishment rate in developing
countries in 1995
Reported areasa
Industrial
Nonindustrial
Total
Estimated
net areasb
Area
established
per year
(1000 ha)
Asia & Oceania
Africa
Latin America
31 781
3 787
7 826
21 216
3 025
2 134
52 997
6 812
9 960
40 471
5 861
8 898
2330
288
401
TOTAL DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES
43 394
26 375
69 769
55 230
3019
a
Areas planted for wood production only.They do not include plantation areas established for protection purposes
or for non-wood products
b
Derived from the reported areas using coefficients to allow for poor survival or other losses
Source: FAO 1999
(almost 100%), Denmark (76%), United Kingdom (69%), Belgium (46%),
Japan (44%) and New Zealand (19%).
The area of forest plantations in the developing regions (tropical and
temperate zones combined) has been growing over recent decades, and by
1995 had reached an estimated net area (after allowing for planting failures)
of 55 million ha (Table 9.3). This includes only areas planted for wood production, both industrial wood and fuelwood and other wood for domestic
purposes, but not the considerable areas established for protection purposes
or the production of non-wood products (FAO 1999). China, India, Indonesia
and Brazil had the largest areas of plantations, with about 34, 15, 6 and
5 million ha respectively in 1995: these areas including plantations for purposes other than wood production (FAO 1997). Other developing countries
with more than a million ha of plantations were Vietnam, South Korea and
Chile, while Argentina and Thailand had more than half a million ha.
The species chosen for plantations in tropical and sub-tropical countries
are usually fast growing, such as species of pine, eucalyptus, poplar, acacia
and teak, and their yield per hectare per annum is usually much higher than
is possible from the natural forest. In temperate countries, the species commonly chosen for plantations include pines, spruces, Douglas fir and poplar.
Their share of total removals of industrial wood is far higher than that of
their area of forest (Table 9.4).
In Brazil, the area of plantations in 1995 was only 1.2% of the total forest
area but provided 60% of the industrial wood removals. In Argentina, the
corresponding shares were 2.2 and 60%, in Chile 17.1 and 95%, and in New
Zealand 16.1 and 93%. In Brazil, Chile and New Zealand, a large part of the
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Table 9.4 Plantation area and share of total wood
production from plantations in some countries with
important forest plantation estates
Share of forest plantations
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
New Zealand
Zambia
Zimbabwe
In area
(%)
In industrial
wood production
(%)
2.2
1.2
17.1
16.1
0.5
0.4
60
60
95
93
50
50
Source: FAO 1997
removals from plantations finishes up as exports, either as wood raw
material (logs and chips) or processed wood products, such as sawnwood,
woodpulp, wood-based panels and paper.
Theoretically, the establishment and utilisation of plantations should
ease the pressure on natural forests, both from domestic demand and from
exports. This is true to the extent that the products from plantations can
substitute those from the natural forest. However, the quality of plantationgrowth wood is generally inferior to that from the natural forest in such characteristics as coarseness of grain and knottiness. This can be at least partly
overcome by investing in such techniques as pruning of the stems to
produce clear, knot-free logs and various processing techniques, including
impregnation and drying regimes, to improve the strength, stability or attractiveness of the wood. This has been achieved, for example, with New
Zealand radiata pine, one of the fastest-growing plantation species.
The expectation is that plantation-grown wood will account for an
increasing share of the industrial wood harvested and used worldwide. One
scenario, which assumes planting rates higher than present ones, forecasts
that the world volume of industrial wood from plantations in 2030 might be
3 times higher than in 1996, with its share of total supply increasing from
25 to 46% (Whiteman and Brown 1999).
Another scenario, which looks at the intensity of management according to different categories of ownership, envisages that production from fastgrowing tropical plantations could raise its share of the industrial wood total
from 4 to 13% between 1995 and 2020, while that from natural forests would
decline from 38 to 33% and from all other forests from 58 to 54% (Brooks
et al. in Solberg (ed) 1996). Within the last group, which in temperate and
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TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
boreal regions corresponds approximately with the area of semi-natural
forests plus plantations, the share of wood production from privately-owned
forests would increase, especially from industry-owned forests, while that
from publicly-owned forests would decline as a result of some of these forests
being removed from wood production. Harvesting intensity (volume of
industrial wood harvested per ha), which averaged 0.5 m3/ha worldwide on
productive forest in 1995, was as high as 4.6 m3/ha in industry-owned forests
and 2.8 m3/ha in tropical plantations (both rising to 6.0 by 2020), but only
0.3 m3/ha in natural forests.
From the environmental viewpoint, there are two aspects to consider
relating to plantations. On the one hand, to the extent that they may relieve
pressure on natural forests, their environmental impact is likely to be positive, provided of course that natural forest has not been destroyed in order
to make way for plantations. On the other hand, to maintain them as highyielding monocultures over a long period of time (several rotations) is probably not achievable without considerable inputs of fertilisers and pesticides.
In this respect they resemble agricultural crops far more closely than forest,
and need to be judged as such from the sustainable management and biodiversity points of view.
The contribution of plantations to international trade in wood products
is becoming increasingly important. Exports from some countries, including
New Zealand, Chile, Brazil, Portugal and Ireland, are based to a greater or
lesser extent on plantations, and over recent decades have influenced the
pattern of trade in such products as softwood logs, sawn softwood, woodpulp and MDF. In importing countries also, increased domestic supply from
plantations has partly replaced imports, as for example in the United
Kingdom with sawn softwood and particle board, and Australia with sawn
softwood and MDF. Ireland and Australia are two countries that may sooner
or later shift from being net importers to net exporters of wood products
on the basis of their plantations.
Sustainability
The need for sustainability
Everybody has their own idea about what sustainability entails. No one has
yet come up with a universally acceptable definition of the term. The
concept of sustainability has been actively debated since even before the
publication of the report of the World Commission on Environment and
Development, Our Common Future, better known as the Brundtland
Report (WCED 1987). This report pointed out that sustainability in the devel237
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
opment context is not a fixed state of harmony, but rather a process of
change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments,
the orientation of technological developments and institutional change are
made consistent with future as well as present needs. It contains two key
concepts:
1
2
That of ‘needs’, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor.
That of limitations, imposed by the state of technology and social
organisation on the environment’s ability to meet present and
future needs.
Sustainability should be understood in a broad sense, embracing its
economic, social and environmental dimensions. As applied to forestry, it
should not be confused with the narrower concept of sustained yield of a
particular output, usually wood production. FAO (1991) defined sustainable
development in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors as follows:
Sustainable development is the management and
conservation of the natural resource base and the orientation
of technological and institutional change in such a manner
as to ensure the attainment and continued satisfaction of
human needs for the present and future generations. Such
sustainable development (in the agriculture, forestry and
fisheries sectors) conserves land, water, plant and animal
genetic resources, is environmentally non-degrading,
technically appropriate, economically viable and socially
acceptable.
The definitions or concepts proposed by other bodies reflect differences in emphasis, but generally follow the same line as the FAO definition.
For example, the definition adopted by the International Tropical Timber
Council (ITTC) in 1992 is as follows:
Sustainable forest management is the process of managing
permanent forest land to achieve one or more clearly specified
objectives of management with regard to the production of a
continuous flow of desired forest products and services
without undue reduction of its inherent values and future
productivity and without undue undesirable effects on the
physical and social environment. For the national level, a
forest policy aiming at sustainability is a policy that
guarantees the sustainability of all ecological forest types of a
country in a balanced way and divided over a reasonably
sized permanent forest estate. For the forest management unit
level, management of a certain forest is considered to be
sustainable when it guarantees the continuity of all
recognised principal functions of a particular forest without
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TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
undue effects on the other functions (Granholm, Vähänen and
Sahlberg (eds) 1996).
In a resolution adopted by the Helsinki Ministerial Conference on the
Protection of Forests in Europe, 1993, the following definition was used:
Sustainable management means the stewardship and use of
forests and forest lands in such a way, and at a rate, that
maintains their biological diversity, productivity, regenerative
capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil, now and in the
future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at
local, national and global levels, and that does not cause
damage to other ecosystems. (op. cit.)
The difficulties of reaching consensus are revealed by the use of such
indeterminate words as ‘undue’, ‘reasonably’ and ‘relevant’. The ITTC definition does make the distinction between sustainability at the national level
and management unit level, and the Helsinki one at local, national and global
levels.
In fact, the question arises at what level the principle of sustainability
should be applied: individual site, stand, forest, landscape, regional, national,
international. Other questions that come to mind are:
1
how is sustainable forest management (SFM) to be
reconciled with sustainability at the broader level, overall
land use, demographics, rural development, economy,
energy and so on?
2 To what extent should man-imposed sustainability emulate
or seek even to improve on nature? Even without
intervention by man, the species composition of an
undisturbed forest ecosystem changes over time as species
wax and wane through a process of natural selection.
3 In short, are we prepared to compromise when it comes to
sustainability, and if so what are the acceptable trade-offs?
(Peck et al. in Sohlberg (ed) 1996)
The principle of sustainability in general, and of SFM in particular, is no
doubt accepted by everyone. When it comes to defining it, opinions differ
according to each person’s perspective, while attempting to apply the
principle in practice raises yet further difficulties. The development of
criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management was seen as the
way forward.
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
Before discussing criteria and indicators, let us take a step back and recall
that the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
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THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
(UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, marked a turning point in global
attitudes towards the environment in general and environmental concerns
relating to the forest in particular. In the latter respect, UNCED was in
marked contrast to the first global conference on the environment, the 1972
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm,
during which issues related to forests were hardly raised. In the intervening
period, forestry matters came more and more to the fore in national and
international debates, while since UNCED and largely as a result of it there
has been an explosion of meetings and initiatives surrounding the problems
of forests and forestry. Outputs from UNCED included: Agenda 21, intended
as a blueprint for action by governments, aid agencies and others concerned
with environmental and development issues; a General Declaration; the
establishment of a UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD); the
Framework Convention on Climate Change; and the Framework Convention
on Biodiversity. All of these contained elements relating to forestry, but in
addition there emerged the Non-legally binding authoritative statement for
a global consensus on the management, conservation and sustainable
development of all types of forests, abbreviated to the ‘Statement of Forestry
Principles’ (Humphreys 1996). This fell short of the expectations of those
calling for a Global Forest Convention, including the Group of Seven Industrialized Countries (G7) at its meeting in 1990. Nevertheless, it provides a
rather comprehensive set of principles, which have provided a basis for a
large number of initiatives taken at the international, national and local levels
during the 1990s. The statement consists of a preamble and fifteen principles or elements, two of which deal specifically with international trade.
They read as follows:
13.
(a) Trade in forest products should be based on nondiscriminatory and multilaterally agreed rules and
procedures consistent with international trade law
and practices. In this context, open and free
international trade in forest products should be
facilitated.
(b) Reduction or removal of tariff barriers and
impediments to the provision of better market access
and better prices for higher added-value forest
products and their local processing should be
encouraged to enable producer countries to better
conserve and manage their renewable forest
resources.
(c) Incorporation of environmental costs and benefits
into market forces and mechanisms, in order to
achieve forest conservation and sustainable
development, should be encouraged both
domestically and internationally.
(d) Forest conservation and sustainable development
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TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
policies should be integrated with economic, trade
and other relevant policies.
(e) Fiscal, trade, industrial, transportation and other
policies and practices that may lead to forest
degradation should be avoided. Adequate
policies, aimed at management, conservation
and sustainable development of forests, including
where appropriate, incentives, should be
encouraged.
14.
Unilateral measures, incompatible with
international obligations or agreements, to restrict
and/or ban international trade in timber or other
forest products should be removed or avoided, in
order to attain long-term sustainable forest
management.
Criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management
Among the initiatives following up from UNCED were the Helsinki, Montreal
and Amazonian (or Tarapoto) processes. For the Helsinki process, work on
developing criteria and indicators for SFM began after the 2nd Ministerial
Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe, held in Helsinki in 1993
and attended by 38 European countries, including the Russian Federation,
with observers from a number of other countries and NGOs. The Montreal
process, started in the same year, involved 12 temperate and boreal countries of the northern and southern hemispheres that were not, with the
exception of the Russian Federation, already included in the Helsinki
process: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, Mexico, New
Zealand, Russian Federation, South Korea, Uruguay and the USA. The
Amazonian process emerged from a meeting in Tarapoto, Peru in 1995,
attended by representatives from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Surinam
and Venezuela, with observers from international organisations.
In addition, work was carried out by ITTO, both before and after
UNCED, to develop guidelines for the sustainable management of natural
tropical forests, guidelines for the establishment and sustainable management of planted tropical forests, guidelines on the conservation of biological diversity in tropical production forests, and the definition (given above),
criteria and examples of indicators for testing and demonstrating SFM. There
were 5 criteria and 27 example indicators prepared for use at the national
level, and 6 criteria and 23 example indicators for the forest management
unit level. Finally, a UNEP/FAO initiative resulted in proposals for C&I for
sustainable management in sub-Saharan, dry-zone countries of Africa, with
the intention to extend them to other dry-zone regions. Between them, the
various initiatives cover the majority of countries in the world.
The outputs from these processes included sets of criteria and indica241
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
tors for SFM: 6 criteria and 20 quantitative indicators from the Helsinki
process; 7 criteria and 67 quantitative and qualitative indicators from the
Montreal process; 12 criteria and 76 quantitative and qualitative criteria from
the Amazonian process; 11 criteria and 50 example indicators from the ITTO
process; and 7 criteria and 47 indicators from the UNEP/FAO process.
As an example, the criteria adopted for the Helsinki process were as
follows:
1
2
3
4
5
6
Maintenance and appropriate enhancement of forest resources and
their contribution to global carbon cycles.
Maintenance of forest ecosystem health and vitality.
Maintenance and encouragement of productive functions of forests
(wood and non-wood).
Maintenance, conservation and appropriate enhancement of
biological diversity in forest ecosystems.
Maintenance and appropriate enhancement of protective functions
in forest management (notably soil and water).
Maintenance of other socio-economic functions and conditions.
There were more similarities than divergences in the C&I of the different processes, but probably enough of the latter to make it doubtful whether
it would be possible or worthwhile to attempt to bring them together into
a global set of C&I. Among the uses to which they may be put, one is of particular relevance here, namely to clarify issues related to international trade
in products from sustainably managed forests, including timber certification.
It is this aspect which is considered in the following section.
Certification and labelling
Benefits of certification
Forest certification is the process by which forest owners voluntarily submit
their forests to inspection by an independent certification body to determine
whether the management meets clearly defined standards or criteria, particularly with regard to SFM. It may also include certification of wood
products along the chain-of-custody from the forest to the point of sale to
the ultimate consumer if it is the intention to sell the product as having been
certified. The consumer is thereby able to identify the product as having
come from forests managed according to certain standards and processed
also according to certain standards. In practice, this means that the consumer
is given the assurance that the forest of origin is being managed according
to the principles of sustainable management and that the wood has been
processed in such a way as to minimise possible negative environmental and
242
TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
social impacts. Two of the principal objectives of certification are stated
to be:
1
To improve the environmental, social and economic quality of
forest management.
2 To ensure market access for certified products, particularly in
markets with high sensitivity to environmental concerns.
Further objectives that have been claimed for certification include improved
control of logging operations and the stopping of illegal cutting; higher
recovery of royalties and taxes; increased transfer of funds to forest management; internalisation of environmental costs in wood product prices;
encouragement for investment in wood-processing industries; improved
productivity and cost-savings in the production chain from forest to end-user;
and improved transparency in forest management and trade (Elliott 1999).
Initiatives for certification
The concept of certification may appear fairly straightforward. Initiatives to
introduce it have shown that its application is complex and often surrounded
by controversy. This and the numerous meetings and large volume of literature generated on the topic during the 1990s testify both to the importance
attached to the issues involved and to the sensitivities involved.As FAO (1997)
put it: ‘Certification and the associated issue of labelling is one of the most
topical and controversial subjects in forestry at the present time. Certification
seeks to link trade in forest products, particularly international trade, to the
sustainable management of the forest resource, enabling those who so wish
to purchase products coming from sustainably managed forests.’
Demand for certification arose in the late 1980s from the apparently
limited progress of the Tropical Forestry Action Programme (TFAP), of which
FAO was the lead agency and the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme co-sponsors, and of the ITTO’s activities, in reducing
the rate of tropical deforestation. An early initiative was the establishment of
the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in 1993 as an NGO, whose approach
was to audit forests on the basis of ten principles and criteria. The principles are as follows:
1
2
3
4
5
6
Compliance with laws and FSC principles.
Tenure and use rights and responsibilities.
Indigenous people’s rights.
Community relations and workers’ rights.
Benefits from the forest.
Environmental impact.
243
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
7 Management plan.
8 Monitoring and assessment.
9 Maintenance of high conservation value of forests.
10 Plantations.
FSC’s international labelling scheme for wood products provides a
guarantee that the product comes from a well-managed forest (note that the
FSC preferred the term ‘well-managed’ to ‘sustainably managed’). All wood
products carrying the FSC logo have been independently certified as coming
from forests that meet the FSC Principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship, which ensure that consistent performance-based standards are used in
evaluating forest management practices through strict chain-of-custody
monitoring. The forest inspections are carried out by a number of FSC
accredited certification bodies, which themselves are evaluated and monitored to ensure their competence and credibility. By mid-1999 a reported
16.2 million ha of forests had been certified by FSC, the largest area being
in Sweden, where the large wood-processing industries have chosen certification as a strategic direction.
The ISO 14001 EMS (Environmental Management System) requires an
audit of forest management systems against the specifications of this standard. Since it was not sector-specific, a working group led by New Zealand
developed ISO 14061 to assist companies in applying ISO14001 to forest
management operations. A number of large wood industries in the USA and
Finland have registered to ISO 14001 or are pursuing registration, in some
cases registering their processing facilities before their forest operations. In
Finland companies have also been registering the procurement of imported
wood raw material, which as seen earlier is imported in large quantities into
Finland (Hansen, Forsyth and Juslin 1999).
Another international initiative has been the creation of the PanEuropean Forest Certification scheme (PEFC), seen by many forest owners,
especially small-scale owners, as a viable alternative to FSC by providing a pan-European framework for the mutual recognition of national forest
certification schemes. It is based on the six criteria, mentioned above, developed in the Helsinki process and elaborated into Operational Level Guidelines at the 3rd Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forest in Europe
in Lisbon in 1998. The PEFC process is subject to independent third party
auditing. Participating countries or regions may develop their own national
certification systems, at the same time adhering to the PEFC criteria for
SFM (Hirsch 2000).
Among the certification initiatives launched at the national level may be
mentioned the Finnish Forest Certification System (FFCS), the Canadian
Standards Association (CSA) forest certification scheme, the Sustainable
Forestry Initiative (SFI) set up by the American Forest and Paper Association
244
TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
(AF&PA) and the United Kingdom Woodland Assurance Scheme (UKWAS).
Usually the national systems have been based on criteria that have been developed internationally, such as through the Helsinki process or by FSC, although
they may show differences resulting from specific national conditions.
Markets for certified wood products
Given the intense efforts to establish certification systems, what have
been the results in terms of gaining market acceptance for certified wood
products (or certified forest products – CFPs)? Unless or until there are
separate customs classifications for CFPs, standardised statistical reporting
by countries will not exist. Markets have emerged in a number of European
countries, notably Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom,
but up to now they have been niche markets and, in relation to the total
quantity of wood products consumed, the volumes have not been large.
Nevertheless, the markets for CFPs seem to be expanding strongly from the
present low levels. In the above three countries, as well as in Austria, Belgium
and Spain, buyers’ groups have been established, being groups of retail and
other companies creating unified demand for CFPs. The demand for them
has thus far come mainly from retailers and not from the final consumers
(UN-ECE/FAO Forest Products Annual Market Review 1999). There is often
a lack of understanding among consumers about SFM or lack of awareness
of what it is all about, reflecting probably more a failure of communication
than lack of sympathy for environmental conservation (Pajari, Peck and
Rametsteiner (eds) 1999). Demand for CFPs appears also to be building up
in North America, Australia and New Zealand, but elsewhere little interest
has been shown in them up to now.
Despite a slow start in developing the markets for CFPs, an increasing
number of forest owners and wood-processing industries are committing
themselves to certification in the belief that it may help them to gain access
to new niche markets, promote their company’s environmental image and
policy, gain credibility in communicating with customers, and build strategic marketing networks. Expectation does not seem to be high that customers will be willing to pay large enough premiums to cover the additional
expense of certification.
As to the potential structural effects on wood products markets, this at
present can only be speculation, given the lack of hard information. It has
been suggested (Rametsteiner 2000) that the production and trade of CFPs
might have the following substitution effects in European markets:
•
•
No substitution for non-wood materials.
No substitution for tropical timber.
245
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
•
•
•
Small substitution of tropical timber through regaining market share from
non-wood substitutes.
Small substitution of certified for non-certified products.
Eastern European producers penetrating niche markets for CFPs in
western Europe.
One fear, which was mentioned earlier, is that certification may be detrimental to wood products markets in two ways. Firstly, it may act as a nontariff barrier to trade, thereby either distorting trade flow patterns or
reducing the total volume of trade in wood products. Secondly, the publicity given to certification and the reasons for having it, notably the need to
protect the forest from unsustainable exploitation, could inhibit buyers from
using wood products altogether. There is little evidence, one way or the
other, that up to now either of these fears is justified, although as the volume
of CFPs coming onto the market increases, the situation in this regard may
become more apparent.
Waste and recycling
A few definitions
‘Waste’ is perhaps not quite the right word to describe what is covered in
this section, although the main emphasis will be given to the environmental problems associated with waste paper and their linkage with international
trade in wood products. But also relevant are residues, both those left behind
after logging operations, the residues of the industrial processing of wood
and post-consumption wood products. The extent to which they are re-used
has an important bearing on the environmental friendliness of the forestry
and forest industry sector, as well as on the international trade in wood
products.
Logging residues
Logging residues are the above-ground parts of felled trees that are left
behind after the usable parts of the tree, principally the stems, have been
taken away, as well as other trees that may have been damaged during the
harvesting process. In efficient operations the residues (branches, tops,
foliage) may amount to less than 10% of the total volume of the tree, as
occurs in many European countries. Often, however, the percentage is very
much higher. This may also be the case where it is economic only to remove
246
TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
the most valuable wood, usually over a certain minimum diameter. Probably
the worst cases of logging wastage in the past occurred in operations in
natural forests, both in the tropics and temperate and boreal regions, which
were being ‘creamed’ for the most valuable species and qualities. Partly as a
result of increasing scarcity, partly from public pressure on environmental
grounds, the tendency has been to reduce such losses, one result of which
has been to harvest a larger volume per hectare and, in the case of tropical
forests, a greater number of species, which in turn has been consistent with
efforts to increase domestic processing of logs and a higher share of
processed wood products in exports.
Industrial wood residues
Industrial wood residues consist of such things as bark, sawdust, slabs,
edgings and offcuts from sawmilling, peeler cores from veneer-cutting,
and shavings and trimmings from secondary and tertiary processing. More
correctly they should be called by-products, since virtually all of them can
be used, either as raw material for the production of woodpulp and woodbased panels, or for energy, or for other uses, for example in horticulture,
animal-raising or gardening. The use or sale of these by-products often makes
the difference between profit and loss in a typical primary processing
operation. Long gone are the days when burners were a frequent sight
at sawmills, especially in North America; they became unacceptable
environmentally.
The extent to which by-products are used as raw material depends on
the ability of the generating industries to supply them in an uncontaminated
form, i.e. free of glue, paints, impregnation materials, etc., and in given
specification, e.g. chip size, to the user industry. It also depends on the existence of industries capable of using them, often integrated with the generating industries. Bark, sawdust and contaminated by-products will mostly be
used for energy generation. Table 9.5 shows the volumes of wood residues
(by-products) supplied in Europe in 1990 for use as raw material. The proportion of the total volume generated that is supplied as raw material is far
greater in the northern and western parts of Europe than in the eastern and
southern countries. Preference for softwood (coniferous) residues is also a
reason for the differences between regions.
The rate of growth in the use of wood residues as raw material has
been appreciably higher than that of virgin fibre, i.e. round pulpwood from
the forest. In 1965 the volume of the former in Europe was less than 20
million m3, and had more than doubled to 47 million by 1990. It is estimated
that a further 25 million m3 were used in 1990 for energy, and 5 million for
other purposes or not used at all (UN-ECE/FAO 1996).
247
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 9.5 Domestic supply of wood residues as industrial raw material in Europe in 1990
Volume
(million m3)
Share of
residues
generated
(%)
Finland, Norway, Sweden
EU (12 countries)a
Austria, Switzerland
Eastern Europe
South-eastern Europe
18.1
20.9
4.6
2.8
0.4
77
72
90
32
5
TOTAL EUROPE
46.8
62
a
EU – 15 excluding Austria, Finland and Sweden
Source: ECE-UN/FAO 1996
Residues from further stages of processing and from post-consumption,
which are more likely to be contaminated, are generally more suited for
energy generation than as raw material. In some countries, post-consumer
wood residues, for example, old buildings, pallets and furniture, constitute
a quite important part of the total volume of waste going into landfills and,
given the increasing problems relating to the latter and stricter legislation
with regard to the disposal of waste, there is a growing incentive to find
uses for them.
Waste paper
World consumption of paper and paperboard at the end of the twentieth
century was running at about 300 million tonnes a year. A proportion of that
was unrecoverable, for example tissues, and a further quantity went into
long-term storage, for example books. The greater part, maybe about twothirds, however, was potentially recoverable for re-use, either as industrial
raw material or for energy or for a number of other uses. Much of it still
got thrown out and contributed to the mountains of rubbish dumped on
landfills. It has been estimated that paper and paperboard accounts for over
30% of all solid waste generated in industrialised countries (Fig. 9.1).
In less developed societies, vegetable matter is the main component in
solid waste, but is overtaken by other materials as their economies progress.
In response to environmental concern, legislation has been becoming
increasingly strict to reduce the volume of waste and encourage recycling
of glass, metals and plastics and, above all, paper. The possibilities for doing
so are best, that is economically and technically feasible, where the waste is
248
TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Vegetable
25%
Paper
31%
Other
13%
Textiles, rubber,
leather and wood
5%
Glass
10%
Metals
8%
Plastics
8%
9.1 Composition of solid waste in industrialised countries (source: Peck and
Descargues 1995).
most concentrated, in other words urban areas. Collection, sorting and
recycling requires well-developed infrastructure, political support and willingness to cooperate on the part of the population, not to mention the necessary investment. These have been forthcoming to an increasing
extent in the advanced economies which, with certain exceptions, have
been leading the way in paper recycling. As a result of the measures taken,
the waste paper market has been supply-led and, because it has generally
been treated as a marginal product, has been subject to violent price
fluctuations.
In the developed market regions, as well as China and South Korea,
between 40 and 50% of all paper and paperboard used is recovered (Table
9.6). In some countries, the recovery rate is above 50%, which in practice
probably means that the full potential for recovery is being approached. In
the southern hemisphere regions the recovery rate is much lower, between
20 and 25%, while in the former USSR it is about 33%, which is below the
world average of 39% (calculated with 1997 data). The total volumes recovered, as well as the recovery rates, have been rising strongly everywhere
over the past few decades. If the estimate given above that two-thirds of
all paper and paperboard used is potentially recoverable, the volume of
110 million tonnes actually recovered in 1997 is equivalent to between 55
and 60% of the potentially recoverable volume worldwide.
The extent to which waste paper provides the furnish for paper-making
varies considerably, both according to the grade of paper and paperboard
and to the country and industry using it. For some grades, little or no waste
paper is used, for example tissues and fine papers; others can be made
wholly or largely from waste paper, including certain packaging grades,
249
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 9.6
Recovery and utilisation of waste paper by region, 1997
WORLD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
Recoverya
(million mt)
As per cent
of paper &
paperboard
consumption
(%)
Utilisation
as raw
material
(million mt)
As per cent of
fibre furnish
for paper &
paperboard
(%)
110.5
35.6
33.2
1.1
31.2
4.5
0.9
3.9
38.6
41.6
42.0
32.5
40.5
22.6
22.3
22.9
111.8
30.5
32.3
1.1
35.3
6.3
1.0
5.3
38.6
29.3
41.7
27.3
48.4
41.3
31.4
42.2
a
Termed ‘production’ in FAO database
Source: FAO database
newsprint and some grades of printing and writing paper. Overall it is calculated that waste paper made up nearly two-fifths of the world total of fibre
furnish in 1997 (Table 9.6), while woodpulp accounted for 55% and pulp
from other fibres, notably straw, accounted for less than 7%.
A large proportion of all other fibre pulp was produced and used in
China. Despite that, the share of waste paper in fibre furnish in East Asia was
higher, at 48%, than in any other region; the share of woodpulp was the
lowest with 30%. In Europe, Other Asia-Pacific and Latin America the share
of waste paper was over 40%. It was around 30% in North America, where
woodpulp is produced and used on a massive scale, as well as the former
USSR and Africa.
The impact of the growing use of waste paper on international trade
has stemmed mainly from the fact that a large proportion of it is generated
in the main consumption centres of the USA, western Europe and Japan.
These countries have developed the infrastructure and the capacity to
collect and utilise important shares of their recoverable waste paper, pushed
in most cases by legislation to reduce waste. The result has been some
import-substitution of some grades of paper and paperboard and, even more
markedly, growth of their exports. It has been these exports which have
allowed several of the major importing countries of wood products of
western Europe and East Asia to figure also among the ‘Top 20’ exporting
countries.
Among the net importing countries of wood products shown in
Table 9.7, the ratio of utilisation of waste paper to production of paper and
paperboard in 1997 was mostly between 45 and 50%, and was over 70% in
250
TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
the Netherlands and South Korea, compared with a world average of 39%.
Only in the USA among the major importing countries was it below the
average, but the USA was notable for the very large volume of exports of
waste paper, 6.8 million tonnes in 1997 or two-fifths of the world total.
Among the net exporters of wood products in Table 9.7, the ratio of waste
paper utilisation to paper and paperboard production was between 5% in
Finland and 21% in Sweden, with only Austria’s ratio being as high as the
world average. Canada, Austria and Sweden were substantial net importers
of waste paper. The need for some countries to import waste paper has
arisen because of legislation in their export markets of paper and paperboard
requiring a certain waste paper percentage. This is the case, for example, for
newsprint in some states of the USA; to avoid losing too great a share of
the market, Canadian suppliers have been obliged to adapt their fibre furnish
to include the required proportion of waste paper.
Expansion in the use of waste paper has been strong everywhere in
recent decades, and its share in the fibre furnish for paper and paperboard
has risen considerably, mainly at the expense of virgin fibre, round pulpwood. This explains why in many countries removals and use of pulpwood
have risen more slowly than the output of pulpwood-using products (woodpulp, particle board, etc.), and in managed forests it has resulted in marketing problems for small-sized wood and backlogs in harvesting of thinnings.
The possibilities have been explored to adapt silvicultural systems to reduce
the proportion of small-sized wood in the wood harvest, but this is a longterm solution.The immediate problem is to find markets for small-sized wood
at a price which makes it worthwhile to harvest it.
Waste paper may be recycled a number of times, but each time there is
a loss of strength in the fibres. Accordingly, it is necessary to incorporate
virgin fibres on a continuing basis into the fibre furnish, either from roundwood or from industrial wood residues. At the same time, there will be no
let-up in the pressure to reduce waste and to recycle as much of it as
possible for environmental reasons. Unless a significantly greater proportion
of waste paper is used in the future for other purposes, for instance energy,
it will continue to have an important influence on the markets for wood and
wood products, including international trade.
Energy and climate change
Energy supply and use
In the mid-nineteenth century, about three-quarters of all energy used in the
world came from biotic sources, mainly wood, with the remainder from
251
252
614
32
42
553
1700
21
Net exporters of wood products
Austria
1 028
Finland
607
Norway
432
Sweden
1 652
Canada
2 694
Brazil
1 287
Source: FAO database
998
1021
876
1114
243
79
693
3034
362
1452
93
49
217
193
690
3
750
3057
53
1252
216
490
6807
444
312
–
Exports
(1000 mt)
Imports
Net importers of wood products
France
4 219
Germany
9 457
Italy
3 080
Netherlands
2 439
Switzerland
1 003
United Kingdom
3 675
USA
32 862
China
11 867
Japan
14 841
South Korea
4 531
Recovery
Waste paper
1 549
590
257
2 012
3 704
1 305
4 467
7 421
3 903
2 301
1 030
3 264
26 748
14 457
14 891
5 983
Utilisation
3 816
12 149
2 129
9 756
18 969
6 475
9 143
15 930
8 032
3 159
1 583
6 479
76 452
31 483
31 014
8 334
2 905
10 161
1 937
8 210
14 834
1 043
3 460
7 661
2 006
2 844
1 237
1 473
11 940
1 051
1 149
1 900
Exports
(1000 mt)
Production
Paper and paperboard
40.6
4.9
12.1
20.6
19.5
20.2
48.9
46.6
48.6
72.8
65.1
50.4
35.0
45.5
49.4
71.8
Ratio of waste paper
utilisation to paper and
paperboard production
(%)
Table 9.7 The waste paper market in selected countries and its relationship with paper and paperboard production and exports in 1997
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
mineral sources, mainly coal. Towards the end of the twentieth century the
pattern had totally changed with mineral sources accounting for around 80%,
biotic sources down to about 15% and the remainder from other sources
such as nuclear power and hydropower (Peck and Descargues 1997). The
tremendous growth in the use of mineral fuels, i.e. fossil fuels, was accompanied by the accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases of combustion in the atmosphere. It is estimated that the concentration of CO2 in
the atmosphere rose from 275 parts per million (ppm) in the mid-nineteenth
century to 333 ppm in 1985, and some forecasts expect it to reach 550 ppm
by the mid-twenty-first century (op. cit.). Many scientists believe that the
increased concentration of the so-called greenhouse gases (GHGs) is leading
to changes in the global climate, including a rise in average temperatures,
which could have major environmental consequences, although there is
uncertainty about the time link between changes in greenhouse gas
concentrations and temperature changes.
This, briefly, is the background to the adoption at UNCED in 1992 of
the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), in which the signatory countries supported measures to bring the causes of climate change
under control, notably by slowing down or arresting the net increase in
emissions of GHGs. This could be achieved in various ways, for instance by
increasing efficiency in the use and conservation of energy, increasing
the use of ‘alternative’ and cleaner (in the sense of not emitting noxious
gases) fuels than fossil fuels, and taking measures to re-absorb CO2 from the
atmosphere. Among the alternative fuels are nuclear power, itself the subject
of considerable environmental concern after the Chernobyl disaster and
other nuclear accidents, hydropower, solar and wind energy, and biomass.
There is also the question of renewability and sustainability of energy
sources. Fossil fuels are non-renewable, although coal reserves are enough
for another 100 years or more but those of oil and natural gas probably much
less than that at present rates of depletion. Fossil fuels will eventually have
to be phased out and in the long term might be replaced by such sources
as fuel cells based on hydrogen, and nuclear fusion (as distinct from fission).
But for the sake of continuity and security of supply, other alternatives will
need to be developed. In this scenario, wood could be called on to play a
greater role than it has in the recent past.
It is estimated that in 1995 woodfuels’ share of total energy use worldwide was 7% (Table 9.8). Of the world total volume of energy wood production of 2.1 billion m3 EQ, 80% was used in the developing countries,
almost all in the form of fuelwood and charcoal in households for cooking
and heating. The developed countries used 20% of the total, partly for domestic uses, including so-called ‘intermediate uses’ such as district heating and
hot water, and partly by industry, using wood residues and pulping black
liquor for generating steam and electric power.
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THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 9.8
in 1995
Composition of woodfuels and their share in total energy use by region
Woodfuels
Fuelwood
Charcoal
Black
liquor
Woodfuels’
share in total
energy use
(%)
(million m3 EQ)
Total, developing countries
Asia, developing
Oceania, developing
Africa
Latin America
1533
859
6
445
223
131
25
–
72
34
34
12
–
3
19
15
12
52
35
12
Total, developed countries
North America
Europe
Former USSR
Australia, Japan,
New Zealand
187
96
56
32
3
6
4
2
–
–
228
146
51
8
23
2
3
3
1
1
1720
137
262
7
WORLD
Source: FAO 1997
The figures in Table 9.8 apparently do not include industrial wood
residues, which may add about as much again to energy supply as black
liquors. Furthermore, data on fuelwood is notoriously difficult to collect
and unreliable, and the figures in the table may be either higher or lower
than the reality. In Europe, for example, fuelwood use in 1990, including
estimates for ‘non-inventoried’ supplies which do not enter the commercial
stream or are used directly by the forest owner, amounted to 92 million m3
(compared with the 56 million m3 in 1995 shown in Table 9.8); and Europe’s
use of industrial wood residues, including ‘recovered wood’, which is wood
used for energy after it has carried out its initialfunction, such as pallets and
wooden packaging, as well as building demolition waste, amounted to
67 million m3 (no volume given in Table 9.8). The details are shown in
Table 9.9 (Europe in this instance includes the Baltic states).
The total of 208 million m3 of wood used for energy in Europe in 1990,
which is still short of the absolute total as it does not include some quantities of waste paper used for that purpose, was equivalent to 47% of the
volume of European removals in that year. This is mentioned just to give an
indication that, even in a region where the share of wood in total energy
use is low (about 3%), energy is nevertheless an important end-use component from the wood supply point of view.
254
TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Table 9.9
Energy from wood in Europe in 1990
Volume
(million m3)
Per cent
(%)
92
24
17
13
13
49
44
12
8
6
6
24
208
100
Fuelwood
Primary processing residues
Secondary processing residues
Pulp & paper residues (wood & bark)
Recovered wood products
Pulping liquors (wood equivalent)
TOTAL WOOD FOR ENERGY
Source: UN-ECE/FAO 1999
Climate change
The burning of wood for energy production is generally considered to be
neutral so far as its impact on the environment is concerned, because the
main emission is CO2, which is taken back into biomass from the atmosphere
in the process of photosynthesis. Furthermore, wood comes from a renewable resource. On the other hand, the clearance of forest to make way for
other land uses, which involves not only the loss of vegetation cover but also
of the organic matter in the soil is an important cause of the accumulation
of GHGs in the atmosphere. It has been estimated that tropical deforestation
contributes 14% of the addition of greenhouse gases, the other main contributors being the burning of fossil fuels for energy (49%), industrial activities (24%) and agriculture, mainly methane (CH4), from animals (Peck and
Descargues 1997). For CO2 alone, however, deforestation is reckoned to
account for 20%, fossil fuels for 70% and industry and agriculture together
for 10% (Fig. 9.2). By far the largest share of fossil fuel use is still taken by
the developed countries, but the developing countries, with their rising
shares of world population, expanding industrial activity and use of
motorised transport, will raise their consumption of fossil fuels and
emissions of greenhouse gases in both absolute and relative terms. The
contribution by sector to the addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is shown in Fig. 9.2.
Forest biomass and forest soil account for about two-thirds of all terrestrial carbon. A possible global climate change will consequently influence
and be influenced by what is happening to the forests (Kauppi and Sohlberg
in Palo and Uusivuori (eds) 1999). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), created to follow up the FCCC, reached a number of conclusions on the possible effects on forests:
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Agriculture
6%
Industry
4%
Deforestation
20%
Energy
70%
9.2 Contribution by sector to the addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
(source: UN-ECE/FAO 1999).
•
•
•
Even a relatively small change in climate can cause changes in the growth
and regeneration capacity of trees.
Slow-growing species are more vulnerable to changes in climate than fastgrowing and more ‘mobile’ species.
Stands in extreme conditions of water availability, that is, stands which
are prone to drought or water-logging, are particularly susceptible to
changes in climate, at least if the direction of change pushes the environment further towards those species’ particular tolerance limits.
It is also thought that the greatest impacts of possible greenhouse
warming on forests are likely to occur in the boreal region, because warming
is expected to be especially noticeable at high latitudes. Northern tree lines
are likely to advance slowly northwards into areas which are currently
covered by tundra vegetation. In the tropics, however, human-induced
deforestation will be much more important than changes in climate and
atmospheric chemistry in affecting the availability of wood products, at least
until the middle of the twenty-first century.
Studies prepared for the IPCC distinguish in order of magnitude the
effects that forestry measures can have on the carbon balance:
1
Conservation management, being actions that result in the safeguard of existing carbon reservoirs in forests.
2 Storage management, or actions resulting in an increase of the
carbon reservoir in forests.
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TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
3
Substitution management, or actions in the forest and wood sector
which, in one way or another, result in compensating fossil fuel use
with increased use of wood-based materials.
It is estimated that the global potential of CO2 mitigation measures in
forestry could be in the order of 15–20% of the expected human-induced
CO2 emission during the period from 1995 to 2050. This includes afforestation and reforestation as well as a reduction in deforestation. In the longer
term the potential for increased use of energy based on forest biomass is
seen as probably the most promising climate mitigation option for forestry.
The third Conference of the Parties to the FCCC, held in Kyoto, Japan
in December 1997, adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which laid down further
steps to implement the FCCC. The Kyoto Protocol makes explicit reference
to land use change and forestry under several of its articles, which is important if the market is called upon to play a role in the sequestration of carbon
in the forest sector. However, to be effective, the Protocol will need to be
strengthened in certain respects, for example in recognising the positive role
of the intensification of forest management other than planting in carbon
sequestration as well as improving the environment, the role of long-term
storage of carbon in wood products in, for example, construction, and the
use of wood energy as a substitute for fossil fuels (Solberg 1998). The issue
of the role of forests in carbon sequestration proved, however, to be one
of the major sticking points which caused the Kyoto follow-up conference
in The Hague in November 2000 to be adjourned until 2001 for further
deliberation and negotiation.
Among the measures being introduced or considered, which could have
an impact on the market for wood, are carbon or CO2 taxes and a number
of carbon offset schemes, whereby emission reduction units (ERUs) could
be traded between Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, for example through the
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Changes in the regulations on the
burning of fossil fuels as well as carbon taxes could have a positive impact
on the production and use of wood products, given that they require
considerably less energy input than most competing materials, such as steel,
aluminium, plastics and glass. This is in addition to the fact that wood products come from a renewable resource, which is not the case for the other
materials.
Any change in the competitive position of wood products in the market
would, in addition, be reflected in international trade. The latter, however,
might also be affected if the cost of fossil fuels should rise as a result of regulations or taxes, given that transportation, whether maritime, road or rail,
is run on these fuels and that many wood products have a fairly low valueto-weight ratio. The impact could be to favour trade in higher unit value
products at the expense of lower value ones, such as wood raw material,
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and also to favour domestically produced substances at the expense of
imports.
Finally, the possible impact of climate change, if it materialises, could
be to stimulate forest growth, thereby in the long term increasing the availability of wood, altering the supply–demand balance and lowering prices. A
number of ecological-climate models have reached similar results showing,
for example, that the global wood supply would expand and welfare from
wood would increase. Greater wood availability would also allow its
increased use as a source of energy. This outlook is for the very long term
and highly speculative, and many other developments could swing the
market in other directions. Nonetheless, the possibility exists that forestry
and wood may play quite an important role during the transition period over
the coming century or so to the post-fossil fuel era.
258
CHAPTER
10
Past, present
and future
The need for a long-term outlook
B
ecause the life cycle of trees, apart from the fast-growing plantation
species, is so long, those concerned with the forest and forest industries sector take a particular interest in the long-term outlook for the
supply and demand of wood and its products. Once a forest is established,
there is a limit to how much can be done through silvicultural operations to
change the final output. Therefore, in the case of a managed forest reaching
the end of its rotation, the manager has to accept the results of the decisions
made by his predecessors of one or several generations back about the
species to be grown, spacing, thinning regimes and so on. When wood production is expected to remain the main function of the forest, these decisions will have been taken on the basis of assumptions about what crop will
give the best returns many years hence. This is difficult enough when only
one type of output is being considered, for instance wood. It becomes
immensely more difficult when other functions, including environmental
and social ones, need to be factored in.
The needs for reliable guidance about the future among those concerned with industries and markets are different, in terms of timescale, to
those of forest managers. The former have to make investments in equipment, to be paid off in a certain period of time, say five or ten years; after
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that, new investment decisions will be necessary, taking into account developments in technology, and changes in products and market demand. For
them, projections of supply and demand of wood products of more than,
say, ten years into the future are probably of less interest.
To assist policy makers and managers, efforts have been made by
researchers and others over the past century or so to provide indications of
possible future developments in the forest and forest products sector at the
national, regional or global level. Some of the more recent forecasts are presented in this chapter. But first, this is the opportune point at which to
summarise some of the highlights from the previous chapters by way of
introduction to the discussion on the outlook.
Highlights from Chapters 1 to 9
Historical perspective
Hundreds of millions of years before the appearance of man, there
evolved the great forests of giant clubmosses and fern-like plants of the
Carboniferous period, the raw material of fossil fuels. These gave way to
coniferous plants and later to broadleaved species. Forests became the predominant terrestrial ecosystem of the planet, covering possibly 80% of the
land surface other than the poles. Man appeared a mere 100 000 years ago
or so, and until perhaps 8000 years ago followed a nomadic existence. Then
he began to lead a more settled life of growing crops and herding cattle. As
populations rose, they needed more land for agriculture: thus began the long
decline in the area of forest.
As civilisation progressed, demand for wood expanded from its use for
heating, cooking and shelter to other uses, notably for copper- and ironmaking, construction and ship-building. Forests in the Mediterranean Basin
and large parts of continental Asia were over-exploited and began to disappear. This trend spread to other regions, western and central Europe, later
to North America and western Russia, and most recently to tropical Africa,
Asia and Latin America.
Reports of trade in wood products date from several millennia BC, for
example from the eastern Mediterranean to Egypt. Later, Rome imported
wood from various parts of its empire, including North Africa and the Iberian
peninsula. In northern Europe, wood was exported from Norway to England
from the thirteenth century onwards and later from Norway and the south
Baltic ports to the Netherlands and other western European countries. Tar
and pitch were also important trading commodities, needed for building
and maintaining ships. By the seventeenth century, the acquisition of wood
began to shift northwards and eastwards, to Riga and Sweden.
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Exploration and colonisation by Europeans down the west coast of
Africa, into the Indian Ocean and across the Atlantic to the New World,
brought the discovery of new and exotic woods for the European market
and the clearing of forests to make way for cash crops, especially sugar.
Islands such as Barbados and Madeira were denuded to such an extent that
fuelwood had to be brought from New England for sugar-processing. New
England’s dense forests were largely cleared for agriculture by the colonists
and also provided a source for masts and spars for the British navy, needed
to maintain its maritime rivalry with the Netherlands and France. With the
establishment of settlements on the west coast of North America early in the
nineteenth century, opportunities arose for exports to destinations around
the Pacific Basin, including Australia, China, Japan, Peru and Mexico. The
opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 greatly improved the access of northwestern producers to the east coast of the USA and Europe.
The industrial revolution was accompanied by a marked expansion of
trade in wood products in the nineteenth century, with Britain emerging as
the leading importer. Another major development in that century was the
invention of mechanised paper-making, the key to which was the use of
wood in place of rags and other fibres.
Economic growth and trade in the first half of the twentieth century
were severely disrupted by the First World War, then the Great Depression
and again by the Second World War. Trade in wood products in that period
was largely confined to the industrialised countries. In the second half of the
century, economic expansion and growth in trade in wood products were
more or less continuous apart from some cyclical fluctuations. While the
major part of trade continued to be between industrialised countries, the
share taken by developing countries gradually increased.
Global forest and wood resources
The present area of forests in the world, not including other wooded land,
is about 3.6 billion ha or 28% of the land area. Latin America and the former
USSR account for roughly one-quarter each, and Africa, Other Asia-Pacific and
North America for between one-seventh and one-eighth each; Europe and
East Asia have less than one-twentieth each. There are three broad categories
of forest: tropical, consisting largely of broadleaved species; boreal, predominantly coniferous and lying mostly to the north of latitude 60° N; and
temperate, in between. Most of the tropical forests and a large part of the
boreal forests are natural, that is undisturbed by man; in temperate regions,
they are mainly semi-natural and under some form of management. Plantations make up only a small but increasing part of the forest area.
Deforestation to make way for other land uses took place over millen261
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nia in the temperate regions, but the area of forest in those regions has now
stabilised and is even increasing slowly. Deforestation and forest degradation
has been continuing in the tropical regions, with a reported loss of about
13 million ha a year in the early 1990s.
The volume of wood removed annually from the world’s forests in the
latter part of the 1990s was about 3.5 million m3, of which roughly half
consisted of fuelwood, mainly produced in the developing countries, and
half industrial wood, the major part in the industrialised countries. North
America and Europe have a much larger share of world removals of industrial wood (39 and 19% respectively) than of the area of forest (13 and 5%
respectively). The former USSR, with 24% of the area, accounted for only 7%
of removals in the mid-1990s. In virtually all temperate and boreal countries,
the volume of wood taken from the forest is less than the increment. The
physical potential to raise fellings is, however, higher than the realistic one,
taking into account economic and environmental constraints. The low
volume of fellings per hectare in tropical regions could be increased with
more intensive management and without jeopardising principles of sustainable forest management (SFM). The main effort in these regions is likely,
however, to be to conserve as much of the remaining natural forests as possible, rather than to increase wood production in them. Fast-growing plantations could provide an increasing share of industrial wood production.
Production and consumption of wood products
Wood is not only a renewable material; it is also a highly versatile one,
capable of being transformed in different ways into a variety of products.
Among the key properties of wood, which from the point of view of its
utilisation may be positive or negative or both at the same time, include:
its strength to weight ratio – generally favourable compared with other
materials; inflammability – good as a source of energy, can be a hazard in
construction; durability – varies from species to species; biodegradability;
decorative value – also varies from species to species; workability – a material that is easy to cut, saw, drill or turn; energy efficiency – less energy
needed for its transformation and utilisation than most competing materials;
versatility – can be used in unprocessed and processed forms for a myriad
purposes.
Wood products are grouped under the following headings: wood raw
material; sawnwood; wood-based panels; woodpulp; paper and paperboard;
recovered paper (waste paper); and added value products (wood manufactures). Of the processed products, world production of sawnwood in 1997
amounted to 431 million m3, wood-based panels 157 million m3, woodpulp
162 million tonnes, and paper and paperboard 289 million tonnes. For all
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
these product groups, North America is the leading producer with shares
ranging from 33% for wood-based panels to 53% for woodpulp. Europe is in
second position, followed by East Asia and Other Asia-Pacific. Production in
the former USSR fell steeply in the first half of the 1990s. Between 1970 and
1990 world output and consumption of all categories of wood products
increased, the highest rates of growth being for particle board and printing
and writing paper, the slowest for sawn softwood and hardwood. Production in 1998 was higher than in 1990 for all products other than sawnwood
and plywood, the fall in sawnwood being principally due to the collapse of
output in the former USSR, which had been the leading world producer up
to 1975.
Separating total production into that destined for countries’ domestic
use and that for export, for each of the main product groups production for
domestic use accounts for between 70 and 80% of total production. Put
another way, exports make up between 20 and 30% of total production, and
imports for the same proportion of consumption. International trade is
consequently an essential element in achieving a balance between supply
and demand of all wood products. In North America, production in 1997
exceeded consumption of all products except plywood. Production in East
Asia was in all cases less than consumption. For the other regional groups,
self-sufficiency varied according to the product. Europe was more than selfsufficient in sawn softwood, particle board and paper and paperboard, but
deficient in the other products. Other Asia-Pacific was more than self-sufficient in plywood and sawn hardwood, but deficient in the others. Africa was
self-sufficient only in sawn hardwood; Latin America, on the other hand, was
self-sufficient in all products except paper and paperboard, and the former
USSR was more than self-sufficient in all products by a wide margin.
Up-to-date information about end-uses of wood products is hard to
come by. Leaving aside the use of wood for energy, which in volume terms
is easily the largest user, the main end-use sectors of wood products are construction, packaging, furniture, cultural or graphic uses, and miscellaneous.
Construction is the predominant end-use for sawnwood and wood-based
panels; packaging and cultural or graphic uses for paper and paperboard.
Altogether, it is estimated that construction, packaging and cultural and
graphic uses account for about three-quarters of all wood used, when wood
for energy is excluded from the calculation.
The place of wood industries and wood products
in the global economy
Statistics showing the share of the wood-processing industries in the overall
economy are not available from all countries. Those for OECD countries,
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which include furniture with wood and wood products, and printing and
publishing with paper and paper products, show that the wood-processing
sector accounts for between 2 and 3% of Gross Domestic Product in most
countries. It is appreciably higher, however, in such major exporting countries as Finland and Sweden. The whole of manufacturing, however, accounts
for 20% or less of total GDP, and the share of wood-processing in total
manufacturing in the countries used as examples ranges from 14% in the
Netherlands to 23% in Sweden among the industrialised countries, but only
7% in Mexico. In Sweden, wood-processing holds second place among the
manufacturing sectors, in the USA third place and in the Netherlands fourth
place.
The value of world trade in the wood products covered by FAO statistics amounted to US$ 150 billion in 1995, which was equivalent to 3% of
total commodity trade. If value added wood products (manufactures of wood
and paper and paperboard) were included, the share would rise to perhaps
around 5%. In several countries, including Finland, Canada, Sweden and
Indonesia, wood products (excluding manufactures) account for an important part of total exports – 30% in the case of Finland. The range is not so
marked for imports: among the leading importing countries, Japan’s share is
the highest with nearly 6% of total imports in 1995.
In brief, the wood-processing industries and wood products hold a quite
important place in the national economies and international trade of many
countries, and play a key role in a number of them that are major exporters.
Overview of world trade in wood products
In 1997, world exports of wood products, including waste (recovered) paper
but excluding the manufactures of wood and paper and cork products,
amounted to US$136 billion and imports to US$145 billion. The difference
is partly explained by the fact that exports are reported on an fob basis and
imports on a cif basis. In value terms, paper and paperboard accounted for
nearly half the total, followed by sawnwood with about one-fifth. When
expressed in terms of volume (cubic metres equivalent volume of wood in
the rough – m3 EQ), paper and paperboard still held the biggest share with
one-third of the total but much less than their share of value. Woodpulp and
sawnwood each accounted for between 20 and 25%.
Two country groups, Europe and North America, accounted for threequarters of total exports; and three groups, Europe, East Asia and North
America, for 85% of imports. Virtually all countries are importers of wood
products and the majority of them are exporters, but a relatively small
number account for the bulk of trade. In 1997, the ‘Top 20’ exporting countries accounted for 86% of the world total, and the leading 5 (Canada,
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
USA, Germany, Finland and Sweden) for more than half. Likewise, the ‘Top
20’ importing countries held 83% of world imports, and the leading 5 (USA,
Japan, China, Germany and the United Kingdom) for more than half.
Between 1970 and 1995, the fastest growth in trade was of waste paper,
followed by wood-based panels and paper and paperboard. The slowest was
of wood raw material (despite a considerable increase in chips) and sawnwood. Trade of all products grew faster than production and consumption.
Exports of wood products in total expanded faster than the world average
in Latin America and East Asia, although in both regions the values were
relatively small at the start of the period. Imports grew faster than the world
average in North America and East Asia, raising their shares in 1995 to 17
and 23% respectively. Europe’s imports rose somewhat more slowly than the
average, but it still accounted for 47% of world imports in 1995.
Comprehensive data are not available on the trade in added value (or
secondary processed) wood products. Statistics for the countries of the
OECD and the EU, however, which account for the bulk of world trade in
these products, show that they play an important role in trade. The value of
OECD countries’ imports of added value products in 1996 was US$28 billion,
of which wooden furniture accounted for two-thirds and builders’ woodwork for one-sixth. Nearly half of the EU’s (15 countries’) exports in 1997
of wood products, primary processed and added value combined but excluding paper and paperboard and their products, consisted of added value
products, and their share of its imports was over two-fifths. For a different
grouping of countries it is estimated that the added value products of paper
and paperboard accounted for over one-quarter of the total value of exports
of paper and paperboard and their manufactures in 1995 and a higher proportion of imports. A rough calculation suggests that by including the manufactures of wood and paper, the total value of world trade in wood products
would be about 50% higher than that for wood raw material and primary
processed products alone. Furthermore, the share of added value products
is increasing.
Trade flow patterns and trends
In 1997, the largest exporting regions of wood products were Europe, North
America and Other Asia-Pacific with 85% of the world total. Europe, East Asia
and North America accounted for 85% of world imports. The fact that Europe
and North America figure in the top three exporting and importing regions
reflects the importance of their intra-regional trade flows, which make up
more than half the world total. If East Asia and Other Asia-Pacific were combined in one region, the major part of that region’s trade would also be intraregional. At the world level about three-fifths of total trade in wood products
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THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
is intra-regional and two-fifths is inter-regional. About four-fifths of Europe’s
and East Asia’s exports remain within their respective regions, and a half of
North America’s. In contrast, most of the exports of the former USSR, Africa
and Latin America go to other regions. North America and Europe obtain 80%
or more of their imports from within their respective regions, while East Asia
imports 80% from outside the region, and Other Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin
America, despite being relatively well-endowed with forests, also obtain the
bulk of their imports from other regions.
It is difficult to summarise international trade flows in wood products,
which vary from product to product. Among the more important flows in
1997 were the following:
•
Coniferous industrial roundwood: intra-Europe; North America to East
Asia; former USSR to East Asia and Europe; Other Asia-Pacific (New
Zealand) to East Asia.
• Non-coniferous industrial roundwood: intra-Europe; former USSR to
Europe (Nordic countries); Other Asia-Pacific to East Asia; Africa to
Europe and East Asia.
• Wood chips: Other Asia-Pacific (Australia) to East Asia; North America to
East Asia; Latin America to East Asia.
• Sawn softwood: intra-North America; intra-Europe; North America to East
Asia; former USSR to Europe.
• Sawn hardwood: intra-Europe; intra-Other Asia-Pacific; Other Asia-Pacific
to East Asia; intra-North America.
• Plywood: other East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia) to East Asia; intra-Other
Asia-Pacific; intra-Europe.
• Particle board (including OSB): intra-Europe; intra-North America.
• Compressed fibreboard (hardboard and MDF): intra-Europe.
• Bleached sulphate woodpulp: intra-Europe; intra-North America; North
America to Europe and East Asia; Latin America to Europe and East Asia.
• Waste (recovered) paper: intra-Europe; North America to Asia; intraNorth America.
• Newsprint: intra-North America; intra-Europe; North America to East Asia.
• Printing and writing paper; intra-Europe; intra-North America; Europe
to Other Asia-Pacific; intra-East Asia.
• Other paper and paperboard: intra-Europe; intra-East Asia; intra-North
America; North America to East Asia and Europe.
Important changes have occurred in the pattern of trade flows over the
past two or three decades, resulting from the opening up of new forest areas,
including plantations, the over-exploitation of others, the building of new
wood-processing capacities, as well as changes in import demand. For wood
products as a whole, the value of world trade increased by 186% between
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
1983 and 1997. Trade flows that expanded faster than that were intra-Europe
and intra-Asia-Pacific (i.e. East Asia and Other Asia-Pacific regions combined).
Those that expanded more slowly than the world average included intraNorth America and North American exports to Asia-Pacific and Europe.
Trends are, however, dependent on the varying conditions affecting individual wood products. For example, the decline in North American exports
of coniferous industrial roundwood to East Asia was the result of logging
restrictions, which was offset by increased East Asian imports from the
former USSR, New Zealand and Chile. Another example is the decline of
non-coniferous industrial roundwood from some traditional West African
and South-East Asian countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Philippines, Indonesia), as a
result of resource depletion or export bans, partly made good by supplies
from other exporters, notably Papua New Guinea. Plywood is another
product which has experienced major shifts in trade flows affecting more
the exporting than the importing countries. Whereas in the 1970s, South
Korea and the province of Taiwan, both in-transit processors, were the
leading exporters, they had been replaced by the 1990s by Indonesia and
Malaysia.
The development of new products has resulted in new trade flows, for
example the growth of Canadian exports of OSB to the USA, and of intraEuropean trade in MDF. The establishment of plantations and woodprocessing facilities, for instance in Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, Indonesia
and Ireland, has allowed new trade flows to emerge in such products as
woodpulp, sawn softwood, chips and wood-based panels. Economic expansion and the opening up of hitherto restricted markets has resulted in marked
import growth in some countries, notably into China from suppliers around
the Pacific Rim.
The major players
Between the forest and the ultimate consumer there may be many stages in
handling, transforming, transporting and utilising the tree. Between the
stages there may be changes in ownership of the wood raw material or
product. The number of stages varies according to the degree of sophistication of the final product and the distance between the forest and the consumer. The flow path may or may not involve international trade. The growth
in international trade in wood products in past decades has been made
possible to a considerable extent by advances in transport and handling
technology, such as packaging, containerisation and roll-on roll-off ferries.
There has also been the development of specialised carriers such as container ships and bulk carriers for maritime transport. While there is still
movement by floating (of logs) and barge on inland waterways, road and rail
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now account for the bulk of overland transport between countries. The
number of companies involved in international trade in wood products is
still very large, but the increasingly rapid changes in trading practices and
intensifying competition have resulted in many going out of business or
merging into larger and fewer businesses. In most countries business is
conducted by privately owned (family) or joint stock companies; in a few,
such as Japan and South Korea, the bulk of trade is in the hands of general
trading houses; while in countries in transition towards market economies
there are still State-owned trading organisations, although private businesses
also now exist.
The major trading nations may be divided into four groups:
1
Those that are important as both importers and exporters,
although their imports are larger than exports: the USA, Germany,
France. These countries accounted for a quarter of world exports
of wood products in 1997 and a slightly larger proportion of
imports.
2 Major net exporting countries: Canada, Finland, Sweden, Indonesia, Malaysia, Austria, Russian Federation, Brazil. These countries
accounted for 47% of world exports in 1997, but only 8% of
imports.
3 Major net importing countries: Japan, China, United Kingdom, Italy,
Netherlands, South Korea.Their share of world imports in 1997 was
38%, and of exports 10%.
4 Other trading countries that are of particular interest as exporters
or importers or both: Australia, Chile, New Zealand, Mexico,
Portugal, South Africa, Thailand. Between them, they accounted
for about 5% of world exports and imports in 1997. A number of
other countries in the ‘Top 20’ list of exporters or importers could
also be mentioned, whose trading characteristics are similar in
many respects to those covered under 2 or 3 above: Belgium–
Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Switzerland.
Each country has its own trading pattern, determined by the nature and
extent of its forest resources, the capacity and technological development
of its wood-processing industries, the size of its population and its standards
of living, and other factors.
Influences on wood products markets and trade
The usefulness of price data depends to a large extent on how precise they
are as regards product specification, and each country tends to have its own
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
grading system. This, and the need to adjust current prices to take account
of inflation and to convert prices to a common currency, makes it difficult
to develop comparable price series. As a result, opinions differ as to the longterm trend in prices for wood products; some consider that there has been
a long-term rising trend, others that there is no evidence for a significant
change in prices in recent decades. Changes in exchange rates can have a
considerable impact on the competitiveness of wood products entering
international trade, at least in the short term.
In developed countries, most tariffs are generally quite low and have
only a limited impact on the volume of trade. Those in developing countries
are mostly higher, but everywhere there has been a lowering of tariffs as a
result of international negotiations, notably the GATT Uruguay Round concluded in 1994. A feature of many countries’ schedules is tariff escalation,
with those on wood raw material low or non-existent, becoming progressively higher with the degree of processing. In addition to tariffs, there is a
wide range of rules and regulations that may impede trade, which include
health and technical standards and measures that influence prices. Their
impact on trade is more difficult to assess than tariffs. Among the measures
which have most impact on trade in wood products are: quantitative restrictions on imports; technical standards and plant health standards; other measures imposed by importing countries; and export restrictions. There are also
impediments to trade, frequently imposed for environmental reasons, which
include: bans and boycotts; certification and labelling; and international environmental regulations.
For better or worse, globalisation is here to stay. The capacity of a
country and its peoples to benefit from globalisation is linked to their ability
to innovate technology or adopt it from elsewhere and appears to be a major
factor leading to the widening gap between rich and poor countries. For the
moment it does not seem to be affecting the forest sector and international
trade in wood products very much, at least directly, partly because the scale
of corporations in the sector is not large compared with some other sectors.
This, however, is changing as some US and European wood products companies indulge in trans-national mergers. Almost all countries have been
involved in regional integration in one way or another, seeking to benefit
from the lowering of internal tariffs and non-tariff barriers and strengthening of economic development. Well-established examples include the
European Union, NAFTA, ASEAN and Mercosur. It is not yet clear what
impacts regional integration is having on the volume and pattern of trade in
wood products. One effect seems to be to stimulate specialisation in production, leading to increased two-way trade, for example in certain woodbased panels and paper and paperboard within the EU.
There are many governmental organisations and a great many more nongovernmental organisations which are involved in one way or another in the
269
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
forest and wood products sector. Among the former, which have mandates
covering international trade in wood products at the global level, are FAO,
the World Bank, WTO, ITTO and the UNCTAD/WTO International Trade
Centre; and at the regional level ASEAN, NAFTA, UN-ECE and the EU. Others
deal with the forest and wood products sector either within a broader framework or on an ad hoc basis. Among the thousands of NGOs there are those
representing sectoral interests and those with concerns for the environment.
In addition there are many international and national research institutions
and think-tanks, which give special attention to wood products trade and
markets.
Trade and the environment
Deforestation in the temperate regions has been taking place for thousands
of years and is still occurring in a few places, although the total forest area in
temperate and boreal regions has been expanding slightly for some time. In
the tropical regions deforestation and forest degradation have become widespread only in the second half of the twentieth century and by the 1990s
deforestation was running at an estimated rate of 12.6 million ha a year. The
causes have been mainly socio-economic, led by the needs for more land for
agriculture and for more trees to be cut for fuelwood. The role of commercial
logging is controversial: removals of industrial wood in tropical countries are
about 20% of total removals, and exports of wood products originating from
the natural tropical forest are equivalent to a quarter of industrial wood
removals, which implies that commercial exploitation for export has played
only a small part in tropical deforestation. On the other hand, logging involves
damage to the remaining trees, disturbance to the environment and the
opening up of the forest to colonisers, who carry on the process of clearance
and burning.The destruction of tropical forest is also contributing to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, even if its share is small
compared to that of the burning of fossil fuels.
Plantations have been increasing in both the temperate and tropical
regions, although their area is only a small part of the total forest area. On
the other hand, they are contributing a proportionately much greater share
to total production of industrial wood, and this share will increase as that of
removals from the natural forest declines. Environmentally speaking, plantations may help to relieve pressure on the natural forest, even if the quality
of wood from them is inferior to that from natural forest; on the other hand,
to maintain them as high-yielding monocultures over several rotations is
probably not possible without the application of fertilisers and pesticides.
In this respect they resemble agricultural crops more closely than they do
270
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
forest, and need to be judged as such from the sustainable management and
biodiversity points of view.
The Brundtland Report Our Common Future (World Commission on
Environment and Development) and the UNCED in 1992 stimulated efforts
to expand greatly the area of forest under sustainable management. Various
processes covering different parts of the world have introduced principles,
criteria and indicators for SFM. Forest certification is being applied, not
without a good deal of controversy, to a gradually increasing but still quite
small area of the world’s forests, and with it certification of wood products
along the chain-of-custody from forest to consumer. Despite a slow start in
finding markets for certified forest products, an increasing number of forest
owners and wood-processing industries are committing themselves to certification in the belief that it may help them to gain access to new niche
markets and promote their company’s environmental image.
Waste materials and their recycling have become major environmental
issues. Recycled wood residues and waste paper are increasingly important
sources of raw material for the wood-processing industries and for energy.
In developed countries between 40 and 50% of all paper and paperboard
used is recovered. There is still potential in those countries, and even more
in developing countries to raise the recovery rate further. Several countries
that are poorly endowed with forest (and therefore net importers of wood
products) have large paper-making industries partly based on waste paper
and export paper and paperboard. Legislation in some countries regarding the recovery and use of waste paper has resulted in a number of exporting countries having to import waste paper in order to comply with the
waste paper content regulations. Greater use of waste paper has also had a
negative impact on the demand for small-sized wood (pulpwood) and on the
profitability of forestry.
The tremendous growth in the use of fossil fuels during the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries has been accompanied by a marked rise in CO2
concentrations in the atmosphere and growing fears about the likelihood
of global warming. Wood’s present contribution to global energy supply is
estimated at 7%, a large part of it being in the form of fuelwood used in the
developing regions. The burning of wood for energy production is generally
considered to be neutral so far as its impact on the environment is concerned, because the main emission is CO2, which is taken back into biomass
from the atmosphere in the process of photosynthesis. Furthermore, wood
comes from a renewable resource. Apart from wood’s potential as one of the
alternative sources of energy (to fossil fuels), there is also the possibility that
the role of forests and wood products as carbon storages could be expanded
by the establishment of large areas of plantations and increased use of wood
in long-lasting applications such as construction.
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THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
The outlook
A multiplicity of views
There is in fact no single outlook; there are many, which vary according to
the assumptions and methodologies of the experts making the projections
or forecasts. And who is to judge which outlook is the most ‘realistic’? The
starting point for most outlook studies on the forest and wood products
sector is the forecasts by demographic specialists on population changes and
by economists on the development of the economy, as expressed by Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). Assumptions also have to be made about the future
trends in real prices of wood products. In many models it is assumed that
prices will remain constant; the impact of different assumptions about prices
on the basic projections can be tested by means of sensitivity analysis. More
sophisticated models may incorporate other explanatory variables, such as
assumptions about the future trends in construction or more specifically new
dwelling construction, or manufacturing or in particular furniture manufacture, or literacy levels. The assumptions may be tested by correlating historical trends in consumption of wood products with those of possible
explanatory variables. The problem is often to obtain enough reliable and
comparable national time series of suitable variables, hence the tendency in
global projections to fall back on the most general variables, namely GDP
and population.
FAO’s Forestry Department has been the lead agency in much of the
work on outlook studies in the forest and wood products sector. Recent
studies at the world level have included the Global Fibre Outlook Study (FAO
1998a) and the Global Forest Products Outlook Study (Zhu et al. 1998); and
at the regional level the Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study (FAO
1998b). Also at the regional level, the UN Economic Commission for Europe,
in cooperation with FAO, has carried out a series of European Timber Trends
and Prospects Studies (ETTS), the first of which was published in 1953 (ETTS
I), a path-breaking effort, and the fifth and latest (ETTS V) in 1996 (UNECE/FAO). It is interesting to follow the development of the ETTS series, not
least to observe the increasingly sophisticated methodologies employed as
modelling experience was gained and the advent of computers increased
enormously the possibilities for dealing with complex calculations.
Outlook for consumption of wood products
A common feature of all the international-level studies on the forest and
wood products sector has been that they assume a positive correlation
between economic growth and consumption of wood products. As eco272
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
nomic studies have up to now forecast continuing expansion of GDP, even
in per capita terms, the result has been projections of the consumption of
wood products increasing at the national, regional and global levels (Fig.
10.1, Table 10.1).
World consumption of sawnwood in 1994, the base year for the projections, was lower than in 1980, principally due to the steep fall in consumption in the former USSR after the break-up of the USSR at the beginning
of the 1990s and the virtual collapse of the economies of the CIS countries
during the initial phase of transition from planned to market economies.
There was the assumption that their economies would begin to recover after
1994, leading to a projected consumption of sawnwood 46% higher in 2010
than in 1994, although still less than half the pre-transition period level. Similarly, sharp falls in the consumption of wood-based panels and paper and
paperboard in the former USSR after 1990 were projected to be followed by
recovery after 1994, in the case of wood-based panels to a level in 2010
higher than in 1980.
World consumption of sawnwood is projected to be 20% higher in 2010
than in 1994, an increase of slightly more than 1% a year. This growth is well
below the expected rate of growth of GDP and also somewhat below the
rate of population expansion, meaning that average world per capita consumption of sawnwood may decline a little. The projected consumption of
sawnwood in 2010 of 498 million m3 is barely higher than the record level
of consumption in 1988. Below average growth rates are expected in North
America and Europe, above average rates in East Asia and Other Asia-Pacific,
as well as in the former USSR. It is possible that the serious financial hiccoughs in some Asian countries in 1997/98, and the measures taken to
correct them, may affect their long-term economic prospects, and hence the
600
Million units
500
400
300
200
100
0
1980
1990
Sawnwood
(m3)
2000
Wood-based panels
(m3)
2010
Paper & paperboard (mt)
10.1 Trends and projections of world consumption of wood products by main
product groups, 1980–2010 (source: Zhu et al. 1998) (historical data adjusted to
be consistent with projection data).
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THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 10.1 Trends and projections of consumption of wood products by region and main
product groups, 1980–2010
Actual
1980
Projections
1994
2000
2005
2010
(million units)
Sawnwood (m3)
WORLD
North America
Europe
Former USSR
East Asia
Other Asia-Pacific
Africa
Latin America
Increase
1980 to 1994
1994 to 2010
(%)
429.4
117.8
81.8
94.3
66.6
32.7
9.9
26.2
415.3
143.4
92.2
27.5
68.4
45.4
9.0
29.3
446.5
150.0
96.9
33.7
74.9
50.2
9.6
31.2
471.8
155.8
101.4
36.8
80.4
54.2
10.2
33.0
498.3
161.6
106.1
40.1
86.4
58.5
10.8
35.0
-3
22
13
-71
3
39
-9
12
20
13
15
46
26
29
20
19
Wood-based panels (m3)
WORLD
88.0
North America
31.1
Europe
23.8
Former USSR
9.8
East Asia
12.9
Other Asia-Pacific
4.7
Africa
1.6
Latin America
4.2
125.4
39.4
39.4
4.4
27.4
8.4
1.5
5.0
144.5
43.7
44.4
7.1
31.8
10.0
1.8
5.7
161.0
47.6
49.3
8.6
35.7
11.4
2.0
6.3
179.1
51.9
54.7
10.5
39.5
12.9
2.4
7.2
42
27
66
-56
113
79
-10
20
43
32
39
141
44
54
60
43
Paper and paperboard (mt)
WORLD
156.8
North America
64.8
Europe
37.0
Former USSR
8.6
East Asia
27.4
Other Asia-Pacific
6.8
Africa
2.5
Latin America
9.7
265.9
91.5
70.9
2.9
66.2
16.8
3.6
14.1
308.3
104.8
80.5
4.1
79.2
19.9
4.2
15.6
348.0
114.9
90.5
5.1
92.9
22.9
4.7
17.1
391.0
126.2
101.7
6.4
106.4
26.4
5.2
18.7
70
41
92
-67
141
145
49
45
47
38
43
124
61
57
43
33
Sources: Adapted from Zhu et al. 1998
strength of the growth in consumption of wood products. The possibility of
the unexpected happening should put the users of forecasts and projections
on their guard. The same warning would have applied to forecasts for the
former USSR made before 1990.
World consumption of wood-based panels and paper and paperboard is
projected to reach 179 million m3 and 391 million tonnes respectively by
2010, having risen at twice the rate of that of sawnwood between 1994 and
2010. Average world growth rates may be below that of GDP but a little
274
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
higher than that of population, leading to a modest rise in per capita consumption. As for sawnwood, the rate of growth in consumption in North
America and Europe is slightly below the world average; it is appreciably
higher, in the case of wood-based panels, in the former USSR, Other AsiaPacific and Africa, and in the case of paper and paperboard in East Asia and
Other Asia-Pacific. Again, it is difficult to say yet whether the financial turmoil
in parts of Asia in the late 1990s will have affected the long-term outlook
there.
Sawnwood, wood-based panels and paper and paperboard make up the
bulk of the wood products obtained from industrial wood. Converting their
consumption in 1994 and 2010, as shown in Table 10.1, into the equivalent
volume of wood in the rough (m3 EQ), the volume needed for their manufacture is predicted to rise by about 36% over the 16-year period, or an
average of 42 million m3 EQ a year. This may be compared with the forecasts
of the consumption of industrial wood in Table 10.2 and Fig. 10.2.
Comparison of consumption projections
World consumption of industrial wood, that is wood harvested from the
forest for industrial use, is projected, according to the same source as in
Table 10.2
2020
Comparison of projections of world consumption of industrial wood to
1990
(actual)
Source
Simons
FAO
Sedjo & Lyon
Apsey & Reed
Jaakko Pöyry
Nilsson
Brooks in Solberg (ed)a
Brooks in Solberg (ed)b
Brooks in Solberg (ed)c
Zhu et al.
Year of
publication
1995
2000
2010
2020
2.15
2.28
1.97
1.94
1.70
1.89
1.84
2.09
2.03
1.88
2.55
..
2.14
2.25
..
2.00
1.87
2.33
2.16
..
(billion m3)
1994
1995
1995
1995
1995
1996
1996
1996
1996
1998
1.71
1.74
1.74
1.66
1.73
1.73
1.73
1.47d
a
Assumption: low GDP growth; 0.5% annual price increase
Assumption: high GDP growth, zero annual price increase
c
Assumption: average world per capita consumption remains constant
d
1994 (actual)
Sources: Brooks in Solberg (ed) 1996; Zhu et al. 1998
b
275
1.90
1.81
1.79
1.50
1.73
1.73
1.81
1.89
1.67
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
2.5
Billion m3
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
1980
1990
Actual
2000
Brooks(1)
2010
Brooks(2)
2020
Mean
10.2 Trend and projections of world consumption of industrial wood, 1980–2020
(source: Brooks in Solberg (ed) 1996).
Table 10.1 (Zhu et al. 1998), to increase by 28% between 1994 and 2010,
or 26 million m3 EQ a year. This is the most recent of the projections shown
in Table 10.2 and uses 1994 as base year; it takes into account developments
in the early 1990s, notably the drop in supply and consumption of industrial
wood in the former USSR. The other projections may also do so, although
their base year is usually 1990.
The projections are not directly comparable, since each is based on its
own assumptions and employs its own methodology. For example, Sedjo and
Lyon (1990) use a global timber supply model with an optimal control
method to determine the timing and location of harvests and investment in
forest management. Industrial wood production and forest management
respond to changes in demand, and the magnitude of the response in harvest
in the short run and management intensification in the long run affects the
price of wood. The result of the base scenario is an equilibrium-based forecast of modest price increases; an alternative scenario with faster growth in
demand and constrained supply from traditional sources leads to strong
expansion of the area of plantations and a rise in harvest from those sources,
resulting in constant real prices for industrial wood. Apsey and Reed (1995)
assume that demand for industrial wood will increase at a rate of 1.5% a year,
and focus their analysis on an assessment of wood supply. Their projected
demand exceeds supply, resulting in a ‘gap’. In practice, gaps do not materialise; the magnitude of any hypothetical gap is used to indicate the severity of possible dislocations in markets and the likelihood of pressures to
change policies. The closing of the gap would be achieved by a combination
of higher prices and reduced demand, substitution by other products and
higher production.
Nilsson’s ‘mainstream’ outlook produces an even larger gap than Apsey
and Reed’s, but his ‘non-mainstream’ forecast, the one shown in Table 10.2,
276
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
is of demand increasing at a much slower rate, with supply roughly in
balance with demand (1996). Slow growth in markets in developed countries, and significantly lower income elasticities of demand for developing
countries, result in world demand for wood products increasing at less than
1% a year.
Brooks et al. in Solberg (ed) (1996) produced six scenarios of consumption of industrial wood based on combinations of assumptions regarding GDP growth and prices. The one producing the least growth in
consumption of industrial wood was based on the assumption of lower
growth in GDP and a price increase of 0.5% a year; the one with highest
growth was based on the assumption of higher GDP growth and zero price
increases. These two are shown in Table 10.2 as well as a further projection
based purely on the assumption that per capita consumption of industrial
wood would remain constant over the projection period. The lowest and
highest of these projections by Brooks et al., together with the mean of the
projections shown in Table 10.2, are presented in Fig. 10.2.
The common feature of all the forecasts is that consumption of industrial wood is expected to continue rising in the coming few decades. Where
they differ is in the likely rate of growth and the extent to which supply will
remain in equilibrium with demand. In cases where a hypothetical gap
emerges, the adjustment process is expected to be accompanied by price
increases. Perhaps the finding of the FAO 1998a study comes nearest to a
compromise position in forecasting that, globally, supply and demand for
industrial wood may remain in reasonable balance in the next decade or so,
although imbalances are likely to arise at local and regional level. Shifts in
trade patterns can in consequence be expected.
The projections of growth in consumption of industrial wood in total
are appreciably less than the projected expansion of the main wood products groups in terms of m3 EQ (the example of the Zhu et al. projections
was given above). The explanation lies in the increasingly important role of
industrial wood residues and waste paper in augmenting the raw material
supply to industry. Data are not available on a world level of the volumes
involved, but those for Europe may be taken as an example (Table 10.3, Fig.
10.3).
The figures of European removals and total supply include fuelwood,
but this does alter the general picture, which is that the share of removals
in total supply is expected to decline from 69% in 1990 to 56% in 2020
according to the low growth scenario or 52% according to the high growth
scenario. Over the same period, the share of waste paper is forecast to rise
considerably – from 13 to 21 or 22%; and of industrial residues slightly from
8 to 9%. Europe’s net imports are also forecast to increase their share of total
supply from 10% in 1990 to 15 or 17% by 2020. It needs to be pointed out
that the forecasts of net trade are obtained as a residual figure from the
277
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Table 10.3 Relative importance of different components of wood and fibre supply in Europe
(including Baltic states), 1990 and 2020 (low and high forecasts)
Volume
1990
2020 (low)
Share of total
2020 (high)
1990
2020 (low)
(million m3 EQ)
2020 (high)
(%)
European removals
Industrial residues
Waste paper
Net imports
392
47
72
55
480
74
178
130
489
80
206
164
69
8
13
10
56
9
21
15
52
9
22
17
TOTAL
566
862
939
100
100
100
Source: UN-ECE/FAO 1996
Net
imports
15.1%
Net
imports
9.7%
Waste
paper
12.7%
Waste
paper
20.6%
Industrial
residues
8.3%
1990
European
removals
69.3%
Industrial
residues
8.6%
European
removals
55.7%
2020 (low)
10.3 Relative importance of different components of wood and fibre supply in
Europe, 1990 and 2020 (low forecast) (source: UN-ECE/FAO 1996).
difference between the forecasts of consumption and production. They
therefore represent an indication of a hypothetical gap as much as a forecast
of import requirements. The gap could be closed either by increasing
imports or by raising domestic supply (removals or recycling) or by reducing consumption. In fact, a strong rise in net imports, as indicated in Table
10.3, would be a change in trend compared with recent decades, during
which Europe’s net imports appear to have been rather stable, even with a
slight tendency to decrease. At the same time, the potential to raise supply
from Europe’s forests, as well as from recycling, has become more apparent.
Although not all modellers might agree, there appear to be greater difficulties in producing quantitative projections or forecasts for trade, and even
278
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
for production, that can be considered ‘reasonable’, than for consumption
or demand. We shall revert to the outlook for trade later.
Outlook for production of industrial wood
In the early 1990s, the area of productive forest, which is more or less synonymous with forest available for wood supply, was estimated at 2.9 billion
ha (Brooks et al. in Solberg (ed) 1996). Of this, only a minor part, about 500
million ha or less than 20%, was considered to be managed. More than 60%
of the production (removals) of industrial wood, however, took place in that
area (Fig. 10.4). The remaining area, consisting predominantly of unmanaged
or extensively managed natural forest in both tropical and temperate and
boreal regions, covered 2.4 billion ha (over 80%) and accounted for less than
40% of production. Harvesting intensity was, in consequence, far higher in
the managed forests than in the others, averaging 2 m3/ha/year on the former
and only 0.3 m3/ha/year on the latter.
In assessing prospects for industrial wood production, Brooks et al. (in
Solberg (ed) 1996) distinguish between five different categories of productive forest according to their ownership and management status:
M5 Forests owned by forest industries in 16 temperate/boreal countries (see below). For some countries, this includes plantations of
fast-growing, exotic species and native forests.
M4 Fast-growing plantations in the tropics; these are plantations, publicly or privately owned, established and managed for wood
production.
M3 Forests owned by private, non-industrial owners in 16 temperate/boreal countries. This includes fast-growing plantations in
some countries (e.g. Australia, Chile, New Zealand) and plantations of native species (e.g. in the USA, Nordic countries, Japan).
M2 Public forests in 16 temperate/boreal countries. This includes
both intensively-managed plantations and more extensivelymanaged forests of native species.
M1 This is calculated as a residual: total world area of productive
forest and industrial wood production less those in categories M5
to M2. It includes areas and production in both temperate/boreal
and tropical countries, and both publicly and privately owned
forests. Although there may be some intensively-managed forests
included in the area, harvesting is typically from extensivelymanaged natural forests.
The 16 temperate/boreal countries, for which ownership is used to
define management categories for M5, M3 and M2 are: Austria, Australia,
279
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
3000
2000
2000
Million m3
Million ha
2500
1500
1500
1000
1000
500
500
0
0
1995
2000
2010
2020
1995
2000
(a)
2010
2020
(b)
100
100
90
80
80
% of world total
% of world total
70
60
40
60
50
40
30
20
20
10
0
0
1995
2000 2010
(c)
2020
1995
2000
2010
2020
(d)
M1
M2
M3
M4
M5
(Categories: see text)
10.4 (a) Outlook for production of industrial wood: Trend in area of productive
forest by management categories, 1995–2020: Scenario I. (b) Trend in production
of industrial wood by management categories, 1995–2020: Scenario I. (c) Share of
area of productive forest by management categories, 1995–2020: Scenario I. (d)
Share of production of industrial wood by management categories, 1995–2020:
Scenario I (source: Brooks in Solberg (ed) 1996).
280
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Canada, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Norway,
Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and USA. They
account for roughly 60% of industrial wood production.
The estimates of area of productive forest and volume of harvest in 1995
in the five management categories and two scenarios for 2020 are set out in
Table 10.4. Scenario I illustrates some of the expectations expressed in
recent outlook studies. These include a decline in the area of extensivelymanaged natural forest available for wood production (M1), either as a result
of deforestation or an increase in the area removed from production in order
to provide non-wood goods and services, notably conservation and biodiversity. Harvesting intensity is assumed to increase in all categories: the
fastest increase for fast-growing plantations (M5 and M4), as larger areas
reach maturity; the slowest for extensively-managed forests (M1).
In Scenario II it is assumed that the rate of decline of forest area in category M1 (the main residual group) is slower than in Scenario I, while the
rate of increase in category M4 (fast-growing plantations in the tropics) is
higher. In both scenarios, the area of forest in categories M3 (forests owned
by private, non-industrial owners in 16 temperate/boreal countries) and M4
(public forests in 16 temperate/boreal countries) is expected to decline; and
harvesting intensity in all categories of forest is expected to increase (Fig.
10.5 compares those in Scenario I for 2020 with 1995). Compared with
1995, the estimate of world production of industrial wood in 2020 is 25%
higher in Scenario I at 1.98 billion m3, and 44% higher in Scenario II at 2.28
billion m3.
Table 10.4 Scenarios for the production of industrial wood according to forest management categories in 2020
Categorya
Unit
M5
M4
M3
M2
M1
Total
1995
Productive forest area
Industrial wood production
Harvesting intensity
million ha
million m3
m3/ha/year
43
196
4.56
23
65
2.83
217
419
1.93
218
307
1.41
2407
592
0.25
2908
1579
0.54
2020 – Scenario I
Productive forest area
Industrial wood production
Harvesting intensity
million ha
million m3
m3/ha/year
48
264
5.50
35
210
6.00
200
500
2.50
150
300
2.00
2019
707
0.35
2452
1981
0.81
2020 – Scenario II
Productive forest area
Industrial wood production
Harvesting intensity
million ha
million m3
m3/ha/year
48
288
6.00
50
300
6.00
200
600
3.00
150
338
2.25
2150
753
0.35
2598
2278
0.88
a
See description of forest categories in text
Source: Brooks in Solberg (ed) 1996
281
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
7
6
m3/ha/year
5
4
3
2
1
0
M5
M4
M3
1995
M2
M1
World
2020 (Scenario I)
(Categories: see text)
10.5 Harvesting intensity by categories of productive forest, 1995 and 2020:
Scenario I (source: Brooks in Solberg (ed) 1996).
Time will tell how ‘realistic’ these scenarios prove to be. It can be noted
that they fall within the range of consumption forecasts presented earlier,
which says nothing about their acceptability, but does lead to the conclusion that there is no evidence of any marked imbalance arising between
supply and demand of industrial wood at the global level in the next decade
or two.
In that respect, quite a lot hinges on the development of fast-growing
plantations, not only in the tropics (category M4 as described above), but
also in other categories, especially M5, M3 and M2. The assumption is that
production in such plantations will average 6 m3/ha/year by 2020. This is
appreciably less than the net annual increment (NAI) currently achieved in
many plantations. For example, the NAI in New Zealand’s radiata pine plantations averages 18 m3/ha/year (UN-ECE/FAO Forest Resources of Europe
2000), while some eucalyptus plantations in Brazil reportedly achieve an NAI
of over 50 m3/ha/year. After allowing for harvesting losses, bark percentages
and so on, the actual volume harvestable from such plantations is very much
less than the NAI. Nevertheless, there is tremendous potential for raising
production per hectare through the intensification of forest management.
Theoretically, the current world demand for industrial wood could be met
entirely from 120 million ha of plantations, or not even 5% of the present
area of productive forests, if their average yield was 15 m3/ha/year. That
would allow much of the remaining area of natural forests, and even those
282
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
already under management, to be put aside for non-wood production purposes, if that was felt desirable for environmental and social reasons. It will
not happen like this, of course. Apart from anything else, it would cause an
unacceptable breakdown of the existing world distribution of industrial production capacities, international trade and distribution systems. But this
hypothetical scenario does demonstrate the untapped potential that exists
to increase industrial wood production, if the need arose, by the intensification of forest management, and without jeopardising the principles of sustainability. In a different way, there would also be potential to produce in
a more concentrated fashion the world’s needs for fuelwood, although
this would require the establishment of plantations in proximity to local
communities.
Outlook for fuelwood
Fuelwood accounts for roughly half the volume of world roundwood
removals and as much as four-fifths of those in the developing regions.
Sources and markets for fuelwood, where they exist at all, are often quite
distinct from those for industrial wood, and with certain exceptions, there
is not serious competition between fuelwood and small-sized industrial
wood. Nevertheless, demand for fuelwood is one of the factors causing
tropical deforestation, especially in the drier, less well forested regions, and
demand and availability of it need to be taken into account in global assessments of the overall wood supply–demand balance.
Scientific forecasting of fuelwood demand is hampered by the unreliability of data. Many forecasts have assumed a continuation of past upward
trends. Brooks et al. (in Solberg (ed), 1996), however, use an assumption
that with rising personal incomes, people in developing countries will exercise their preference for more ‘convenient’ fuels. The consequence would be
that with higher rates of economic growth the switch to those fuels, i.e.
fossil fuels and electricity, would be faster than with slower economic
growth. Increasing urbanisation in the developing world would also contribute to that trend. The result is given in Fig. 10.6, which also includes a
projection of what would happen if per capita consumption levels at the
world level remained constant in the future.
According to these projections, fuelwood consumption would be 8–
13% higher in 2020 than in 1990 or, if per capita consumption were to
remain constant, 52% higher. In terms of wood raw material equivalent, fuelwood will remain the single most important use of wood, even if by 2020
it is likely to account for less than half the total at the world level, compared
with 51% in 1990.
283
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
3
2.5
Billion m3
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
1990
2000
Lower GDP growth
2010
Higher GDP growth
2020
Constant per capita
10.6 Forecasts of world fuelwood consumption, 1990–2020 (source: Brooks in
Solberg (ed) 1996).
The Asia-Pacific region
One of the greater uncertainties regarding the outlook for wood products is
the course of future demographic and economic developments in the AsiaPacific region. About 55% of the world’s population live in the countries of
this region which, however, account for not much more than one-quarter
of world GDP, with Japan alone taking more than half of the region’s share.
Even if the growth rate of population slows down, as expected, and even if
the rate of expansion of GDP is slower than the strong rate achieved before
the financial difficulties in some countries in the late 1990s, the region’s
importance in the world market for wood products is likely to grow. This
also takes into account the expectation that consumption in the two largest
markets, North America and Europe, will increase more slowly than the
world average.
The projections of consumption in Tables 10.5 and 10.6 are taken from
a recent FAO study of the Asia-Pacific region (FAO 1998b) which, it should
be noted, does not include the countries of western Asia. For all three main
groups of wood products, sawnwood, wood-based panels and paper and
paperboard, consumption in Asia-Pacific is projected to increase more
strongly than in the rest of the world on average, especially in the case of
paper and paperboard. Asia-Pacific may consume one-third of the world
market for the latter products by 2010. Given the considerable importance
of countries such as Japan, China and South Korea as importers of wood
products and the fact that their potential to raise domestic supplies of industrial wood is limited, it is probable that growth in consumption will have to
be met largely by increased imports.
284
285
142.4
51.0
131.0
298.6
91.0
184.9
356.0
128.1
260.0
2010
27
47
61
Asia-Pacific
(%)
19
41
41
Rest of world
27.2
27.5
30.6
1994
57.0
37.6
24.6
23.1
Volume
(million m3)
18
38
27
38
Increase
1994–2010
(%)
Sawnwood
40.0
26.4
17.3
16.2
Share of
total
(%)
26.6
16.0
0.9
7.5
Volume
(million m3)
34
64
49
72
Increase
1994–2010
(%)
Wood-based panels
52.2
31.4
1.8
14.7
Share of
total
(%)
(%)
65.7
48.2
5.8
11.3
Volume
(million mt)
61
61
50
60
Increase
1994–2010
(%)
28.6
28.5
33.5
2010
50.2
36.8
4.4
8.6
Share of
total
(%)
Paper and paperboard
Projections of consumption of wood products by country groups in the Asia-Pacific region in 2010 and change from 1994
111.7
34.6
81.5
1994
(million units)
2010
Increase 1994–2010
Share of AsiaPacific in
world total
b
Advanced and newly industrialised countries: Australia, Japan, New Zealand; Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, South Korea,Taiwan province of China
China (excl. Hong Kong and Taiwan), Mongolia, North Korea
c
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
d
South-east Asia and Pacific Islands: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand; Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa,
Solomon Islands,Tonga,Vanuatu
Source: FAO 1998b
a
ANICsa
North Asiab
South Asiac
SEAPIsd
Table 10.6
Excluding western Asia
Source: FAO 1998b
a
m
m3
mt
3
Unit
1994
Asia-Pacific
Rest of
the world
Projections of consumption of wood products in the Asia-Pacific regiona and in the rest of the world in 2010 and change from 1994
Sawnwood
Wood-based panels
Paper & paperboard
Table 10.5
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Among the findings in the FAO study that are relevant to the outlook
for trade are the following:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
A major area of uncertainty is the outlook for supply from the
Russian Far East.
Another uncertainty lies in the prospects for economic development in two of the major economies of the region, China and
India.
The Asia-Pacific region will increase its dependence on imports for
all industrial wood products.
Asia-Pacific will become a net importer of wood-based panels; up
to now it has been a net exporter.
By 2010, Asia-Pacific consumption of sawnwood will be second
only to that in North America.
There is a very large latent demand for paper, which could be transformed into real demand, particularly if economic growth accelerates in key countries such as India.
The Asia-Pacific region will remain heavily dependent on trade to
balance national and regional shortfalls.
General findings
The varying perspectives on the outlook for the supply and demand of wood
and its products, which were referred to earlier in this chapter, lead to a
number of broad conclusions (Peck et al. in Solberg (ed) 1996):
1
Global demand for wood, both industrial wood and fuelwood,
will continue to rise for the foreseeable future, although probably
at a slow rate. It is difficult to visualise the upward trend in
demand being reversed for wood in total, as long as populations
and economies continue to expand, although it could happen
for particular assortments, such as fuelwood, or in particular
regions, such as those with already high per capita consumption
levels.
2 The environmental pressures that are leading to the partial or total
withdrawal of some ‘natural’ or ‘old-growth’ forests from wood
production in several regions will reduce the availability of wood
from these forests, notably of the higher value assortments,
such as sawlogs and veneer logs. A considerable portion of the
286
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
3
4
5
6
7
forests that will remain available for wood production will become
subject to stricter controls on silvicultural and harvesting operations than those of today and/or will become less accessible for harvesting.
The increased wealth and well-being of society will have associated
with it an increase in the demand for functions of the forest other
than the production of wood, such as recreation, nature conservation and wilderness. This will be associated with measures to apply
sustainable forest management systems as widely as possible and to
ensure, through certification, that products sold on the market
come from such sources.
Despite a declining area of forest available for wood supply, the
potential physical availability of wood fibre globally appears to be
adequate to meet future demand. With changing patterns of the
sources of wood supply as well as of the consumption centres of
processed forest products, international trade in these products
will become an increasingly important element in the global
supply–demand balance. For fuelwood and other low value products, however, trade is not an economic option, and a critical
supply situation may arise in certain regions, such as the drier, less
well forested areas of the tropics with large populations living
below the poverty line, who will remain heavily dependent on
wood for heating and cooking.
The trend will continue for the production (removals) of industrial
wood to be increasingly concentrated on sites where intensification of management is feasible and acceptable; and for a growing
share of production to come from the private sector. This will result
in an increasing share of total industrial wood coming from plantations and other high-productivity forests. Improved and more
widely applied silviculture will raise yields in existing production
forests, although this may be partly offset by the move, for environmental and social reasons, to grow a greater mixture of species
and to restore or introduce continuous-cover silvicultural systems.
On balance, it appears more likely that a modest increase in real
prices for industrial wood raw material will occur over the long
term than that they will remain stable, although the evidence for
such an expectation is not conclusive. Increases may be more
noticeable in the case of the higher value sawlogs and veneer logs,
as their availability from traditional sources declines.
The recycling of wood residues and waste paper will continue to
expand faster than the demand for paper and paperboard-making
fibre in total.
287
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
Recent developments
The trends in the forest and wood products sector in general, and in trade
in particular, which have been described in previous chapters, and the
prospects offered by a number of experts, which have been outlined in this
chapter, are based on developments that have in some cases been superseded by more recent events. It has not been the intention of this book to
provide an up-to-the minute account of market developments, but rather to
look at them from a longer-term perspective. Nevertheless, in considering
the medium- to long-term outlook for the sector, there are a number of
recent, and not so recent, developments, which will or could have an impact
on the sector, including international trade in wood products, and which
may or may not have been taken into account in the outlook studies. Some
events are still unfolding; for others, the consequences are not yet clear.
Some of the more important ones are described in the following paragraphs.
•
•
•
Globalisation and its backlash. The events outside the WTO conference
in Seattle in December 1999, which were largely responsible for its
failure, have been followed by other demonstrations against the process
of globalisation. How this will affect the process, including the work of
and negotiations in such bodies as the WTO, World Bank and IMF, remains
to be seen. One effect might be to slow down the pace of trade liberalisation and encourage the forces of protectionism. On the positive side,
it could lead to greater attention being given to the social and environmental aspects of globalisation.
International politicisation of the forest and wood products sector.
Since UNCED in 1992, and even before, the sector has been receiving
ever-increasing attention from policy makers and legislators at the
national, regional and global levels, as well as from NGOs. This has been
both a good thing and a bad thing. On the positive side, efforts to bring
deforestation in the tropics and environmentally unfriendly forestry and
harvesting activities nearly everywhere under better control, and to have
the principles of sustainable forest management more generally applied,
are slowly, sometimes almost imperceptibly, being rewarded by results.
On the negative side, measures taken and legislation introduced, sometimes with the best intentions, may in practice have counter-productive
effects on the sector, for instance by creating non-tariff barriers or by
increasing costs and reducing competitiveness.
Political instability. It may be a false impression, but at the beginning of
the twenty-first century there seem to be more ‘trouble spots’ than ever
around the world. Particularly affected have been parts of Africa south of
the Sahara, the Balkans, some Asian and Middle East countries and the
Russian Federation (Chechnya). Strife, whether internal or international,
288
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
•
•
•
is bad for investment, economic development and trade, quite apart
from the social consequences and physical destruction of equipment,
or its deterioration due to lack of maintenance. Political instability may
also be accompanied by corruption, although the latter is not limited to
unstable regimes.
Monetary instability. The financial disturbances in several South-East
Asian countries in1997/98 had immediate effects on their economies and
foreign trade, as well as on their exchange rates, particularly that of
Indonesia. A similar problem affected the Russian Federation shortly afterwards. Although most have since been making good recoveries, the
events in South-East Asian countries and South Korea revealed certain
weaknesses in their financial systems, which may take considerable time
and effort to put right and which suggest that the ‘Asian economic
miracle’ of the 1990s was probably not sustainable and may be followed
by more restrained growth in the coming decade. Another problem, especially for many of the poorest developing countries, is the burden on
their economies created by the servicing of their foreign loans from both
the public and private sectors in developed countries. This problem was
discussed but not resolved at the Okinawa meeting of the G7 in summer
2000.
Prolonged economic growth in the United States. The United States has
been enjoying one of the longest periods of uninterrupted economic
expansion in its history, accompanied by low unemployment levels,
modest inflation, marked improvements in productivity, booming stock
markets and large import deficits. Accounting for about 17% of world
imports of wood products and 14% of exports, what happens in the
world’s leading economy is of international significance, especially to its
trading partners. Despite a series of interest rate increases in the months
up to mid-2000, there were some signs of a cooling of the economy.
Assuming that sooner or later it must slow down, the question is whether
this will occur with a ‘soft landing’ or a ‘hard landing’. The latter could
lead to a major recession, with implications for the global economy,
including the USA’s trading partners in wood products, notably Canada,
its main supplier. In mid-2000, it is still difficult to judge on the
future direction of the US economy: this is something to be watched
carefully.
Economic stagnation in Japan. In contrast to the USA, the economy of
Japan has been passing through a period of limited growth, accompanied
by financial difficulties in the banking and some other business sectors.
Government measures to stimulate the economy have so far (mid-2000)
failed to produce positive results. Japan is the world’s second largest
economy, and also the second largest importer of wood products, with
11% of the total. Its economic development is therefore of concern inter289
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
•
•
nationally, especially among its main trading partners around the Pacific
Rim.
Energy prices. In early 1999, crude oil prices were at their lowest level
for many years, around 10 US$ a barrel; a year later they were hovering
above 30 US$, as a result partly of stronger economic activity worldwide
and rising demand, and partly of production limitations imposed by
OPEC, the oil producers’ cartel. Concern has been expressed that a continuation of prices at that level could contribute to a resurgence of inflation and stifle economic expansion. It is OPEC’s stated objective to
stabilise prices in the range of 22–28 US$ a barrel. Even if that occurs,
we have probably witnessed the end of a long period during which we
were lulled into a false sense of security about low energy costs. This,
together with the growing concerns about climate change, is likely to
lead to renewed efforts to conserve energy and develop alternatives to
fossil fuels. It comes at the same time as doubts have been re-emphasised
about the safety of nuclear power, with Germany, for example, planning
to phase it out within a decade or two. While higher energy costs could
have negative impacts on demand for wood products as a result of a
general slowing of economic growth, this could be offset by gains in competitiveness because of the lower energy input in the production and
utilisation of wood products compared with alternative materials. With
energy an important component of transport costs, there could be implications also for the volume and pattern of trade in wood products, with
the movement of low unit value (high weight to value ratio) commodities, such as wood raw material, being affected more severely than that
of higher value ones. This could encourage the further development of
processing near the forest, and trade in processed and higher unit value
products, and further phasing out of production based on imported raw
material in importing countries.
Forest fires. There may not be a proven connection, but the worst outbreak of forest fires in the western USA in the summer of 2000 for more
than 50 years, following 2 years of unusually dry weather, serves as a
reminder of the impacts to be expected from changes in the global
climate. Serious outbreaks have also occurred in the far east of the
Russian Federation, Greece, the Iberian peninsula and Australia. The fires
in the USA were mainly caused by lightning. Those in Indonesia in previous years, however, from which palls of smoke spread over a huge area,
even disrupting commercial flights in neighbouring countries, were
caused by people, mostly burning off forest vegetation to make way for
agriculture and palm oil plantations. They were aggravated by weather
conditions caused by El Niño. Permanent changes in vegetation distribution as a result of climate change may be for the very long term, but
catastrophes such as forest fires and insect and disease epidemics, if
290
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
found to be linked to it, could accelerate the process. Even in the relatively short term, there might be an impact on the location of wood production and consequently on trade, although that possibility is something
to monitor, not something that can be stated as a fact. Trading in emission reduction units (ERUs) as a means to bring CO2 emissions under
control might also become part of the trading scene in years to come.
Implications for trade
What, in conclusion, can be said about the implications for trade in wood
products? Point 4 of the general findings, presented earlier, stated that
‘with changing patterns of the sources of wood supply as well as of the
consumption centres of processed forest products, international trade in
these products will become an increasingly important element in the
global supply–demand balance’. This implies that exports will continue to
increase as a proportion of production, and likewise imports as a proportion of consumption. This could be true while tariff barriers, where they
still exist, continue to be removed and efforts to eliminate non-tariff
barriers and impediments to trade, which may pose more of a threat to trade
liberalisation, are successful. There may be a number of developments,
however, that could inhibit future growth of trade in wood products, including:
(a)
Importing countries relying increasingly on their own sources of
raw material, notably waste paper and other consumer waste, to
manufacture products that would replace imports.
(b) Exporting countries taking an increasing share of their production to meet domestic requirements, with a smaller share available for export.
(c) Declining availability of industrial wood from the forest in some
traditional exporting countries. This is particularly the case in
those countries relying primarily on hitherto unexploited forest,
which is either becoming scarcer or more heavily protected, as a
source of raw material.
(d) Higher transport costs, mainly as a result of higher energy prices,
leading traders to reduce the transport element of their imports
cif and to rely more on supplies closer to hand.
There are also reasons for supposing that trade in wood products will
continue to expand in importance relative to production and consumption,
amongst them being:
291
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
(a)
Continuation of the trend towards specialisation in production,
which will encourage two-way trading, for example in different
specifications of the same product.
(b) Continuation of the trend towards globalisation, resulting in
fewer, larger manufacturing units with greater economies of scale
and more competitive prices and stronger marketing operations,
which would favour them in international markets.
(c) Rapid advances in communications, including trading on the
internet (e-commerce), which greatly reduce the disadvantages of
distance between seller and buyer; and probably reduce the need
for (and cost of) intermediaries in international trade.
(d) Continuation of the trend towards the upstream manufacturing
and export of processed products, especially added value products (secondary and tertiary processing). This might not result in
an expansion in the volume of trade, but would probably increase
the value.
(e) Continuation in the establishment of new areas of plantations of
fast-growing species in exporting countries or those with export
potential. Note that plantations can also be established in importing countries, with the effect of reducing imports. It would seem,
however, that up to now investor interest, unless actively supported by government subsidies, has generally favoured plantations in countries with export potential.
No doubt there are plenty of other pros and cons to bring into the argument. Some may be more likely to result in changes in the pattern of trade
than in absolute or relative quantities or values. For example, declining availability from natural forests and increasing availability from plantations could
change the origin of exports without necessarily changing the total volume.
Concluding remarks
As work on this book progressed, I became increasingly aware of the difficulties of avoiding two excesses. One excess would be to include so much
detail that the reader would be bored to tears. The other would be to oversimplify to such an extent that the reader would be deprived of essential
information.The problem was partly of my own making: by setting the objective of covering a broad range of topics and seeking to satisfy the interests
of a range of readership groups in a limited number of pages. I have
attempted to resolve the problem in two ways: for those seeking detail a
292
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
large number of tables and figures have been included, which can be studied
in lesser or greater depth according to need; and for those who find the
coverage too superficial there is the list of references, totalling nearly one
hundred, where different aspects of the subject are dealt with in greater
detail. I can recommend all of the publications cited for further reading. On
some topics, which I have tried to cover in a few pages, others have written
whole books, for example on certification, wood and energy, or forest
resources.
Despite its limitations, which I acknowledge but for which I make no
apology, given the constraints involved, I hope and believe the book will
have achieved a number of things:
•
•
•
•
It shows that, of all the commodities of importance in international trade,
wood products are one of the most complex and diversified, ranging
from basic raw materials straight from the forest to sophisticated manufactured products. One has to talk about markets in the plural for wood
products rather than a single market.
It shows the close linkage between the forest, a living and renewable
resource, right through the various stages of transformation, handling and
transport, to the ultimate use of wood products, in which international
trade is often an important component. For most wood products, trade
is a significant part of the supply–demand balance.
It shows that the wood-processing industries are among the more important manufacturing sectors in many countries’ economies, and exports
and imports of wood products are major components of countries’ total
commodity trade.
It shows the complexity of the pattern of trade in wood products, with
virtually all countries involved as importers and most as exporters; and
the way in which the composition and patterns of trade have altered over
time and the reasons for these changes.
The book also demonstrates that, although the use of wood products
has a history as old as mankind itself, such is the versatility of wood that its
substitution by other materials in certain end-uses has been offset by the
development of new uses. As populations and standards of living have risen,
so has the overall demand for wood continued to grow, especially over the
past two centuries. Studies forecast that expansion will continue in the foreseeable future, even if the rate of growth may not be dramatic. They also
indicate that, despite continued pressures on the forest resource, including
loss of forest area in parts of the tropics, such is the potential for improved
productivity through more intensive forest management and the establishment of plantations, the resource can provide enough wood to meet demand
in the future. Properly managed in accordance with the principles of sus293
THE INTERN ATION AL TIMBER TRADE
tainability, the forest will remain the source of a renewable and versatile
material. Against the background of increasing public concern about the
long-term availability of non-renewable resources, especially fossil fuels, the
merits of forests and of wood products may become more fully appreciated
than in the past, when they have sometimes been taken too much for
granted.
Renewability, however, comes at a cost: the prices at which wood products are traded on the market need to reflect the full cost of production,
including the measures necessary to regenerate the forest crop after harvesting. Too often in the past, especially in the exploitation of natural forests,
this has not been the case. Furthermore, there has been the implicit assumption that the provision of the non-wood goods and services of the forest,
which are increasing in absolute terms and in relative importance to that of
wood, should be financed out of the revenues obtained for wood. This is not
unreasonable, if the customers for wood products, that is every one of us,
accepts that condition in the price we pay for them. The forest sector has
not been successful up to now in selling that message. Unless it can, it is
likely to continue to find difficulties in attracting the investment support it
deserves. It would be not only the sector itself that would be the loser, but
society in general for failing to take advantage of a unique resource.
The challenge, therefore, is for forestry and the wood industries to shed
themselves of the reticence which has too often characterised them in the
past, and to market themselves and their products more aggressively. The
starting point in that marketing campaign should be the fuller realisation of
the benefits that can accrue from making better use of a renewable resource,
the forest, and a remarkably versatile material, wood.
294
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301
Appendix 1: List of
selected international
organisations
concerned with
the trade in
wood products
Intergovernmental organisations
Commission of the European
Communities
DG III/C/5
Rondpoint Schumann 11 6/36
B – 1049 Bruxelles,
Belgium
Tel. +32 2 295 3726
Fax. +32 2 296 7015
E-mail: agri-library@cec.eu.int
Website: www.europa.eu.int
Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO)
Forestry Department
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
I – 00100 Rome
Italy
Tel. +39 06 570 4174
Fax. +39 06 570 55137
E-mail: Forestry-www@fao.org
Website: www.fao.org/forestry
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
700 19th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20431
United States of America
Tel. +1 202 623 7300
Fax. +1 202 623 4661
E-mail: publicaffairs@imf.org
Website: www.imf.org
302
A PPE N D I X 1
International Trade Centre
UNCTAD/WTO
Palais des Nations
CH – 1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Tel. +41 22 730 0111
Fax. +41 22 733 4439
E-mail: itcreg@intracen.org
Website: www.intracen.org
International Tropical Timber
Organization (ITTO)
International Organizations Center,
5th Floor
Pacifico-Yokohama, 1-1-1, Minato-Mirai
Nishi-ku, Yokohama 220-0012
Japan
Tel: +81 45 223 1110
Fax. +81 45 223 1111
E-mail: itto@itto.or.ip
Website: www.itto.or.jp
Ministerial Conference on the
Protection of Forests in Europe
Liaison Unit
Marzerg 2
A – 1030 Vienna
Austria
Tel. +43 1 710 77 0214
Fax. +43 1 710 02 13
E-mail: peter.meyer@lu-vienna.at
Office Statistique des Communautés
Européennes (EUROSTAT)
Jean-Monnet Building
L – 2920 Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Tel. +352 4301 37 313
Fax. +352 4301 37 317
E-mail: eurostat-infodesk@cec.eu.int
Website: www.europa.eu.int/eurostat
United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UN-ECE)
Palais des Nations
CH – 1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Tel. +41 22 917 2874
Fax. +41 22 917 0041
E-mail: info.timber@unece.org
Website: www.unece.org/trade/timber
United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Tel. +41 22 907 1234
Fax. +41 22 907 0043
E-mail: ers@unctad.org
Website: www.unctad.org
World Bank
1818 H Street N.W.
Washington D C 20433
United States of America
Tel. +1 202 477 1234
Fax. +1 202 477 6391
E-mail: feedback@worldbank.org
Website: www.worldbank.org
World Trade Organization (WTO)
Centre William Rappard
154 rue de Lausanne
CH – 1211 Geneva 21
Switzerland
Tel. +41 22 364 9111
Fax. +41 22 364 0540
Website: www.wto.org
303
A PPE N D I X 1
Non-governmental organisations
(including research institutes and think-tanks)
African Timber Organization (ATO)
B P 1077
Libreville
Gabon
Tel. +241 73 2928
Fax. +241 73 4030
E-mail: oabgabon@internetgabon.com
Association Technique Internationale
des Bois Tropicaux (ATIBT)
16 Avenue de Saint-Mandé
F – 75012 Paris
France
Tel. +33 1 43 424 200
Fax. +33 1 43 425 522
E-mail: atibt@compuserve.com
Center for International Forestry
Research (CIFOR)
P O Box 6596 JKPWB
Jakarta
Indonesia
Tel. +62 251 622 622
Fax. +62 251 622 100
E-mail: cifor@cgnet.com
Website: www.cifor.org
Center for International Trade in
Forest Products (CINTRAFOR)
College of Forest Resources
University of Washington
Box 352100, Seattle WA 98195-2100
United States of America
Tel. +1 206 543 8684
Fax. +1 206 685 0790
Website: www.cintrafor.org
Confédération Européenne
de l’Agriculture (CEA)
Löwelstrasse 12
A – 1014 Vienna
Austria
Tel. +43 1 534 41 529
Fax. +43 1 534 41 466
E-mail: pkforst@pklwk.at
European Confederation of
Woodworking Industries (CEI-Bois)
Allée Hof-ter-Vleest 5, Ste. 4
B – 1070 Bruxelles
Belgium
Tel. +32 2 556 2585
Fax. +32 2 556 2595
E-mail: euro.wood.fed@skynet.be
European Forest Institute (EFI)
34 Torikatu
FIN – 80100 Joensuu
Finland
Tel. +358 13 252 020
Fax. +358 13 124 393
E-mail: efisec@efi.fi
Website: www.efi.fi
European Timber Trade Association
(FEBO)
Rue Royale 109-111
B – 1000 Bruxelles
Belgium
Tel. +32 2 219 1930
Fax. +32 2 223 0781
304
A PPE N D I X 1
Fédération Européenne des Syndicats
de Fabricants de Panneaux de
Particules (FESYP)
Rue de l’Association 15
B – 1000 Bruxelles
Belgium
Tel. +32 2 223 11 44
Fax. +32 2 219 44 44
E-mail: euro.wood.fed@skynet.be
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
Avenida Hidalgo 502
Oaxaca
Mexico
Tel. +52 951 46905
Fax. +52 951 46905
E-mail: fscoax@fscoax.org
Website: www.fscoax.org
International Institute for Environment
and Development (IIED)
3 Endsleigh Street
WC1H 0DD, London,
United Kingdom
Tel. +44 171 388 2117
Fax. +44 171 388 2826
Email: mailbox@iied.org
Website: www.iied.org
International Union of Forestry
Research Organizations (IUFRO)
Seckendorff-Gudent-Weg 8
A – 1131 Vienna
Austria
Tel. +43 1 877 0151
Fax. +43 1 877 9355
Website: www.iufro.boku.ac.at
Resources for the Future
1616 P Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
United States of America
Tel. +1 202 328 5000
Fax. +1 202 939 3460
E-mail: sedjo@rff.org
Website: www.rff.org
Tropenbos Foundation
P O Box 232
NL – 6700 AE Wageningen
Netherlands
Tel. +31 317 426 262
Fax. +31 317 423 024
E-mail: Tropenbos@iac.agro.nl
World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD)
Route de Florissant 160
CH – 1231 Conches
Switzerland
Tel. +41 22 839 3158
Fax. +41 22 839 3131
E-mail: fry@wbcsd.ch
Website: www.wbcsd.org
World Forest Institute
4033 SW Canyon Road
Portland, Oregon 97221
United States of America
Tel. +1 503 228 0803
Fax. +1 503 228 3624
Website: www.upm.com/wfi
World Resources Institute (WRI)
10 G Street N.E. (Suite 800)
Washington, D.C. 20002
United States of America
Tel. +1 202 729 7600
Fax. +1 202 729 7610
E-mail: lauralee@wri.org
Website: www.wri.org
305
A PPE N D I X 1
Tel. +41 22 364 9111
Fax. +41 22 364 0540
E-mail: Celliott@wwfint.org
Website: www.panda.org/forests4life
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Avenue du Mont-Blanc
CH – 1196 Gland
Switzerland
306
Appendix 2:
Definitions
A. Forest resources1
Afforestation
Annual fellings
Annual removals
Broadleaved
Coniferous
Establishment of a forest stand by planting and/or
seeding on land which was not previously classified as forest or other wooded land (non-forest
land).
Average annual standing volume of all trees, living
or dead, measured overbark to a minimum diameter of 0 cm diameter breast height (dbh) that are
felled during a given reference period, including
the volume of trees or parts of trees that are not
removed from the forest, other wooded land or
felling site.
Average annual of those fellings that are removed
from the forest, other wooded land or other felling
site during the given reference period.
All trees classified botanically as Angiospermae.
They are sometimes referred to as ‘non-coniferous’
or ‘hardwoods’.
All trees classified botanically as Gymnospermae.
They are sometimes referred to as ‘softwoods’.
1
Selected terms extracted from Forest Resources of Europe, CIS, North America, Australia,
Japan and New Zealand, UN-ECE/FAO 2000
307
A PPE N D I X 2
Forest
Land with tree crown cover (or equivalent
stocking level) of more than 10% and area of more
than 0.5 ha. The trees should be able to reach a
minimum height of 5 m at maturity in situ. May
consist either of closed forest formations where
trees of various storeys and undergrowth cover a
high proportion of the ground; or of open forest
formations with a continuous vegetation cover
in which tree crown cover exceeds 10%. Young
stands and all plantations established for forestry
purposes . . . are included under forest.
Forest available for wood
Forest where any legal, economic, or specific
supply (FAWS)
environmental restrictions do not have a significant impact on the supply of wood. Includes areas
where, although there are no such restrictions,
harvesting is not taking place.
Forest not available for
Forest where legal, economic or specific environwood supply (FNAWS)
mental restrictions prevent any significant supply
of wood.
Forest/other wooded
Forest/other wooded land, which shows natural
land undisturbed by
forest dynamics, such as natural tree composition,
man (natural forest)
occurrence of dead wood, natural age structure
and natural regeneration processes, the area of
which is large enough to maintain its natural
characteristics, and where there has been no
significant human intervention or where the last
human intervention was long enough ago to have
allowed the natural species composition and
processes to have become re-established.
Gross annual increment
Average annual volume of increment over the reference period of all trees, measured to a minimum
diameter of 0 cm dbh.
Growing stock
The living tree component of the standing volume.
Managed forest/other
Forest and other wooded land which is managed
wooded land
in accordance with a formal or informal plan
applied regularly over a sufficiently long period.
Natural losses
Average annual losses to the growing stock
during the given reference period, measured to a
minimum diameter of 0 cm dbh, due to mortality
from causes other than cutting by man, e.g. natural
mortality, diseases, insect attacks, fire, windthrow
or other physical damage.
Net annual increment (NAI) Average annual volume over the given reference
period of gross annual increment less that of
natural losses on all trees to a minimum diameter
of 0 cm dbh.
Other wooded land
Land either with a tree crown cover (or equivalent
stocking level) of 5–10% of trees able to reach a
height of 5 m at maturity in situ; or a crown cover
(or equivalent stocking level) of more than 10%
308
A PPE N D I X 2
Plantations
Private ownership
Public ownership
Woody biomass
of trees not able to reach 5 m at maturity in situ
(e.g. dwarf or stunted trees) and shrub or bush
cover.
Forest stands established by planting and/or
seeding in the process of afforestation or reforestation. They are either of introduced species, or
intensively managed stands of indigenous species,
which must meet all the following criteria: one or
two species at plantation, even age class, regular
spacing.
Forest/other wooded land owned by individuals,
families, cooperatives and corporations, which
may be engaged in agriculture or other occupations as well as forestry; private forest enterprises
or industries; private corporations or other institutions (religious and educational institutions,
pension and investment funds, nature conservation societies, etc.).
Forest/other wooded land belonging to the State
or other public bodies.
The mass of the woody parts (wood, bark,
branches, twigs, stumps and roots) of trees, alive
or dead, shrubs and bushes, measured to a
minimum diameter of 0 cm dbh.
B. Wood and wood products2
Bleached sulphate (kraft)
pulp
Bleached sulphite pulp
Chemical woodpulp
Chips and particles
2
Woodpulp obtained by mechanically reducing
coniferous or non-coniferous wood to small
pieces which are subsequently cooked in the
presence of sodium hydroxide cooking liquor
(soda pulp) or a mixture of sodium hydroxide
cooking liquor and sodium sulphite cooking
liquor (sulphate pulp). The class includes bleached
pulp.
Woodpulp obtained by mechanically reducing
coniferous or non-coniferous wood to small pieces
which are subsequently cooked in the presence of
a bi-sulphite cooking liquor. . . . The class includes
bleached pulp.
Sulphate (kraft) and soda and sulphite woodpulp
except dissolving grades, bleached, semi-bleached
and unbleached.
Wood that has been deliberately reduced to small
pieces from wood in the rough or from industrial
residues, suitable for pulping, for particle board
Selected terms extracted from Yearbook of Forest Products 1993–1997, FAO 1999
309
A PPE N D I X 2
Dissolving woodpulp
Fibreboard
Fibreboard, compressed
Fuelwood
Hardboard
Household and sanitary
paper
Industrial roundwood
Insulating board
MDF (Medium Density
Fibreboard)
Mechanical woodpulp
Newsprint
and fibreboard production, for fuelwood or for
other purposes.
Woodpulp, dissolving grades chemical pulp (sulphate, soda or sulphite) from coniferous or nonconiferous wood, or special quality, with a very
high alpha-cellulose content (usually 90% or
over), readily adaptable for uses other than papermaking. These pulps are always bleached. They are
used principally as a source of cellulose in the
manufacture of products such as synthetic fibre,
cellulosic plastic materials, lacquers, explosives.
A panel manufactured from fibres of wood or
other ligno-cellulosic materials with the primary
bond deriving from the felting of the fibres and
their inherent adhesive properties. Bonding materials and/or additives may be added. It is usually
flat pressed but may also be moulded. . . .
Fibreboard, compressed, includes fibreboards
with a density greater than 0.50 g/cm3.
Wood in the rough (from trunks and branches
of trees) to be used as fuel for purposes such as
cooking, heating or power production.
Hardboard is a type of fibreboard with a density
exceeding 0.80 g/cm3.
Includes absorbent paper, creped or uncreped,
sometimes embossed, made from bleached or
unbleached chemical woodpulp, sometimes with
a mixture of pulp from waste paper or mechanical pulp. Included are towelling, facial tissue, toilet
tissue, wadding disposable tissues.
The commodities included are sawlogs or veneer
logs, pulpwood, other industrial roundwood and,
in the case of trade data, also chips and particles
and wood residues.
Insulating board is a type of fibreboard with a
density exceeding 0.35 g/cm3 but not exceeding
0.50 g/cm3. Note: this commodity used to be
labelled ‘fibreboard, non-compressed’.
MDF is a type of fibreboard with a density exceeding 0.50 g/cm3 but not exceeding 0.80 g/cm3.
Woodpulp obtained by grinding or milling coniferous or non-coniferous rounds, quarters,
billets, etc. into fibres or through refining coniferous or non-coniferous chips. . . . It excludes
exploded and defibrated pulp, and includes chemimechanical and thermo-mechanical pulp.
Uncoated paper, unsized (or only slightly sized),
containing at least 60% (of fibrous content) mechanical woodpulp, usually weighing not less than 40
g/m2 and generally not more than 60 g/m2 of the
type used mainly for the printing of newspapers.
310
A PPE N D I X 2
Other industrial roundwood
Other paper and
paperboard
Paper and paperboard
Particle board
Plywood
Printing and writing paper
Pulpwood (round & split)
Recovered paper
(waste paper)
Roundwood used for tanning, distillation, match
blocks, gazogenes, poles, piling, posts, pitprops,
etc.
Includes construction paper and paperboard,
household and sanitary paper, special thin paper,
wrapping and packaging paper and paperboard,
and other paper and paperboard not elsewhere
specified (nes). Where detail is available, statistics
are given for the following two categories: household and sanitary paper (qv) and wrapping and
packaging paper and paperboard (qv).
The following commodities are included in this
aggregate: newsprint, printing and writing paper,
other paper and paperboard.
A sheet material manufactured from small
pieces of wood or other ligno-cellulosic materials
(e.g. chips, flakes, splinters, strands, shreds,
schives, etc.) agglomerated by use of an organic
binder together with one or more of the following agents: heat, pressure, humidity, a catalyst, etc.
Plywood, veneer plywood, core plywood including veneered wood, blockboard, laminboard and
battenboard. Other plywood such as cellular board
and composite board. Veneer plywood is plywood
manufactured by bonding together more than two
veneer sheets. The grain of alternate veneer sheets
is crossed generally at right angles. Core plywood
is plywood whose core is solid and consists of
narrow boards, blocks or strips of wood placed
side by side, which may or may not be glued
together.
Paper, except newsprint, suitable for printing
and business purposes, writing, sketching,
drawing, etc., made from a variety of pulp blends
and with various finishes. Included are such
papers as those used for books and magazines,
wallpaper base stock, box lining and covering,
calculator paper, rotonews, duplicating, tablet
or block, label, lithograph, banknote, tabulating card stock, bible or imitation bible, stationery, manifold, onionskin, typewriter, poster,
etc.
Wood in the rough other than logs – for pulp,
particle board or fibreboard. Pulpwood may be
barked or unbarked and may be in the form of
roundwood or splitwood. In production data, it
may include the equivalent of wood chips made
directly from roundwood.
This commodity includes paper and paperboard
which has been used for its original purpose,
and residues from paper conversion. This includes
311
A PPE N D I X 2
Sawlogs and veneer logs
Sawnwood
waste and scrap collected for re-use as a raw
material for the manufacture of paper and related
products.
Logs, whether or not roughly squared, to be
sawn (or chipped) lengthwise for the manufacture
of sawnwood or railway sleepers (ties). Logs for
production of veneer, mainly by peeling or slicing.
Sawnwood, unplaned, planed, grooved, tongued,
etc., sawn lengthwise, or produced by a profilechipping process (e.g. planks, beams, joists,
boards, rafters, scantlings, laths, boxboards,
‘lumber’, sleepers, etc.) and planed wood which
may also be finger jointed, tongued and grooved,
chamfered, rabbeted, V-jointed, beaded, etc. Wood
flooring is excluded. With few exceptions, sawnwood exceeds 5 mm in thickness.
NB For production and trade in industrial wood and sawnwood, data are separated
into species groups, as follows:
Coniferous
All woods derived from trees classified as Gymnospermae – e.g. fir (Abies), parana pine (Araucaria), deodar (Cedrus), ginkgo (Ginkgo), larch
(Larix), spruce (Picea), pine, chir, kail (Pinus),
etc. These are generally referred to as softwoods.
Non-coniferous
All wood derived from trees classified as
Angiospermae – e.g. maple (Acer), alder (Alnus),
ebony (Diospyros), beech (Fagus), lignum vitae
(Guiacum), poplar (Populus), oak (Quercus), sal
(Shorea), teak (Tectona), casuarina (Casuarina),
etc. These are generally referred to as broadleaved
or hardwoods. For trade, they are separated into:
Non-coniferous, tropical
Non-coniferous woods originating from tropical
countries.
Non-coniferous, other
Non-coniferous woods originating from countries
other than tropical.
Semi-chemical woodpulp
Woodpulp, chemi-mechanical and semi-chemical,
obtained by subjecting coniferous or nonconiferous wood to a series of mechanical and
chemical treatments, none of which alone is sufficient to make the fibre separate readily. According
to the order and importance of the treatment, such
pulp is variously named: semi-chemical, chemigroundwood, chemi-mechanical, etc. It may be
bleached or unbleached.
Unbleached sulphate
Woodpulp obtained by mechanically reducing
(kraft) pulp
coniferous or non-coniferous wood to small pieces
which are subsequently cooked in the presence of
sodium hydroxide cooking liquor (soda pulp) or a
mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphite
cooking liquor (sulphate pulp). The class includes
semi-bleached and unbleached pulps.
312
A PPE N D I X 2
Unbleached sulphite pulp
Veneer sheets
Wood residues
Wood-based panels
Woodpulp
Wrapping and packaging
paper and paperboard
Woodpulp obtained by mechanically reducing
coniferous or non-coniferous wood to small pieces
which are subsequently cooked in a pressure
vessel in the presence of a bi-sulphite cooking
liquor. The class includes semi-bleached and
unbleached pulps.
Thin sheets of wood of uniform thickness, rotary
cut, sliced or sawn, for use in plywood, laminated
construction, furniture, veneer containers, etc.
In production data, the quantity excludes veneer
sheets used for plywood production within the
country.
Wood residues which have not been reduced to
small pieces. They consist principally of industrial
residues, e.g. sawmill rejects, slabs, edgings and
trimmings, veneer log cores, veneer rejects,
sawdust, bark (excluding briquettes), residues
from carpentry and joinery production, etc.
The aggregate includes the following commodities: veneer sheets, plywood, particle board and
fibreboard compressed or non-compressed.
The following commodities are included in this
aggregate: mechanical, semi-chemical, chemical
and dissolving woodpulp.
Paper or paperboards included are the following:
vegetable parchment, greaseproof and glassine
paper. Papers made from pure chemical woodpulp
or from a mixture of chemical woodpulp, cotton
fibre pulp, treated (e.g. highly hydrated or hard
beaten) to render the resulting paper resistant
to oil, grease and water. Fluting medium: paper
or paperboard used as medium when combining
paper and paperboard for conversion into a
corrugated board. Sack kraft paper: strong paper
made from sulphate pulp and used in the manufacture of single or multiwall sacks. Other kraft
wrapping paper: all other wrapping and packaging papers made principally from sulphate pulp.
Folding boxboard: all types of paperboard used in
the manufacture of folding boxes. Other wrapping
and packaging paper and paperboard.
C. Engineered wood products3
Glulam
3
Glulam (glued-laminated timber) is made by gluing
together horizontal layers of high strength dimen-
Selected from A glossary of engineered wood products, Canadian Wood Council
313
A PPE N D I X 2
Laminated Veneer Lumber
(LVL)
Oriented Strand Board
(OSB)
Parallel Strand Lumber
(PSL)
Waferboard
sion lumber pieces. It is used for headers, beams,
girders and columns. It can be manufactured
straight or curved, in a wide variety of sizes.
LVL is a layered composite of wood veneers
and adhesive, which like PSL is available in long
lengths. The grain of each piece runs in the long
direction, so it is strongest when edge loaded as
a beam or face loaded as a plank. Some common
uses for LVL are headers, beams, flanges for wood
I-joists and scaffolding planking.
Panels made from strands of wood. Two-way
strength is provided by orienting the direction
of the strands in different layers. The strands in
the outer faces are all oriented along the long
axis. Most commonly used for wall, floor and roof
sheathing. (NB OSB is included with particle board
in international statistics.)
PSL is made from strands of wood glued together
into long, wide members. It is suited for beams,
columns, posts, headers and lintels.
Is similar to OSB except the grain directions of the
wafers are random, making strength and stiffness
equal in all directions of the panel. Now largely
replaced by OSB.
314
Index
acacia, 235
added value paper and paperboard
products, 123
added value wood products, 3, 50,
119, 121, 191, 264, 292
afforestation, 194, 233, 257
Africa, 3, 104, 111
west coast, 12, 149
African, Caribbean and Pacific Group
of States (ACP), 214
African Timber Organization (ATO),
228
afrormosia, 17, 221
Agathis, 19
agenda, 21, 240
agent, 156
agricultural posts and stakes, 13, 49, 73
air pollution, 229
alder, 20
Algeria, 137
alternative fuels, 253
aluminium, 77
Amazon Basin, 182
Amazonian process, 241
American Declaration of
Independence, 13
American Forest & Paper Association
(AF&PA), 244
Angiosperms, 7, 47
annual rings (growth rings), 47
apparent consumption – see
consumption
Araucaria, 19
Arctic Ocean, 12
Argentina, 235
ash, 19
Asian economic miracle, 289
Asia-Pacific region, 284
aspen, 20
Association of South-East Asian
Nations (ASEAN), 214, 225
Australia, 104, 137, 139, 194, 199, 290
Austria, 101, 137, 178
balance of supply and demand, 110,
208, 258, 263, 287, 291, 293
balsa, 17
Baltic sea, 11
315
INDEX
Baltic States, 4, 137, 145, 179
bamboo, 18
Barbados, 12
barrels, 122
basic manufactures, 92
beech, 19
Belarus, 179
Belgium (-Luxembourg), 103, 139, 194
bending strength, 49
biodegradability, 49
biological diversity (biodiversity), 26,
35, 232, 242, 281
biomass, 253, 255
birch, 18
ash, 11
Black Death, 9, 11
black liquor, 48, 253
bleached sulphate pulp, 142, 151,
266
blocks and strips for parquet, 122
Boreal region, 256
boxes, 122
Brazil, 90, 102, 112, 139, 182, 199,
232, 235
brick-making, 9
British Columbia, 14
broadleaved (species), 7, 9, 16
Bronze Age, 9, 11
Brundtland Report, 237
builders’ woodwork, 119, 265
building demolition waste, 254
building poles, 73
built-in cupboards, 75
bulk carriers, 156
buyers’ groups, 245
by-products, 156
contaminated, 247
cabinet-making, 12, 75
California, 14
cambium, 47
Cameroon, 90, 139, 149
Canada, 18, 90, 101, 112, 137, 168,
198, 200
Canadian Standards Association (CSA),
244
Canary Islands, 12
capital costs, 203
carbon
cycles, 242
dioxide (CO2), 46, 253, 255, 291
offset, 257
sequestration, 257
taxes, 257
Carboniferous Period, 7
Caribbean, 12
carvings, 75
cash crops, 12
cedar, 7
cellulose, 47
cellulose fibre, 48
Center for International Forestry
Research (CIFOR), 228
Center for International Trade in Forest
Products (CINTRAFOR), 228
certification, 221, 242, 243, 287
certified forest products (CFPs), 245
chain-of-custody, 242
changes in forest area, 31
changes in stocks, 53
charcoal, 253
chemical woodpulp, 116
chemicals, 88, 92, 203
Chernobyl, 253
Chicago Merchantile Exchange
(CME), 211
Chile, 102, 104, 112, 134, 145, 195,
199, 235
China, 88, 90, 101
chipboard – see particle board
chips – see wood chips and particles
chlorophyll, 47
CITES, 221
classification, 107
climate change, 251, 255, 290
coal, 253
coal, rubber and plastic products, 88
codes, 218
commercial logging, 17, 232
Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS), 4
competition, 198, 211, 290
compressed fibreboard – see hardboard
computer paper, 103
computers, 80
COMTRADE, 127
concrete shuttering, 60, 75
coniferous (species), 7, 16
coniferous industrial roundwood,
104, 131, 145, 266
316
INDEX
coniferous sawnwood – see sawn
softwood
construction, 9, 73, 82, 85, 260, 272
construction industry, 122
consumption of wood products, 53,
62, 66, 109, 261, 272
per inhabitant, 70
containerisation, 156
cook, 14
cooking and heating, 253
copper smelting, 9, 260
cork, 196
corporate players, 154, 157
Côte d’Ivoire, 139, 149, 197
Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance (CMEA), 225
crates, 77
Cretaceous Period, 7
Crete, 10
criteria and indicators (C&I), 239, 241
Croatia, 139
cultural and graphic papers, 52, 73, 82
customs procedures, 219
cyclical trade movements, 114
Cyprus, 10
Czechoslovakia, 157
Czech Republic, 163
drums, 122
durability, 49, 77
Danzig, 11
declining markets, 200
declining suppliers, 197
decorative value, 77
deforestation, 8, 9, 15, 31, 224, 229,
255, 257, 261, 270, 281, 288
Denmark, 11, 123, 194
desertification, 18
devaluation, 209
developed countries, 23, 33, 214
developing countries, 15, 29, 35, 214,
222
developing market economies and
China (DMECs), 121
Dipterocarps, 17
disease and insect attack, 77
dissolving pulp, 52, 70
distortions to trade, 219
distribution, 77
district heating and hot water, 253
do-it-yourself (D-I-Y), 75, 220
doors, 122
East Asia, 3, 111
ebony, 12, 75
ecolabelling – see labelling
E-commerce, 157, 292
EFIDAS database, 127
Egypt, 10, 137
electricity, 283
electronic communication, 80, 292
El Nino, 290
emerging markets, 200
emerging suppliers, 199
emission reduction units (ERUs), 257,
291
end uses, 73, 263
energy, 73, 82, 203, 251
efficiency, 49
input, 257
prices, 290
environmental degradation, 224
Environmental Management System
(EMS) – see ISO 14001
environmental non-governmental
organisations (ENGOs), 220
environmental protection,
conservation, 5, 28, 222, 229
Equatorial Guinea, 149
erosion, 18
Estonia, 152
ETTS I, 272
ETTS V, 272
eucalyptus, 19, 194, 235
Europe, 3, 104, 111
European Confederation of WoodWorking Industries (CEI-Bois), 228
European exploration and
colonisation, 12
European Forest Institute (EFI), 228
European Union, 4, 101, 121, 225, 228
Export
bans, 197
quotas, 219
EXPORTLES, 157
export restrictions, 219
exports, 92, 109
fabricated metal products, machinery
and equipment, 88
317
INDEX
fast-growing plantations – see
plantations
fax paper, 103
felling, 154
fellings, 24
fellings to NAI ratio, 24
fencing, 49
fertilisers, 35
fibreboard, 52
fibre furnish, 142, 249, 251
fillers, 203
Finland, 85, 88, 90, 137, 170
Finnish Forest Certification scheme,
244
fir, 20
balsam, 18
Douglas, 14, 18, 235
Siberian, 18
sub-Alpine, 18
fire, resistance to, 74
First World War, 14, 261
flaxboard, 65
fluting medium, 80
folding boxboard, 80
Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO), 226, 238, 272
food-processing, 85
forest, 20
according to degree of
‘naturalness’, 26
available for wood supply (FAWS),
22, 33, 279, 287
balance, 24
boreal, 16, 18, 23, 234
clearance, 255
conservation, 281
degradation, 9, 229
ecosystem, 242, 290
fires, 24
fragmentation, 233
lowland pine, 19
management, 33, 236, 276, 282, 293
mangrove, 18
moist deciduous, 18
montane, 18
mortality, 24
natural (old growth), 152, 233,
286, 292
productive, 279
resources, 16
semi-natural, 28, 234
soil, 255
temperate, 16, 18, 23, 234
tropical, 16
types, 16
undisturbed by man, 28
well-managed, 244
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC),
228, 243
forestry and logging, 88
formaldehyde glue, 219
former USSR, 3, 104, 111, 157, 179,
273
former Yugoslavia, 198
fossil fuels, 9, 232, 282, 290
Framework Convention on Biological
Diversity (FCBD), 240
Framework Convention on Climate
Change (FCCC), 240, 253
France, 88, 101, 139, 149, 165
fuel cells, 253
fuelwood, 39, 49, 51, 70, 230, 254,
261, 282
functions of the forest
protective, 242
productive, 242
socio-economic, 242
furniture, 12, 73, 75, 82, 85, 92, 119,
121, 272
futures markets, 211
Gabon, 149
gene bank, 17
General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT), 214
General System of Preferences (GSP),
214
Germany, 101, 139, 163, 220, 245
Ghana, 139, 149, 197
glass-making, 9
Global Forest Convention, 240
globalisation, 5, 153, 222, 288, 292
backlash, 288
gluing, 77
gold, 9, 12
Rush, 14
gopherwood, 7
governmental organisations, 226
graphic papers – see cultural and
graphic papers
318
INDEX
Great Depression, 15, 261
Greece, 10, 290
greenheart, 17, 75
greenhouse gases (GHGs), 233, 253,
255
gross annual increment (GAI), 24
gross Domestic Product (GDP), 85
growing stock, 22
G7 (G8), 227
Gymnosperms, 7, 47
handling, 77, 156
Hanseatic League, 11
harbour works, 75
hardboard, 75, 140, 151
hard landing, 289
hardwood lumber – see sawn
hardwood
harvesting intensity, 40, 45, 237, 279
harvesting residues, 24
heartwood, 47
Helsinki Ministerial Conference of the
Protection of Forests in Europe,
239
Helsinki process, 241
historical perspective, 260
Homo sapiens, 8
Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region, 185
household and sanitary paper, 144
household utensils, 75
housing authorities, 220
Hungary, 189
hunting, 35
hydropower, 253
Iberian Peninsula, 10, 290
Ice Age, 8
illegal logging, 175
illicit exports and imports, 108
impact resistance, 49
impediments to trade, 220, 291
import restrictions, 201
import substitution, 250
imports, 92, 109
impregnation, 77, 236
income elasticities, 277
India, 201, 235, 286
Indian Ocean, 12
indigenous peoples, 31, 32
Indonesia, 90, 112, 139, 149, 175,
198, 232, 235, 290
industrial (round)wood, 2, 36, 40, 51,
261, 274, 279, 287, 291
Industrial Revolution, 14
industrialised countries, 15
inflammability, 49
inflation, 110, 203, 290
inland waterways, 156
insulating board, 75, 140
insulation, 49
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), 255
integration, 65, 112
industrial (mergers), 153, 163
regional, 225
international commodity trade, 90
international division of labour, 225
international environmental
regulations, 221
International Forum on Forests (IFF),
228
International Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis (IIASA), 228
International Institute for Environment
and Development (IIED), 228
international institutions, 226
International Labour Organization
(ILO), 228
International Monetary Fund (IMF),
222, 228, 288
International Organization for
Standardization (ISO), 228
international politicisation of the forest
and wood products sector, 288
International Technical Association for
Tropical Timber (ATIBT), 228
International Trade Centre (ITC), 227
International Tropical Timber Council
(ITTC), 226, 238
International Tropical Timber
Organization (ITTO), 222, 226
International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN),
228
Internet, 80
in-transit processing, 62, 153
investment, 215, 259, 289, 294
Ireland, 152, 200
Iroko, 17, 75
319
INDEX
Iron Age, 9
Iron-making, 9, 260
Italy, 101, 139, 149, 189
ISO 14001, 244
niche, 245
marketing and promotion, 77
Marquetry, 75
masts, 13
mechanical woodpulp, 52
Mediterranean Basin, 9, 10, 260
Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF),
60, 75, 103, 113, 140, 199
meranti, 17
Mercosur, 225
metals, 77
Mexico, 14, 85, 137, 195
Mississippi River system, 13
model airplanes, 75
molasses, 12
monetary instability, 289
monocultures, 237
Montreal process, 241
Morocco, 137
mouldings and beadings, 122
Mozambique, 198
multinational (trans-national)
companies, 222
musical instruments, 75
Japan, 88, 92, 97, 101, 104, 108, 137,
140, 149, 157, 183, 284, 289
Jelutong, 17
joinery and carpentry products, 122
Jurassic Period, 7
Kennedy Round, 213
Keruing, 17
knots, 48
Königsberg, 11
Kyoto Protocol, 257
labelling, 221
labour, 203
laminated wood structures, 77
landfill, 248
Laos, 139
larch, 18
Latin America, 3, 104, 111
Latvia, 152, 189
Lebanon, 10, 139
legislation, 197, 250
Libya, 137
licensing procedures, 219
lignin, 47, 48
lignum vitae, 17, 75, 221
linerboard, 80
literacy levels, 272
Lithuania, 152
local councils, 220
lodgepole pine, 18
logging roads, 232
machines and transport equipment,
92
Madeira, 12
mahogany, 12, 17, 75, 221
Malaysia, 90, 102, 104, 139, 149, 176,
233
pensinsular, 112, 176
manufactures of wood and paper
products, 9
maritime powers, 261
market
access, 213
for certified wood products, 245
Napoleonic Wars, 13
natural losses, 24
nature conservation, 287
Neolithic Period, 9
net annual increment (NAI), 22, 282
net imports, 277
Netherlands, 88, 101, 139, 191, 220,
245, 251
New England, 12
new housing, 77
new non-residential construction,
77
new products, 199
New World, 12
newsprint, 80, 113, 142, 152, 266
New Zealand, 102,104, 134, 145,
195, 199, 235, 282
niangon, 17
Nigeria, 149, 197
Noah’s ark, 7
non-compressed fibreboard – see
insulating board
non-coniferous industrial roundwood,
104, 134, 149, 266
non-coniferous sawnwood – see sawn
hardwood
320
INDEX
non-governmental organisations
(NGOs), 228, 288
non-tariff barriers, 213, 215, 246,
288, 291
non-tariff measures (NTMs), 215
non-wood goods and services, 33,
281, 294
Nordic countries, 75
North Africa, 10
North America, 3, 104, 111
North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), 214, 225
North Sea, 11
Northern coniferous belt, 18
Northern spotted owl, 211, 233
Norway, 11, 194
nuclear fusion, 253
nuclear power, 253, 290
nutrients, 17
oak, 13, 19
obeche, 17
oil, 290
oil price shocks, 15, 114
okoumé, 17
old growth forest – see forest,
natural
opening up of forests, 199
opepe, 75
Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development
(OECD), 85, 119, 228
Organization of Oil Exporting
Countries (OPEC), 290
Oregon, 14
Oriented Strand Board (OSB), 59,
103, 109, 140, 199, 211
Other Asia-Pacific, 3, 104, 111
other fibre pulp, 250
other industrial roundwood, 51
other paper and paperboard, 53, 144,
152, 266
other wooded land, 20
outlook, 259, 272
over-exploitation, 196
overheads, 203
ownership of forests, 32, 236
by industry, 237, 279
private, 32, 45, 237, 279
public, 26, 32, 237, 279
oxygen, 47
Pacific Basin, 13, 261
Pacific Rim, 182, 183
packaging, 74, 77, 82, 156, 254
packaging regulations, 219
packing cases, 122
Paleolithic Period, 9
pallets, 74, 80, 122, 254
Panama Canal, 14, 261
Pan-European Forest Certification
Scheme (PEFC), 244
paper and paperboard, 3, 50, 52, 54,
107, 109, 112, 274
paperless office, 80, 201
paper-making, 14, 249
by hand, 14
mechanised, 14, 261
Papua New Guinea, 104, 149, 199
papyrus, 14
parquet panels, 122
particle board, 51, 58, 140, 151, 266
pattern of exports, 104
pattern of imports, 107
pencils, 75
Permian Period, 7
pesticides, 35
pests and diseases, 24
Philippines, 139, 149, 197
phloem, 47
photocopy paper, 103
photosynthesis, 46
phytosanitary standards – see plant
health standards
Pilgrim Fathers, 13
pilings, 70
pine, 235
Jack, 18
maritime, 196
Ponderosa, 18
Radiata, 19, 282
Scots, 18, 77
Siberian, 18
western white, 18
pine nematode, 219
pitch, 11
pitprops, 49, 70, 103, 200
plantations, 5, 28, 29, 45, 134, 152,
199, 233, 236, 261, 270, 279,
282, 287, 292
plant health standards, 219
plastics, 77
plywood, 51, 55, 113, 139, 150, 266
321
INDEX
Podocarpus, 19
Poland, 90, 139, 157
poles, 49, 70
policy makers, 260, 288
political instability, 198, 288
poplar, 235
Portugal, 102, 196
pottery making, 9
poverty trap, 224
prices, 203, 272, 287
current, 204
deflated, 204
relative, 208
primary conversion, 154
primary processed wood products,
121
primary processing, 154
primary sector, 84
printing and publishing, 85
printing press, 14
printing and writing paper, 52, 80,
113, 144, 152, 266
privatisation, 33
production of wood products, 53,
58, 109, 261
for domestic use (PDU), 62
for export, 62
projections, 260
protectionism, 288
pulping liquors – see black liquors
pulpwood, 108, 134, 251
quantitative restrictions on imports,
218
random length lumber, 211
rayon, 70
rays, 48
recolonisation, 9
recovered paper – see waste paper
recovered wood, 254
recreation and leisure, 35, 287
recycling, 246
redwood, 18
reforestation, 193, 233, 257
removals, 24, 36, 232, 277
Renaissance, 14
Republic of Korea – see South Korea
residential upkeep and
improvements, 77
residues, 246
industrial wood, 247, 254
logging, 246
post-consumer, 248
resin canals, cavities, 48
resources for the future, 228
restitution, 33
Riga, 11
roll-on roll-off, 156
Roman Empire, 10
Romania, 90
roof trusses, 155
rosewood, 12, 17, 75, 221
roundwood, 51
royalties – see stumpage
rum, 12
Russia, 12
Russian Federation, 80, 88, 90, 137,
145, 179
Far East, 286, 290
salt-drying, 9
sandalwood, 12
sapele, 17
sapwood, 47
Saudi Arabia, 139
sawlogs and veneer logs, 108, 134,
203, 286
sawmilling technology, 12
sawn hardwood, 51, 55, 139, 150,
205, 266
sawn softwood, 51, 55, 128, 137,
150, 266
sawnwood, 3, 50, 51, 54, 104, 108,
273
Scandinavia, 14
Second World War, 15, 261
secondary fibre, 142
secondary sector, 84
secondary processed wood products,
119
secondary processing, 154
self-sufficiency, 66
semi-chemical woodpulp, 52
sequoia, 18
seraya, 17
servicing of foreign loans, 289
shifting cultivation, 17, 31, 230
ship- and boat-building, 9, 75, 260
shipping – see packaging
322
INDEX
ships’ masts, 13
silver, 12
smelting, 9
Singapore, 102, 139
slave trade, 12
sleepers (railway ties), 13, 200
small-sized wood, 251
soft landing, 289
softwood lumber – see sawn
softwood
solar energy, 253
Solomon Islands, 149
South Africa, 112, 195, 199
South-east Asian countries, 289
South-East Asian Lumber Producers
Association (SEALPA), 228
South Korea, 85, 108, 157, 193, 215,
235, 251, 284
Spain, 139, 194
specialisation, 65, 225, 292
specialist magazines, 80
spices, 12
springwood (earlywood), 48
spruce, 235
black, 18
Engelmann, 18
Norway, 18
Sitka, 200
white, 18
Standard International Trade
Classification (SITC)
SITC Rev. 2, 127
SITC Rev. 3, 127
Standardisation, 211
health and technical, 218
Statement on Forestry Principles, 240
steamboats, 9
strategic wood reserve, 234
strength-to-weight ratio, 49
stocks – see changes in stocks
stumpage, 219
subsidies, 219
substitution, 245, 276
sugar, 12, 261
sulphate and soda pulp, 52
sulphite pulp, 52
summerwood (latewood), 48
surface treatment, 77
sustainable development, 237
Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI), 244
sustainable forest management (SFM),
36, 233, 238, 287, 288
sustainability, 26, 237, 282
sustained yield, 211, 238,
Sweden, 12, 85, 123, 137, 173
Switzerland, 194
Syria, 10
Taiwan Province of China, 185
tar, 11
Tarapoto process – see Amazonian
process
tariff escalation, 214
tariffs, 201, 213, 291
bound, 215
ceilings, 218
quotas, 218
unbound, 218
tax concessions, 219
teak, 12, 17
technological
adopters, 224
innovators, 224
telegraph poles, 73
television, 80
temperate and boreal developed
countries (TBDCs), 23
tertiary processing, 154
tertiary sector, 84
textiles, 85
Thailand, 88, 103, 139, 196
thinnings, 251
ties – see sleepers
timber – see wood products
Timber Committee, 227
timber engineering, 77
timber-frame construction, 74
timber-mining, 197
Tokyo Round, 213
‘top 20’ exporting countries, 101, 158
‘top 20’ importing countries, 101,
158
toys, 75
trade
flows, 144, 152, 265
inter-regional, 131, 144, 266
intra-regional, 65, 144, 265
liberalisation, 201, 214, 288, 291
patterns, 126, 128, 293
trends, 126
323
INDEX
trading structures, 154
transportation, 77, 155, 257, 291
transport vehicles (road and rail), 75
trends, 265
in export unit values, 116
in trade, 109
in value of trade, 110
in volume of exports, 112
Triassic Period, 7
Tropical Forestry Action Programme
(TFAP), 243
tropical hardwoods, 220
tundra, 256
Tunisia, 137
Turkey, 10
two-way trading, 65, 225, 292
urbanisation, 283
Ukraine, 179
UNEP/FAO initiative on sub-Saharan,
dry-zone countries, 241
Union pour le Commerce des Bois
Tropicaux dans la C.E.E. (UCBT),
228
United Arab Emirates (UAE), 139
United Kingdom (UK), 11, 14, 88,
101, 123, 139, 187, 220, 245
United Kingdom Woodlands
Assurance Scheme (UKWAS), 244
United Nations Commission on
Sustainable Development
(UNCSD), 228
United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development
(UNCED), 239
United Nations Conference on the
Human Environment, 240
United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD),
214, 226
United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (UNECE), 227, 272
United Nations Industrial
Development Organization
(UNIDO), 228
United Nations Statistical Office
(UNSTAT), 128
United States of America (USA), 137,
139, 161, 220, 289, 290
Alaska, 18
eastern, 9, 13
Lake States, 13
mid-west, 13
Pacific north-west, 204
west coast, 13
Uruguay Round, 213
utile, 17
Vancouver Island, 14
veneer sheets, 51
versatility, 49
virgin fibre, 247, 251
wall units, 75
walnut, 75
war, 10
Washington, 14
waste, 246
disposal, 81
waste paper, 3, 39, 50, 80, 82, 112,
246, 248, 266 277, 287
recovery, 219, 249
recycling, 219
West Indies, 12
western red cedar, 18
wildlife habitats, 33, 233
wind energy, 253
windows, 77, 122
wine casks, 13
wood
chemical composition of, 48
chips and particles, 51, 104,
113
hardness, 49, 77
harvest, 36
permeability, 49
post-consumption residues, 82
preservation, 219
processing capacity, 42
processing industries, 263, 293
processing sector, 85, 264
production, 33, 291
products, 50, 98, 293
products balances, 62
properties, 46
raw material, 3, 22, 50, 104, 108,
290
residues, 39, 51, 104, 277, 287
resources, 16, 261
324
INDEX
structure, 46, 48
stability, 49
transformation, 50
used in the round, 72
wood-based panels, 3, 50, 51, 54,
107, 108, 112, 274
wood-containing paper, 80
wood-free economic growth, 201
wood-free paper, 80
woodpulp, 221
workability, 49
World Bank, 222, 228, 288
World Resources Institute, 228
World Trade Organization (WTO),
214, 222, 228, 288
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF),
228
wrapping and packaging paper and
paperboard, 53
xylem, 47
yang, 17
yields, 287
325