North America, Russia and New Zealand were the major suppliers, but Sweden, Finland, Ukraine. Chile and Australia saw the biggest increases on market share.
The unprecedented increase in lumber shipments to the Chinese market that began in 2008 is continuing. In 2008, the country imported 3.6 million m3 of softwood lumber valued at US$700m according to WRQ.
Two years later, in 2010, the volume had increased to 9.4 million m3 and in 2013, China imported close to 17 million m3 of lumber, valued at slightly over US$3.6bn.
Canada and Russia are the two major suppliers of lumber to China, with Canada having overtaken Russia as the largest supplier in 2010.
Together, these two countries supplied almost 80% of all imports. However, this year Europe, Russia, Chile and New Zealand have all increased their shipments to China at a higher pace than has Canada.
