After recovering ground in 2018 and stabilising in the first half of 2019, EU imports of tropical logs slowed in the third quarter of 2019. Imports of 76,700 MT during the first nine of the year were 13% less than the same period in 2018. Import value fell 14% to €37.3 million during the period.
In the first nine months of 2019, EU imports of tropical logs increased by 18% to 25,100 MT from Congo, the leading supplier, by 16% from Liberia to 6,700 MT, by 17% from Suriname to 1300 MT, and by 20% from Guyana to 1,200 MT.
However, these gains were offset by falling imports from the Central African Republic (-17% to 13,200 MT), DRC (-35% to 10,600 MT), Cameroon (-20% to 11,300 MT), and Equatorial Guinea (-64% to 2,900 MT).
After a more buoyant second quarter, imports of tropical logs slowed into France and Belgium in the third quarter of 2019. By the end of the first nine months, France had imported 28,900 MT of tropical logs, 13% less than the same period in 2018, while imports into Belgium were down 23%, at 18,300 MT. Imports were also down 21% to 11,700 MT in Portugal during this period.
Rising log imports in some smaller markets, including Italy (+3% to 7,900 MT), the Netherlands (+18% to 2,100 MT) and Spain (+11% to 2,100 MT) were insufficient to offset falling imports in France, Belgium and Portugal.