Southern Pine lumber exports finished 2014 at a record volume of just over 552 mmbf, a jump of 17 per cent above the 2013 export total, said the Southern Forest Products Association Friday. Southern Pine lumber exports have more than doubled in the past five years, the agency said.
Meanwhile, US exports of hardwood lumber in 2014 were 13 per cent higher than a year earlier, at 3.9 million cubic metres, according to information from the US Department of Agriculture Thursday. As with softwood lumber, the value of the exports rose more sharply than the volume, at 26 per cent, to US$2.337 billion.
US Lumber Exports 2014
During 2014, the top three destinations for Southern Pine lumber exports were China, at 107.5 mmbf and aย 67 per cent increase compared to 2013, the Dominican Republic, essentially flat at 77.8 mmbf, and Mexico also basically flat at 56.8 mmbf, said the SFPA Friday.
In addition, softwood lumber imports to the US finished 2014 with a volume of 12.4 billion board feet, up 11 per cent from 2013.
As for hardwood lumber, exports of red oak rose by 16 per cent to 861,697 cubic metres and a value increase of 34 per cent, said the US Foreign Agricultural Service Wednesday. And exports of yellow poplar increased 14 per cent, to 774,853 cubic metres, a 23 per cent increase in value. White oak remained the third most important wood species in US hardwood lumber exports, at a 12 per cent increase, to 618,803 cubic metres, a 28 per cent increase in value.
The most conspicuous increase in lumber exports was in walnut at 31 per cent, to 176,609 cubic metres. By value, the increase was 46 per cent.