International Marketing Practices

Global Trade Flows of Forest Products In 2017, global trade of forest products totaled $247 billion 1 ; 8% and 70% higher than in 2016 and 2000, respectively [6]. The U.S. is an important participant in forest products manufacturing and trade, as this section of the chapter will show. In fact, although the U.S. accounts for only 7.5% of total global forest area, it produces close to one-fifth of all industrial roundwood [30], and Americans use five times more timber per capita than the global average [31]. Roundwood In 2017, international trade of industrial roundwood totaled 130 million m 3 , a 2.5% increase from 2016. The U.S. was the largest producer of industrial roundwood, with over 360 million m 3 , followed by Russia, with 191 million m 3 [30]. Russia and New Zealand were the top exporters of roundwood (15% of all exports each), followed by the U.S. with 10% [30]. Global trade of roundwood is a relatively small percentage of production (about 7%); therefore, the top producers are also the largest consumers. The top five importers and exporters of softwood and hardwood industrial roundwood changed somewhat from 2007 to 2017 (Table 1).

Table 1. Top five industrial roundwood importing and exporting countries, 2007 and 2017 [32]. All quantities in thousand m 3 .

Softwood Roundwood

Imports

Exports

2007 (111,912)

2017 (126,879)

2007 (82,640)

2017 (87,642)

China

23,472 China

38,417 Russia

35,100 New Zealand 18,806

Rep. of Korea

8,141 Germany 7,748 Austria 7,325 Sweden 6,187 Canada

8,151 United States 7,526 Germany 5,567 New Zealand

7,624 Russia

11,895

Japan Austria Finland

6,117 United States 10,808

5,978 Canada 3,794 Czech Rep.

7,408 6,380

4,935 Sweden

Hardwood Roundwood

Imports

Exports

2007 (64,777)

2017 (60,623)

2007 (50,864)

2017 (42,722)

Finland China Sweden

6,755 China 6,027 Finland 3,791 Sweden 2,197 Portugal 1,983 Belgium

9,440 Russia

14,000 Russia

7,528

3,698 United States

2,324 United States 2,671

2,127 Latvia 1,753 Uruguay 1,591 France

1,977 France 1,868 Latvia 1,805 Germany

2,188 1,697 1,319

Italy Spain

1 Includes roundwood, wood pellets, lumber, wood-based panels, wood pulp, recovered paper, and paper and paperboard.

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