International Marketing Practices

of global production but exporting only 5% of its output, while Russia produces 10% of all softwood lumber and exports almost three-quarters of its output [32]. Major importers of softwood lumber in 2017 were the U.S. and China, with the U.K., Japan, and Germany standing as distant followers (Table 3). China, which was not even among the top five importers of softwood lumber in 2007, was a close second to the U.S. in 2017.

Table 3. Top five softwood lumber importing and exporting countries 2007 and 2017 [32]. All quantities in thousand m 3 .

Imports

Exports

2007 (114,262)

2017 (149,114)

2007 (110,951)

2017 (127,528)

United States 30,941 United States 26,695 Canada

32,385 Canada 16,766 Russia 11,332 Sweden 8,432 Finland 7,637 Germany

31,076 27,971 13,111 9,358 7,519

U.K.

7,946 China 6,947 U.K. 6,438 Japan

26,148 Russia 7,079 Sweden 6,124 Germany 4,738 Austria

Japan

Italy

Germany

6,137 Germany

In 2017, the United States exported 3.4 million m 3 of softwood lumber, up 75% from 2007 and 4% from 2016 (Table 4) [8]. Major buyers of American softwood lumber were Canada, Mexico, China, and Japan. Southern yellow pine, Douglas-fir, and ponderosa pine made up 60% of all U.S. softwood lumber exports in 2017 [8]. Regarding imports, in 2017, the U.S. bought 17% less softwood lumber compared with 10 years prior. Canada was, by a very large margin, the largest source of U.S. softwood lumber imports (93%) in 2017, of which spruce-pine-fir represented over 80%, followed by western red cedar and Douglas-fir [8].

Table 4. Top five U.S. softwood lumber trade partners, 2007-2017 in thousand m 3 [8].

Imports

Exports

2007 (42,956*)

2017 (35,793*)

2007 (1,918)

2017 (3,352)

Canada Germany

39,110 Canada 1,445 Germany

33,412 Canada 635 Mexico

580 Canada 333 Mexico 154 China

718 700 657 234 221

Chile Brazil

817 Sweden 456 Brazil 278 Chile

377 Japan

373 Dominican R.

129 Dominican R.

New Zealand

334 U.K.

89 Japan

*Difference with total U.S. imports as shown in in Table 3 due to differences in data sources.

Hardwood Lumber Global exports of hardwood lumber in 2017 totaled 26 million m 3 , up 12% from 2007 (Table 5). The United States, Thailand, Malaysia, and Russia were the top exporters of hardwood lumber in 2017. China was by far the top importer of hardwood lumber in 2007 and 2017, and its share of global imports more than doubled in the 2007-2017 time period, increasing from 16% to 33% (Table 5). In a

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