01.09.2023
Over the summer, ITTO published two of its reports on tropical timber markets, for the second half of July and the first half of August 2023.
In July, most of the topics discussed concerned Asia: weaker demand for okoume and ayous in Asian markets, the Malaysian Wood Expo organized par the Malaysian Timber Council in June, the potential not grasped of rattan in Central Kalimantan (Indonesia), plywood output in India back to pre-covid levels, as well as doubts about the origin of Vietnamese plywood, allegedly manufactured in China.
In the Amazon basin, representatives from six countries met to discuss a sustainable development project with a forestry component including local populations, the "Amazonia Forever" project.
The report also looks at the fall in value of European imports of secondary and tertiary tropical products.
Download ITTO Report 16 - July 31, 2023
For the first half of August, the report notes, among other things, the fall in Ghana's exports to ECOWAS countries, the predominance of acacia in Indonesian log production in 2022, the decline in Chinese imports of tropical logs, and conversely, the rebound in North American imports of sawn tropical hardwood. The report also takes a brief look at actions taken in the Amazon region to combat environmental crime. EU anti-dumping measures on Chinese okoumé plywood also continued.
Another important point raised in the report is that the Task Force bringing together Malaysia, Indonesia and the European Union on the subject of EUDR met for the first time at the beginning of August.
