Prices for hardwood chips traded overseas have been in steady decline since November 2011. In less than four years, the FOEX hardwood chip price index (PIX-HCG) has fallen almost 14% to reach US$178.34 per oven-dry metric ton (odmt) in July 2015. The downward trend of the index has partly been the result of lower prices for hardwood chips, in US dollar terms, imported to Japan from Australia, Chile and South Africa.  Global overseas trade of hardwood chips has slowed down in 2015 with the total trade for the first six months of the year ...