In the first ten months of 2014, the volume of tropical wood product imports into Belgium fell very slightly (-0.5%) to 748,000 cu.m RWE. Belgium's domestic market for tropical hardwood was very slow last year, but any weakness at home was offset by a rise in Belgium's re-exports of tropical hardwood products to neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n
Belgium's re-exports to other EU countries of all wood products identified as containing tropical wood was 251,000 cu.m RWE in the first 10 months of 2014, 12% more than the same period in 2013. Most of this volume was destined for France, Netherlands and Germany.<\/p>\n
Increased flows of tropical wood through Belgium suggests a continuing trend towards concentration of trade in a smaller number of larger importers close to the major ports.<\/p>\n
In part this reflects much tighter control of stock levels by merchants and manufacturers who prefer to buy small but regular volumes of mixed containers.<\/p>\n
To some extent this trend is being reinforced by EUTR which may be seen as another reason to avoid buying direct and instead rely on timber placed on the EU market by larger companies.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"