EU+UK imports of temperate hardwood plywood from outside the region fell dramatically last year driven by the sharp decline in imports from China, beginning in June following imposition of the EU anti-dumping measures.<\/p>\n
Total imports during 2025 were 1,479,000 cu.m valued at US$795m, respectively 28% and 24% less than the previous year. Import quantity from China fell 40% to 960,000 cu.m, while value from China was down 44% to $392m. With Russia out of the picture due to the sanctions imposed in 2022 by both the EU and UK following the invasion of Ukraine, no other non-EU supply country comes to close to China in terms of volume production. EU+UK imports of temperate hardwood plywood from Ukraine staged a minor recovery last year, rising 4% to 214,000 cu.m, but were down 10% to 37,600 cu.m in the opening two months of 2025.<\/p>\n
Brazil is supplying Europe with more plywood manufactured from hardwood plantation logs in the south of the country. EU+UK imports of this commodity increased 314% to 53,000 cu.m in 2025. The EU\u2019s imposition of anti-dumping duties on softwood plywood from Brazil, starting November last year, seems to have intensified this trend, with imports of non-tropical hardwood plywood from the country reaching 8,400 cu.m in the first two months of 2026, a four-fold gain compared to the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n
Vietnam is also now exporting significant quantities of temperate hardwood plywood manufactured from imported logs. EU+UK imports from this source increased 253% to 63,000 cu.m in 2025. In the first two months of 2026, imports of this commodity from Vietnam, at 26,600 cu.m, were nearly ten times the volume imported during the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n
Despite efforts in the EU+UK to crackdown on circumvention of sanctions on Russian wood products, temperate hardwood plywood products from countries neighboring Russia - which may contain Russian wood - have continued to flow into the region.<\/p>\n
Shifting plywood destinations in Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n The UK is by far the largest single destination for plywood imported into the EU+UK from outside\u00a0the region, accounting for 31% of the total. Lying outside the EU single market and having no domestic production, this is not surprising.<\/p>\n Imports into the UK from outside the region were 1,192,800 cu.m in 2025, 13% more than the previous year. However, UK imports so far this year have been slower, down 22% in the first two months compared to the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n Total EU imports of plywood from outside the region were 2,666,800 cu.m in 2025, a 1% decline compared to the previous year. The decline in imports has accelerated in the first two months of this year, down 24% to 85,400 cu.m.<\/p>\n Imports from outside the region increased last year into Germany (+13% to 439,400 cu.m), Netherlands (+20% to 317,700 cu,m), and Spain (+31% to 102,800 cu.m), but declined into Belgium (-16% to 403,800 cu.m), Italy (- 10% to 310,100 cu.m), Poland (-38% to 174,600 cu.m), and France (-15% to 150,500 cu.m).<\/p>\n Imports so far this year are down significantly into nearly all the main EU markets, the only exception being Italy where imports are up 14% in the opening two months.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204,4715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news","category-market-analysis","topic-wood-products","topic-wood-based-panels","area-europe","area-global"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n