There has been a steady decline in the volume of Japan’s plywood imports in the first half of 2020. Year-on-year the volume of plywood imports dropped 28% in the first half of 2020, as ITTO reported.
Indonesia and Malaysia are the top shippers of plywood to Japan accounting for over 80% of all plywood imports. In June arrivals from Malaysia were down 26% compared to May and year-on-year June imports were around 13% down. In contrast, the volume of June imports from Indonesia was around the same level as in May and were marginally lower than in June 2019.
Plywood imports from China are small at about 10,000 m3 monthly but was noticeable in the first half import data is that shipments of plywood from Vietnam were for the first time greater than from China.
