KUCHING: The United States of America (US) has cut imports of sawn tropical hardwood in 2023 by 29 per cent and hardwood plywood by 25 per cent from the imported volumes recorded in 2022.
The import’s slowdown was also reported for wooden furniture which fell by 22 per cent to less than US$20 billion in 2023 from more than US$25 billion in 2022. Also falling were imports of wood veneer, down four per cent, and hardwood moulding, down 28 per cent year-on-year, according to the US Department of Agriculture, Foreign Trade statistics quoted by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) Tropical Timber Market Report (February 1-15, 2024).
In December 2023, US reported a 10 per cent increase in the imports of sawn tropical hardwood, bouncing back in volume from a two-year low in November. Despite the rise, the 13,269 cubic metres (cu m) imported in December 2023 was 26 per cent less than that of December 2022. Shipments from top suppliers Brazil and Cameroon both rebounded sharply.
For 2023, the import volume of sawn tropical hardwood plunged by 29 per cent to 194,000 cu m from nearly 275,000 cu m in 2022. Malaysia was the third largest supplier of sawn tropical hardwood to the US in 2023, with total shipments of 26,442 cu m, down 11 per cent from that of 2022.
The top suppliers were Brazil, with shipments of 43,851 cu m (-36 per cent compared to 2022) and Indonesia with shipments of 29,834 cu m (-51 per cent from 2022). On hardwood plywood, the ITTO report said in December 2023, US imports of the product rose less than one per cent as imports stabilised at a level well above last winter’s volume. The 277,333 cu m of plywood imported was higher by 81 per cent from December 2022, with shipments from Indonesia surged 57 per cent to their highest level of the year.
“In 2023, Indonesia supplanted Vietnam as the top supplier of hardwood plywood to the US despite a 37 per cent drop in volume. Imports from Vietnam fell 49 per cent for the year.
Total imports were down by 25 per cent in 2023 versus the previous year, with imports from Malaysia, China and Russia all falling more than 50 per cent,” added the report. Based on the official data, Indonesia supplied 584,579 cu m of hardwood plywood to the US in 2023, followed by Vietnam’s 505,570 cu m, Russia’s 188,947 cu m and Cambodia’s 125,981 cu m. Malaysia’s exports to the US slipped to 64,658 cu m, down a hefty 69 per cent as compared to that of 2022.
Year-on-year, US imports of hardwood plywood fell to 2,748,430 cu m, down 25 per cent from that of 2022. On tropical hardwood veneer, US imports value in 2023 declined by four per cent to US$32.82 million as imports from 2022 top-supplier Italy plunged by 75 per cent to US$2.68 million. Imports from Cameroon soared by 310 per cent to US$10.62 million year-on-year.
While most hardwood imports declined in December 2023, US imports of hardwood flooring, however, rose by 11 per cent from December 2022. Robust imports from Indonesia fuelled the gains, as a 93 per cent rise for the year placed Indonesia as the leading supplier for the US by a large margin.
For the year under review, US recorded a 26 per cent decline in the import value of assembled hardwood flooring to US$258.9 million, down 26 per cent from that of 2022. Canada exported US$51.8 million worth of assembled hardwood flooring to the US in 2023, followed by Vietnam’s US$47.9 million, Thailand’s US$26.2 million and Indonesia’s US$23.2 million.
Malaysia is the No 2 supplier of hardwood moulding to the US in 2023, with shipment worth US$12 million (-31 per cent from 2022) after Canada which reported shipment worth US$41.6 million (-12 per cent). “US imports of hardwood moulding fell 28 per cent in 2023 to US$126.4 million.
Imports from Canada, by far the top supplying nation, fell by 11 per cent for the year as imports fell more steeply from China (down 62 per cent to US$6.45 million), Brazil (down 49 per cent to US$6.96 million) and Malaysia (down 31 per cent to US$12 million).
“Imports for December 2023 rose 2 per cent from November but were still 10 per cent below that of the previous December. Imports from China more than doubled in December to reach their highest level since May,” said the ITTO report. On wooden furniture, US imports shrank by 22 per cent to US$19.82 billion in 2023 from US$25.3 billion 2022 or off by more than US$5 billion.
Shipments from top suppliers Vietnam and China were off 21 per cent to US$7.34 billion and 28 per cent to US$3.27 billion respectively year-on-year. Shipments from Malaysia contracted by 36 per cent to US$1.02 billion, while from Indonesia plunged by 32 per cent to US$825 million during the same period.
