Brazil’s wood product trade surplus totalled $3.3 billion in the first half of 2016, an increase of 12% over the same period of last year. Total revenue from exports of sawnwood, panels, pulp and paper for the first half year amounted to $3.8 billion up slightly from the same period in 2015, ITTO reported.
Exports of wood-based panels in the first half were 443,000 cubic metres, compared to 289,000 cubic metres in the same period in 2015, a 53% increase.
Pulp exports grew to 6.4 million tonnes, a 16% increase over the same period in 2015. Paper exports increased just over 7% to top 1.1 milion tonnes between January and June 2016.
Exports of Brazilian pulp continue to grow, especially to China, which was the main market in the first half of 2016. A noticeable trend has been the effort of the pulp, paper and wood based panel industries to focus on exports as the strategy to partially offset the decline in domestic demand.
Domestic sales of wood-based panels totalled 3.2 million cubic metres in the first half, down 4.2% compared to the same period last year. Domestic sales of paper totalled 2.6 million tonnes, being at about the same level as in the first half of 2015.
