Arauco, the largest Chilean radiate pine lumber supplier, announced 2017 plan of bulk ships for green lumber for Japan. It plans eight ships in 2017, the same as 2016 with the volume of 144,000 cubic metres, ITTO reports.
It has two additional ships as option in case the demand picks up. Actual arrivals of total Chilean lumber during January and August in 2016 are 134,200 cubic metres, 8.2% less than the same period of last year so total year volume is expected to be about 200 million cubic metres. Arauco’s supply volume for Japan in 2016 is estimated about 140 million cubic metres (loading base).
The last ship of the year will depart Chilean port in late December and arrive Japan in early February of 2017. Therefore, the first ship of 2017 will be loading in early February. Arauco figures about 18,000 cubic metres for Japan per every ship and plans shipment in every 45 days. Ships’ loading volume is 30,000-50,000 cubic metres per ship chartered from three shipping companies, NYK, WBC and DAM.
The volume includes markets of China and Korea. Chilean lumber suppliers revised joint shipment and individual supplier negotiates with shipping lines of yearly necessary ships. Since shipments include other markets volume, ships’ rotation is flexible so that inventory management is much more difficult than before after regular 45 days rotation is disrupted.
