Aug 20, 2009. /Lesprom Network/. There is no change in the market since the end of July. Sustained business with China, Vietnam and India continues to hold export prices and volumes steady, a trend similar to the past two months, ITTO reported. Trade with European buyers is still very slow and neither exporters nor importers appear to be expecting a sustained improvement in business with Europe in the short to medium term. The modest price gains for some species in July have held and there are reports that demand for okoume logs has been particularly high. The ongoing demand for the very selective number of favorite species is not likely at this stage to tempt producers into any prompt reactivation of logging. The emphasis on so few species does tend to mask the lack of interest in other species available in most forest concession areas, forcing loggers to log very selectively, resulting in a rise in the cost of extraction. Although most world stock markets have made some gains in the past two weeks, economists continue to warn that the underlying market prospects remain very fragile and recovery to normal trade conditions is many months if not years away. This is certainly the view of many in the West African timber industry as the boom years in building construction in consumer countries such as Spain, Portugal, the US and UK are over and unemployment is climbing. Some timber trade representatives have recently commented that the tropical hardwood trade may not decline further from the present low level, but it is not likely to return to the volumes traded in the past three or four years. For the present, West African log and lumber exporters have survived through a very difficult 12 months, thanks to continued demand from the Asian market. It is anticipated that if these markets hold, the companies benefiting from this trade will continue to do so through the third and fourth quarters. The expectation remains that 2010 will bring some revival in European business.