Asia’s Hardwood Chip Import Growth Led by Indonesia in FY25

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Thanks to Indonesia, global imports of hardwood woodchips to Asia rose over the year-ended June 2025. Of the top five importers, Indonesia and Japan saw growth in hardwood chip imports, while Mainland China, Korea and Taiwan all saw reductions, according to latest analysis by the team at IndustryEdge.

Source: Importing country statistics services and Wood Market Edge online

* It is important to note that most countries in Asia report woodchip trade in GMT, while the main recipient countries – China and Japan – report in bone dried metric tonnes (BDMT). IndustryEdge has elected to report the data as presented by each country, in this analysis and in our raw data services. As a rough ‘rule of thumb’, one BDMT can be assumed to be equivalent to two GMT.

Patterns of trade in the Asian hardwood woodchip market are continuing to change. In particular, China’s domestic hardwood chip supply is increasing from its very significant plantations. Just as important is the altering and tense market dynamics in the global pulp industry, which drives demand for hardwood woodchips.

The role of Indonesia as a satellite producer for Chinese manufacturers, as well as its own growing demand profile and established pulp and paper industry is also altering the hardwood woodchip market, as the details demonstrate.

Japan, by contrast, is more stable than China, in many respects.

It is useful to consider imports of hardwood woodchips for specific countries, using data available on IndustryEdge’s Wood Market Edge online platform.

Indonesia

Indonesia’s hardwood woodchip imports lifted a very strong 134%, rising to 3.1 million green metric tonnes (GMT) in FY25. Although Thailand and Australia played small roles in Indonesia’s imports, Vietnam was entirely dominant, delivering more than 93% of hardwood chips for the year.

Obviously, Indonesia’s import price is driven by the price of Vietnamese supply and there is little reason to show other prices. The weighted average import price for the year-ended June 2025 was USDCif102.25/GMT, up a modest 1.1% on the prior year.

Japan

Often the stabiliser in the market, Japan’s hardwood woodchip imports lifted 2.0% year-ended June 2025, rising to 9.2 million BDMT. With greater stability comes an emphasis on quality and pulp yields that sees shipments from Vietnam still dominate (46%) but a combination of Australia, Thailand and Chile providing 35% of total supply. Australia and Chile are producing and delivering eucalypt woodchips which deliver a higher pulp yield than supplies from Vietnam, Thailand and elsewhere in South East Asia.

Nowhere is the quality of hardwood woodchips more evident than in country specific pricing. The table below shows weighted average annual import prices for each of the major supplier countries to Japan. Supply from Vietnam and Thailand is more than 20% cheaper than supply from Australia. Producers seeking higher pulp yields, brighter paper and often, lower chemical input costs maintain a steady diet of hardwood woodchips from Australia and Chile.

China

Although it may lack stability, China makes up for the shortcoming with massive import volumes. Year-ended June 2025, China imported 16.1 million BDMT of hardwood woodchips, down 1.6% on the previous year.

Unsurprisingly, Vietnam supplied almost 72% of the total, with Australia a distant second delivering 15.3% of the total.

Albeit at a different scale and with less stability than Japan, China’s hardwood woodchip imports are operating to the same dynamic when it comes to quality and yield considerations. That is, the South East Asian supply of mainly Acacia is the baseload, with quality delivered from Australian eucalypts, supplemented with small volumes from Chile.

Again, the pricing for imports tells the story of quality, with supply from Vietnam averaging almost 30% cheaper than supply from Australia, on a delivered basis. Some of this difference is freight costs, but much of it is driven by the underlying quality of the plantation eucalypt resource in Australia.

Some concluding thoughts

In a large and slow-moving market, where harvest to pulp mill can be many months, the dynamics of hardwood woodchip markets are changing rapidly. The pressures on the Chinese economy are having an impact, as are its industrial and geo-political policies.

In that context, the rise of Indonesia as a hardwood woodchip importer is all the more important to the global industry, especially the nearby producers like those in Australia’s West. Indonesia’s increasing emphasis on environmental standards, its rapid improvement in living standards and its status as the large Asian country with the youngest population, makes it a likely long term customer of the future.

Japan appears to be a stable environment, which compared to the rest of the main market in Asia, is a blessing for importers and producers alike.

IndustryEdge’s Wood Market Edge online provides 24/7 access to an ever-growing library of data files and commentary for Australia, New Zealand and key countries in the Asia Pacific region. Our small team is focussed on fibre and is readily available to discuss market conditions, access and opportunities.

Contact IndustryEdge to learn more or download the latest Wood Market Edge online service overview.

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