Update: Wood Products Imports from Russian Federation
March 2022 saw imports to Australia of wood products from the Russian Federation valued at AUD10.4 million on a free-on-board basis. The majority of the value – AUD6.883 million – was for ‘Builders Joinery’. IndustryEdge’s detailed analysis shows almost all of those imports were Engineered Wood Products, including some Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL).
Australia’s imports of wood products from the Russian Federation have been rising consistently over the last two years, as the chart shows.
Source: ABS and IndustryEdge
Since the start of 2022, new trade codes have been in operation, including for some wood products. This has allowed IndustryEdge to undertake more detailed analysis of ‘Builders’ Joinery’. The data below is the output of that analysis, but does not include all the Australian imports of Engineered Wood Products from the Russian Federation. Some are classified in the ‘Plywood’ grouping shown in green above.
Australia’s Imports of Engineered Timber Products (imported as ‘Builders’ Joinery’) from the Russian Federation: MQ22 (AUD)
| AUD | Jan-22 | Feb-22 | Mar-22 | MQ22 |
| Glu-Lam | 52,594 | 119,914 | 161,650 | 334,158 |
| I-Beams | 69,673 | 41,909 | 111,582 | |
| Other EWP inc. some LVL | 3,568,750 | 6,928,404 | 6,579,539 | 17,076,694 |
| Total (AUD) | 3,621,344 | 7,117,992 | 6,783,099 | 17,522,434 |
Source: ABS and IndustryEdge
* Note: no Cross Laminated Timber was imported from the Russian Federation over this period
It is important to state all these products would have been in transit since prior to the commencement of Russia’s war on Ukraine. There is no prospect any of this material left Russia after bans were imposed.
Based on discussions with industry, IndustryEdge anticipates imports were slowing in late March and will be significantly lower in April as the ‘in transit’ material progressively reduces. Given the logistical challenges faced the world over, we can anticipate there will be imports from the Russian Federation filtering through for some months, albeit progressively declining.
Subscribers to IndustryEdge’s Wood Market Edge online platform can click here to access the portal, navigate to the DOWNLOAD button and select the file marked ‘New! Australian Engineered Timber Product Analysis Package’ to interrogate this full data series.