More than 34,000 cubic metres of Russian plywood have entered American ports so far this year, a 15% drop in volumes over the past 12 months, as builders now scramble for building suppliers to meet Covid-era demand for housing.
At the same time that the United States is weaning off Russia—still its 10th largest trading partner—total plywood imports are surging, with 1,532,800 cubic metres of imports fueling the country’s recovering building and construction industry—now dubbed the world’s best bet for global timber.
That is according to the latest figures from the United States Department of Agriculture, which reports that total imports from January to April are up more than 44% over the past 12 months—bolstered by a surge in Vietnamese imports.
Vietnam (now responsible for 295,900 cubic metres) is America’s largest market for plywood, followed by Brazil (282,100 cubic metres), Indonesia (194,900 cubic metres), Canada (155,400 cubic metres) and Chile (154,200 cubic metres).
It comes as last month, Wood Central reported that the surge in Vietnamese imports – up 148.2% on the same time the previous year, comes after the US Department of Commerce issued a ruling finding that a large portion of hardwood plywood products entering the US came from China—circumventing federal anti-dumping laws.
As a result, the US government introduced new tariffs on plywood that entered supply chains – with prosecutors pushing to expose traders that use third-party countries to bring Chinese products into the United States. That includes a Miami couple, who earlier this year, was sentenced to 57 months earlier this year for operating a US $65m illegal plywood scheme, which saw Chinese-manufactured timber smuggled through Panama and Malaysia to circumvent anti-dumping laws.
Why is global plywood now flooding US ports?
Housing starts are up across the United States, and house builders are fast adding new inventory to the market, according to a report by Fortune last week. While sky-high mortgage rates and prices continue to weigh on first-time home buyers, housing starts rose 5.7% month-over-month to 1.36 million in April 2024, continuing an improving trend fuelled by single-family, multi-family apartment and townhouse construction.
According to Charles Schwab, a US bank heavily invested in mortgages and lending, “As housing was the first sector to kick off the rolling recessions we’ve pointed out for more than two years, it now looks like it’s participating in the start of rolling recoveries,” the bank said. Before adding that, it also comes with an important distinction: “A recovery is not synonymous with a booming expansion.”
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