Australia imported more than 56,000 cubic metres of plywood in January, a record for a traditionally slow month for building and construction, pushing its 12-month import volume past 500,000 cubic metres for the first time — 503,562 cubic metres — a 21.8 per cent uplift on the same time last year.
That is according to new data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and analysed by Tim Woods, Managing Director of IndustryEdge, who has pointed to a sovereign capacity problem which is becoming a matter of national importance.
“Australia is great at making its own future precisely because, where possible, it has exercised strategic self-sufficiency. What could be more strategic than growing the fibre and turning it into the dwellings we need, to sustain our own population?” said Woods, who is leading THE PRECINCT — an AFWI-funded project that aims to convert plantation wood fibre into frames, trusses, wall panels and flooring needed to manufacture homes at scale.
“Accepting the work is hard, there are risks, the efforts must be collective and there is urgency, Australia can manufacture the sustainable, timber-based building products it needs to ensure a future we should all prefer: one made in Australia, to meet domestic needs,” he said.
With Australia’s construction industry yet to fully recover — dwelling approvals remain well short of the Albanese government’s 1.2 million home target — the timing of a January record carries weight, with Woods noting that the month sits among the quietest in the Australian trade calendar. “January is rarely a trade record month in Australia. All this, while Australia’s dwelling construction market is gradually improving, not massively booming,” he said.
Addressing the argument that lower-priced imports constitute an economic benefit Australia should simply absorb, Woods said the framing misreads what sovereign capability the nation should be protecting. “There are those who say that because a lot (not all) the imports are lower priced, that is good for the Australian economy and we should just stick to what Australia is good at: exporting raw wood fibre and buying back advanced building products,” he said.
“Those people are wrong and miss the point entirely,” Woods said. “At a time when sovereign manufacturing capability is demonstrably vital to maintaining critical supply lines — like housing for instance — we need to take action so domestic manufacturing sustains Australia’s economy, with imports playing a supportive role,” he said.
- To find out more about THE PRECINCT — the AFWI-backed, IndustryEdge-led project converting Green Triangle plantation fibre into factory-built prefabricated housing at Portland, Victoria — click here for Wood Central’s special feature from October 2025.
