The Gulf crisis that has stranded up to 10 per cent of the world’s container fleet in the Strait of Hormuz is cutting off one of the fastest-growing timber markets — but the direct hit to American hardwood exporters is limited, for now…
That is according to Matthew Pelkki, professor and George H. Clippert Chair of Forestry at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and director of the Arkansas Center for Forest Business, who said impacts on the Arkansas timber industry — one of the country’s most productive for wood supply — will likely be minimal. “While the Middle East and North African market has grown substantially, it is still a small component of US wood exports,” Pelkki stressed yesterday.
It comes as the Middle East and North Africa (or the MENA) region emerged as one of the more important growth corridors for forest products, with the American Hardwood Export Council recording gains in the UAE (up 27 per cent), Saudi Arabia (up 8 per cent) and Egypt (up 15 per cent) — all markets effectively cut off by the conflict.
But, Arkansas timber has not been heavily exposed to the Middle East. “As far as internationally, our largest customer for Arkansas wood products is Mexico,” Pelkki said. “We do ship some hardwoods to the European Union, primarily Germany, and a lot of wood pellets to the United Kingdom…(and) some hardwoods and logs end up in Vietnam as well,” he said.
According to the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service, the US exports $8.75 billion in wood products annually, with Canada the top destination at $1.96 billion, the United Kingdom second at $1.68 billion, and the European Union third at $881 million. None of the Middle Eastern or North African nations features in the top ten.
And for those vessels not trapped in the conflict but still travelling to the region, they are being diverted to Turkey, with freight trucked overland into those markets, according to an industry source with knowledge of the situation — a workaround that adds weeks to transit times and a high cost to every consignment that gets through. For Pelkki, whilst the near-term prognosis is relatively benign, he stopped well short of ruling out longer-term pain.
“Any loss or reduction of US hardwood exports is going to cause prices for lumber to stagnate or drop, and as prices and quantity of those hardwoods decrease, it will have an effect on demand for hardwood timber. But I think at this time, the effect of the war on Arkansas’s hardwood sawmills and forest landowners will be minimal.”
Matthew Pelkki, professor and George H. Clippert Chair of Forestry at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and director of the Arkansas Center for Forest Business, on the impact of the blockade on the supply of hardwoods exported from the state
Sawmills across the country depend on export markets to absorb what domestic buyers won’t take, and Pelkki was direct about what happens when those markets tighten — prices stagnate, volumes back up, and the effect eventually reaches landowners who have never shipped a board foot to the Gulf.
It comes as Wood Central reported that the Hormuz blockade is structurally different to the Red Sea crisis of 2024, when Houthi attacks forced vessels off the Suez route, the Cape of Good Hope was painful but passable. A closed strait removes the destination entirely, with no viable detour for Gulf-bound cargo. For a full breakdown of what the blockade means for Middle East timber markets, see Wood Central’s special report, Hormuz Sealed — Why Middle East Shipments Are Stranded with No Way Out.
