Log imports into the European Union grew 19 per cent year-on-year to 554,600 cubic metres in January 2026, driven almost entirely by a surge in cheap Norwegian softwood that pushed average EU log import prices to their lowest point in at least twelve months. That is according to new Eurostat data obtained by Wood Central, which uses customs records to track imports across the 27 member states.
It comes as Norwegian exports to the bloc rose 21.4 per cent month-on-month in January to 475,500 cubic metres, lifting its share of the European Union’s log imports from 79.3 per cent in December to 85.7 per cent. Norwegian log prices fell simultaneously, dropping 17.8 per cent to US $90 per cubic metre and pulling the EU-wide average down to US $106 — off 14 per cent from December and 7 per cent below the US $113 recorded in January 2025.
At the same time, Brazil held its position as the second-largest supplier with a 6 per cent share — 33,200 cubic metres at US $108 per cubic metre — whilst Switzerland contributed 3.9 per cent of the total at a markedly higher US $161 per cubic metre. Ireland recorded the month’s most dramatic proportional movement, with volumes up 246.7 per cent to 10,300 cubic metres at just US $59 per cubic metre, though its 1.9 per cent share makes the figure a statistical outlier rather than a structural shift.
The Central African Republic, which barely registered in December, jumped 597.3 per cent to 1,580 cubic metres at US $596 per cubic metre — its highest recorded contribution and a data point to watch in subsequent months.
British log exports collapsed.
According to the new data, log exports from the United Kingdom fell 82.8 per cent month-on-month to just 6,080 cubic metres in January, erasing the country’s 7.1 per cent December share and leaving it with 1.1 per cent — even as UK log prices climbed 51.1 per cent to US $128 per cubic metre. The UK had been among the more consistent secondary suppliers in European markets across 2025, making the abrupt withdrawal significant. A simultaneous volume collapse and price spike points to a supply-side disruption at the British end rather than any withdrawal of EU demand.
In terms of species, softwood — almost all Norwegian spruce and pine — accounted for 486,300 cubic metres, or 87.9 per cent, of all EU log imports in January, whilst hardwood contributed 65,600 cubic metres and tropical logs just 737 cubic metres. That near-absence of tropical volumes is consistent with the multi-year collapse in EU tropical timber procurement, driven by EUDR compliance pressure, and with the steep decline in imports from Central African producers across 2024 and into 2025.
January’s figures land as European leaders have staked cautious optimism on a construction rebound in 2026. “With inflation coming down, 2026 could be the year of recovery in the construction markets,” Morten Bergsten, vice-president of the European Timber Trade Federation, told the 73rd International Softwood Conference in Oslo last October. “Regulation and bureaucratic burdens have increased sharply over the last few years,” he said.
“This should stop or, ideally, reverse, for the sector to thrive.” Tommi Sneck, president of the European Organisation of the Sawmill Industry, put a harder edge on the same concern: “When demand resumes, there is a risk of log prices being too elevated,” Sneck warned delegates.
