From January to September, Germany exported around 4.87 million m³ of softwood lumber, i.e. 15% fewer than in 2023. Exports have now reached the lowest since 2018.
As you can see in our Datacube, 2018 marked the start of German softwood log exports to China which skyrocketed to over 2 million m³ in 2019. In the following year, they peaked at 4.22 million m³. After a further year-on-year decrease of 45% to 950,000 m³, only a fraction of that record volume was exported to China in 2024.
As a result of this development, Austria is now by far Germany’s most important foreign market for softwood logs again – for the first time since 2018. Austria also increased its purchases by 12% year on year, which brings the total to 1.77 million m³.
Double-digit increases were also recorded in exports to neighboring countries Belgium (580,000 m³; +16%), the Czech Republic (577,000 m³; +36%) or Luxembourg (160,000 m³; +19%). The same development can be observed in Sweden which more doubled its imports from Germany (126,000 m³).
Figures published by Destatis also show a massive slump in the Polish sales market (156,000 m³; -60%) and a halving of deliveries to Lithuania (90,000 m³; -51%).
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